Head hunting – The Basics

Getting on the radar

To be on a headhunter’s radar, you need to be in the places that headhunters look. And headhunters, or more accurately their researchers (the highly skilled people whose job it is to identify potential candidates for the headhunter) look in a number of places:

Its not who you know, its who knows you

Their existing database of contacts – either to find potential candidates, or to find ‘sources’ (i.e. warm contacts who may not be right for the job but could act as an introduction to someone who is)

The press

• Target companies – companies pre-agreed with the client that the headhunter will contact directly / and network through to find the right individual.
• Company websites (e.g. the ‘Management Team’ section) or in annual reports, or in press releases on the website.
• Industry directories, both online and offline.
• Increasingly, CV databases of reputable executive websites.
• Social networking sites – most notably LinkedIn and not FACEBOOK!!
• The essence of getting onto the ‘radar’ is to become visible. That means:

Presence on the web
If you haven’t done so already create a profile on LinkedIn. And then keep it up to date.  Consider registering your CV with executive job boards (you can see the relevant ones in section 2. Approaching the market).   If your name is not of your company’s website, make a case for getting it on there.  Consider setting up a Blog. But consider it carefully; blogs are really effective at raising your profile, but only if you have something (interesting) to say and you say it on a regular basis.

Other Points & Tips

Make sure your internal telephone directory (both on and off-line) is up to date with your correct job title.

Make sure your job title is ‘externally recognisable’. Having high visibility, but an incomprehensible job title, means your profile will not be raised.

Make sure you are consistent with what you call yourself. Headhunters are increasingly using multiple methods to ID people.

If you’re quoted as being “Anthony” in the press, but “Tony” on the website and “Tone” on LinkedIn the picture built of you will be fragmented. The same goes for your job title.

This article is reproduced by kind permission of Harvey Nash plc. You can see more articles like this by visiting Harvey Nash’s Career Manager