I know lots of people who get frustrated when they hear, “You’re a strong candidate, but not a fit for what my client is looking for.” What some people fail to recognize is that executive search consultants like myself get paid to find the best candidate in a specific market and convince them to consider a specific opportunity, not to find the best candidate actively on the market. Companies can do this on their own quite easily.
Almost always my clients seek someone who has already “successfully” dealt with the problems currently facing their organization. As such, people looking to change their function (i.e. CFO who wants to be CEO or COO) or change industry (i.e. investment banking to CPG or high tech to pharmaceutical) find it hard to get positive responses from executive search consultants like myself. However, it is possible to make such a switch (although I’d advise against trying to switch function and industry at the same time, which in my experience is almost impossible) and here is how I recommend people do it. Read the rest of this entry »
