Are you ready to make a career move?
Here are five ways to get noticed by an executive search firm:
1. Start by Developing a Digital Footprint
One of the best ways to get noticed is to ensure that your digital footprint is updated. Executive search firms do a lot of research. Much of this research starts in the public domain.
If you want to be found, make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date, your speaking bio is up to date, and the industry events you are guest presenting at have published your title and contact details correctly.
2. Be Successful
Success and activity attract an executive recruiter's interest.
The more successful you are, the more likely you will appear on an executive recruiter's radar.
Successful people tend to be highly active in their subject matter expertise. They publish articles, comment on industry trends, share their insights, participate in industry forums, appear on conference lists, mentor others, and guest speaker at industry events.
Successful people tend to generate a lot of content by sharing their knowledge. By doing this, they leave a trail of breadcrumbs that executive recruiters, like the team at Kingston Human Capital - found in the research stages of an executive recruitment project.
3. Be Someone That Others Would Recommend
Seeing yourself as successful isn't enough – what other people think of you counts. This is because one of the steps an executive recruitment agency takes is to reach out to the industry and ask for recommendations.
What does this mean? Executive search firms pick up the phone to key people in the industry and ask, "Who do you know that is a proven performer? Who do you think is great and why?". Your old boss, your colleagues or former co-workers might get this kind of call, so be the person that others would think to recommend.
4. Get Even More Visible, Start Commenting and Collaborating
You can further enhance your digital footprint by making sure you are commenting and collaborating on critical events and trends in your industry. You can do this on any of the social platforms you use, or you can create your own forums or subject matter groups. It can also raise your profile if you offer to speak at industry events or conferences, publish articles, or get quoted in the press.
5. Understand an Executive Recruiter's Mandate and Help Them by Staying in Touch
Understand that an executive recruiter's client pays them a retention fee to design a process to find and attract the best possible talent for a specific role.
Several clients retain executive recruiters in a year, so if you are highly relevant to the roles they are retained to deliver, the executive recruiter is likely to stay in contact with you.
But staying in contact is a two-way street. One of the best things you can do to help your executive recruiter keep you top of mind is to keep in touch once every few months. Don't overdo it. Stay in contact and develop a relationship.
Knowing how to get noticed by an executive search firm is one of the keys to taking the next steps in your executive career. Performing well during an executive interview is the next thing you need to consider.
Good luck developing your career.
