A recruiter who knows his or her industry and the various disciplines is an asset and partner to an organization’s Human Resource Department and respective hiring manager.  Recruiters are preferred over the cattle calls found on job boards because the professionals with the real talent and experience needed are not actively seeking work. Job boards serve as cattle calls, while recruiters look for the bespoke professional fit.

Knowing exactly what the client needs is step one for a recruiter. Starting a search without a complete and detailed understanding of the open candidate requisition wastes tremendous amounts of time for both the company and the recruiter. Indecisiveness on the part of the hiring company, an overly narrow job description, or a job description that has so many “wants” that the opening could never be filled should be avoided by the recruiter. Job descriptions are ok, but the natural skills required are essential.

Once the recruiter has communicated a clear inventory of required skills and additional wants and accepted them, the search can begin. The first step is to assess various talent pools and exclude individuals who will not be suitable. Next, all possible candidates who meet the essential requirements are gathered and sorted according to the additional wants.

The talent a recruiter is hired to find in any given industry is usually not looking. This means you have to find them and speak to them. The first objective is to engage with this individual over the phone (a lost art, it seems these days) and ensure that they can speak comfortably. A vast majority of the time, a potential candidate will say, “I’m not actively looking”. That’s OK, but take the time on a personal level to get them to open up about what might be the criteria needed to make a change. Some may like a given opportunity, but it is not in the right place in the country for them, or they are looking to move up and do something related and more challenging. Even if you do not recruit a potential candidate, you have a relationship and understand what the professional candidate requires to make a change. They might be the perfect fit for a different client.

Recruiters ask many screening questions that hiring companies might feel uncomfortable posing. For example, a recruiter can inquire about all the reasons why an individual may be reluctant to move or change. Thus, when a recruiter refers a candidate to their client, they present candidates who not only meet the client's needs but are also willing and able to make a change. Some examples of screening include:

• Current Title and Desired Title (to ensure the new role is aligned early on): For example, a Marketing Manager clearly indicates that they may only change from the title of Marketing Manager to that of Marketing Director.
• Current compensation, including base salary, bonuses, stock options, long-term incentives (LTI), last raise, next raise, and the expected percent increase, should align expectations between the candidate and the prospective new employer.
• If the candidate is married, what does their spouse do for a living, how much do they earn, and what is their mobility, i.e., do they work remotely and can relocate to another state while keeping their current position? If they have children, how many do they have, what are their ages, and what are the educational aspirations of the family? An example is high-school kids who don’t want to move, which makes things extremely difficult for the individual considering the move/change. Or what about the needs of a child with special needs and the family who is comfortable with their current care?
• Personal and family activities can be compelling attractions. Beachgoers typically prefer coastal locations, while those who enjoy skiing may not favor warmer climates. Spend time discovering the candidate's personal and professional aspirations.
• Housing can be one of the biggest issues; it is easier to move renters, while it is a bit harder to move homeowners. Rents can shift, whereas homeowners have a significant anchor. Should they sell and buy in the new location, or rent the home and decide whether they want to buy?
• Citizenship Status: If a candidate holds the appropriate visa for the employer’s destination country, that’s great. However, some companies may not sponsor individuals who do not have the visa, while others may avoid choosing those with Green Cards due to military customers requiring U.S. citizenship.
• If the candidate is actively looking, where are they in the process with the other suitors? Phone interview, on-site interview, or offer stage? Here, the recruiter is competing with other recruiters and the efforts of the individual. The recruiter must know who they have reached out to, how far along the selection process is, and whether they want to deal with competition from other recruiters.
• The recruiter must also understand the terms of the current employment contracts and respect any limiting restrictions.

From the employer’s side, companies that don’t use the best recruiters can waste a lot of time on offering a candidate the wrong/unacceptable offer.  Recruiters with solid negotiation and communication experience know how to ensure that if an offer is extended, it has already been verbally accepted.  This is accomplished through numerous back-and-forth discussions with both sides; thus, the actual formal offer letter serves as confirmation of what both parties have, in principle, agreed to. This eliminates “decision time lag” for offers just thrown together with a prayer, hoping, but not knowing, it’s going to be accepted.  If you can’t get both sides to agree prior to a written letter, none should be provided.  Unacceptable written offers in hand provide leverage to secure a “counteroffer”.

Recruiters should also be skilled in explaining to candidates that the counteroffer process will occur and the long-term ramifications of accepting one. Offering the candidate a short and succinct resignation letter after the acceptance of the offer is the first step. This letter should state the candidate’s resignation date, the reasons for leaving (purely based on career development), and a strong statement indicating that this decision is final. Companies will still try various tactics to retain a key employee, such as a raise, promotion, future promises, or cash bonuses. The candidate must remain firm in his or her decision, and a good recruiter knows how to counsel the individual throughout this process, which can be more stressful than the actual interview process.  The candidate, forcing and accepting the counteroffer, can later also experience employer resentment. A professional recruiter is prepared for all contingencies on behalf of both the employer and prospective employees.

A good recruiter possesses a range of skills and considerable tenacity, as the recruitment process can be lengthy and challenging. A recruiter saves clients’ money and time and has access to a larger pool of talent from which to recruit. Additionally, recruiters benefit candidates by sharing opportunities for advancement that they might never have dreamed of.

A Candidate’s Experience

Being recruited by an executive recruiter—often referred to as a headhunter—can be both a career-defining opportunity and a complex, frustrating experience. These professionals specialize in placing candidates in high-level roles, typically within specific industries, such as technology, finance, or healthcare. While their expertise can open doors to exclusive opportunities, the process presents both advantages and significant challenges.

Executive recruiters often have access to unadvertised positions, giving candidates opportunities that aren't publicly listed. Specialized recruiters claim to possess deep knowledge of their respective industries, enabling them to match candidates with roles that align with both employers' and prospective employees’ goals. However, sometimes they seem like just a meat shop looking for keywords in resumes. Not all recruiters recognize that many experiences can transfer across different disciplines and industries. Why this is not known is unclear, but one might speculate it reflects a failing of either the recruiter or the future employer, resulting in being saved by backhanded silence and no callbacks.

Some recruiters offer support ranging from resume refinement to interview preparation. Executive recruiters can provide tailored advice to enhance a candidate's presentation. They are interested in successful placements, which often translates to dedicated support throughout the hiring process.

While recruiters aim to fill positions with suitable candidates, their primary allegiance lies with the hiring company. This dynamic can sometimes create pressure on candidates to accept roles that do not fully align with their needs and desires. As a candidate, you have little to no influence over the recruitment timeline and communication flow. This situation can quickly lead to frustration with the entire process. Recruiters may tailor a candidate's resume to fit specific roles, potentially narrowing the scope of opportunities and directing their career path in an unintended limiting direction.

For a candidate’s success, clear and direct communication with the recruiter and the prospective employer is essential. Take the time to learn as much as possible about the company and inquire how you might fit into that organization. Ask about why they might be looking at you, what mobility and growth opportunities exist within the company, and inquire about compensation. It is negotiable. The candidate must remain proactive; if a promised call or appointment does not occur or frequently changes, ask for clarification.

Engaging with an executive recruiter can be a step in advancing your career, or one of incredible frustration.

Side Bar on Recruiting

Hiring has evolved significantly, transitioning from job postings in local newspapers to the “Help Wanted” notice in the window. In the past, it relied on direct advertising or word-of-mouth, all on a local scale. Prospective employers would attend job fairs and recruit from colleges, universities, and professional organizations. If you were in one city and wanted to work in another, you had to obtain the newspaper from that city and start applying by snail mail. Additionally, there were very few rules regarding hiring and the questions you could ask.

There were always a few select headhunter firms that helped find the talent their clients needed. Record keeping and indexing files on prospective candidates were all manual. Most serious recruiters devoted about 30% of their office space to file cabinets. Additionally, the phone company often made more each month than the recruiters did.

It all began to change in 1994 when Jeff Taylor founded Monster Board and collected and posted help-wanted ads from newspapers across the United States. Several other companies followed: CareerBuilder in 1995, HotJobs in 1996, and a significant change occurred in 2003 with LinkedIn. The website that allowed candidates to peek into companies launched in 2009 with Glassdoor. There are now over 20 online job search sites.

What you might not have considered.

Some firms utilize the recruiting process as a tool to gather competitive intelligence. A company or a false-flag recruiter will recruit employees from targeted companies and attempt to discern how the target company is performing, what its strategic objectives are, and what progress it has made toward those goals.

Some firms post job openings on job search sites under their real or fictitious company names to gauge the number of inquiries they receive from employees of other companies. This serves as a method for assessing the employment environments of many competitor companies.

Some companies post a wide array of openings for various positions to provide a false signal that they are strong and expanding.

What does the future hold?

Further integration of AI and machine learning will improve job matching and offer personalized recommendations. Virtual reality will revolutionize job fairs, interviews, and workplace tours. Blockchain technology will help verify credentials and work history.

These technologies aim to make processes easier and faster. However, currently, this claim is unsustainable and may even complicate searches and matches. A Ph.D. and published professor in physiology sought to pick up 20 hours per week at a hospital where he had previously worked. He was instructed to apply online at the hospital’s website. After a week without any updates, he contacted the division manager. The division manager asked him to come in immediately to fill out the hiring papers and mentioned that he could start the very next day. The doctor of physiology had been working at the hospital for a month when he received the automated reply from the hospital’s online application and onboarding website: “Thank you for applying, but you do not have the necessary experience or credentials.” Most hires held a bachelor’s or a master’s degree, yet he possessed a Ph.D.!

Regarding blockchain verification for education and credentials, our experience indicates that it is still decades away. This process will require a unified system, buy-in from schools, employers, and candidates, as well as a method for detecting errors. We encountered one individual who claimed to have a bachelor’s from USC while anticipating graduation from Harvard with an MBA. However, there was one issue: he never graduated from USC but was about to graduate from Harvard!

Cheap and cheerful solutions are rarely either. The hiring process through an experienced, professional recruiter remains one of the best methods for acquiring bespoke talent.
 

About the author: James P. Tiberia is the Chairman of SBT Industries LLC, the longest-running semiconductor search firm. With over 40 years of experience recruiting in the semiconductor industry, he has successfully placed talent in a wide range of companies, from innovative startups to global Fortune 500 corporations, in roles ranging from specialized technical experts to C-suite executives.