Whether you are looking for your next challenging role, or a business owner recruiting new, high level talent to your company, you�ll probably end up dealing with a recruitment firm.
Executive recruitment is a different ballgame to standard recruiting – with highly experienced executives who can exert an influence across your entire business you need to take extra care to make sure you get the people who are right for your business. Even a highly skilled executive may not have the right skills and personality to take your business in the direction you want.
The converse also holds true. If you�re an executive looking for a new business, you don�t to register with a typical high street recruiter. They don�t have the contacts necessary to connect you with the calibre of company that you�re looking for.
In both cases, both the executive and business owner need to know how to find a good Executive Recruitment Firm. This is as much as a skill as knowing how to interview well, and just as important.
Heard it on the Grapevine
The first thing to do is consult your own professional network: acquaintances and business contacts who have recently been recruiting or jobhunting at this exclusive level. Their stories are a good indicator of who you ought to consider and who to avoid.
Don�t just dismiss working with a recruiter because they didn�t produce results for a contact. Failure of the recruiter relationship could as much be due to a culture clash as simple low quality, so make sure you dig into the details of why things didn�t work out. It could be that your friend couldn�t work a with a recruiter for exactly the same reason they�d be a great fit for you!
Log On to LinkedIn
Linkedin is a great professional resource when you�re recruiting and one of the groups with the biggest presence on the network is in fact recruiters.
It�s a chance for you to search directly for recruiters within the niche you�re working and getting some sense of both their experience and personality. This should help you make the big decision about who is best to work with.
Be Fearless
Working with a recruiter could be one of your most important professional relationships and a collaboration that could last for years. It�s vital that your contact at the firm is someone you can trust to represent your interests, so if you feel they don�t, and that you can�t work with them, you should have no fear about terminating the relationship without delay.
It�s wasteful to spend time on professional relationships that don�t provide a return for your business and the one thing you cannot afford is waste.