Working With Executive Recruiters: Be Prepared For Every Conversation!

Your ability to express yourself in an effective manner is critical to landing a job. In this post, I focus on your communication skills with the Executive Recruiter. As you now understand, the recruiter is the gate-keeper. You must do an effective job selling her before you will have an opportunity to sell the hiring manager. So let’s discuss the critical touch points and your responsibility during each.

My preference is to make my initial contact via email. It is more productive for me to do so and eliminates the embarrassment of catching someone off guard. In that email I will indicate the basic parameter for the search, I am working and ask the recipient for their interest or referrals. If there is interest, we will schedule a preliminary phone conversation. The preliminary call is my first opportunity to take the measure of the candidate. I want to gauge the individual’s ability to communicate their interest, enthusiasm, motivation, and personality. This will be a short conversation so it requires that the candidate (not really a candidate yet) get to the point and resolve the most pertinent and immediate questions. Vague, non-committal responses will eliminate the person from further conversation. If we decide to move to the next step, I will provide more information so the candidate can begin his due-diligence on the opportunity. If he is still interested after his due diligence, we will agree to a more in-depth phone call. At this time, I will become immersed in their background, strengths, and skill-set. This is usually a 60-minute conversation.

As I discussed in the my last post, I want to understand my candidate’s complete work history. I like to listen to them tell the story of their career and then ask questions that focus on specific accomplishments that dovetail with my client’s needs. The savvy candidates have given a lot of thought to their career and know how to present their history in an interesting way. This is my second opportunity to gauge their communication skills for context and language. If an executive has difficulty telling their career story, they will likely have difficulty selling their thoughts and ideas on improving the client’s business. I expect the candidate to talk in complete sentences and to use the appropriate grammar. Communication Skills matter! The questions I ask about specific accomplishments are meant to reveal the candidate’s approach to problem solving and project management. Questions about job changes reveal how the candidates are thinking about career management.

I usually allow time, so the candidate to ask a few questions. Often, I do not have the answer if the question is related to broader corporate strategy, but can be helpful with questions related to the
specifics of the job. The questions asked by the candidate and the timing of those questions is also revealing.

Phone conversations have their limitations. However, the best candidates understand those limitations and overcome them. I have found that some otherwise solid candidates do not perform well on the phone whereas some weaker candidates have a very good telephone presence. Each of these types is outside the norm so generally speaking, good telephone skills follow the better candidates.

Key Points to Remember:

1. Understand your recruiter’s validation process.
2. Prepare for each contact point.
3. Ensure that your telephone skills are sharp.

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Jim Weber, President
New Century Dynamics Executive Search
Author of: Fighting Alligators: Job Search Strategy For The New Normal

Current Assignments

1. Strategic Partner - Atlanta-based B2B Professional Services Company - Complete
2. Director of Business Dev, Atlanta-based B2B Professional Services Company: New
3. Payroll-Benefits Manager, Atlanta-based Retail Company.
4. Senior Accounting Manager – Atlanta-based Manufacturer.
5. Controller - Orlando, FL-based Restaurant Company: 

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