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The 3 Major Advantages of Partnering With Executive Recruiters

If you’re at the top of your profession, consider speaking with an executive recruitment firm prior to a career change.

Even top-tier professionals and executive-level talent often need assistance navigating their own career path. As executive recruiters in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA, we hear many of our clients from the legal and IT industries admit that when the personal decision was made to seek out new opportunities, they immediately faced a huge obstacle: where to begin?

The names and faces of “Top Performers” within a specific industry are likely to be recognizable inside their business circles, especially in a localized region. If everyone knows your name, actively conducting a covert job search becomes next to impossible. Even making casual inquiries about potential opportunities to cohorts in your circles creates a significant risk to anonymity.

However, partnering with an Executive Recruiter not only protects your privacy when forging a new career path, but the relationship also offers 3 distinct advantages for talent at the top of their professional game.

Advantage #1: You’ll Have an Advocate, a Coach, and an Agent

If you’ve never used executive recruiters to assist in a job search, you may not even know what to expect from the relationship. First and foremost, a recruiter is YOUR ADVOCATE; they are watching out for your best interests and are working to find you the best match available. Being an advocate for your professional career means they’ll need to know a lot of details about you, a ton of background information, and will need a clear understanding of your ultimate career goals. When your recruiter/advocate is aware of all the pertinent information, they can design a very detailed map for your career path.

Did you know that even the most accomplished Hollywood actors typically consult with an acting coach prior to taking on a new project? Seasoned actors realized long ago that in order to ensure success in a new role, they must prepare and practice…and this is made possible by getting guidance from an acting coach. In a similar way, an employment recruiter assumes the role of COACH. Your recruiter/coach is available to guide you throughout the job search process, provides education and resources about potential new employers, and helps you prepare and practice for interviews.

In the same way, a professional athlete needs a sports agent, top-tier talent needs their recruiter to act as their CAREER AGENT. In this role, your recruiter will be actively seeking out attractive opportunities that match your specific skillsets, talents, abilities, and other factors (e.g.; location, salary requirements, workload). The agent role is also vital when it comes time to negotiate with potential employers. And this brings us to the next huge advantage…

Advantage #2: Your Recruiter Offers Guidance & Negotiation Skills

As stated before, your recruiter has a vested interest in your success. Therefore, you should expect they will guide and educate you through the entire process. From the first step of identifying and evaluating desirable opportunities to negotiating with the new employer and transitioning from your old company, your recruiter should be right there with you every step of the way.

One of the most sensitive (and sometimes, awkward) aspects of pursuing a new career opportunity is negotiating compensation. Even skilled sales pros or experienced courtroom litigators often balk at conducting tough negotiations on their own behalf; sometimes we’re simply too invested emotionally to have the right perspective on what is considered “attractive compensation”! However, experienced recruiters can remove the emotional element and negotiate based on current market data and other competitive factors. In fact, many company executives prefer negotiating with a third party when it comes to hiring top-level professionals.

Advantage #3: Executive Recruiters Have Access to Insider Information

Recruiters are familiar with the culture, reputation, business models and work environment of most prominent employers. This valuable insider information not only helps thoroughly prepare their talent partners for the interview process, but it also assists in matching candidates with the most desirable employment situation.

But the biggest advantage of “insider information” is that professional recruiters have the inside track on available (or potential) opportunities that have yet to become public. Simply due to the nature of their business, executive staffing companies are in constant communication with the companies they represent and thus receive advanced notice on positions that are likely to become available. Naturally, they quickly alert their qualified talent clients about these opportunities, which means you’ll be competing with fewer candidates at the outset. And being “first out of the gate” provides a significant competitive advantage over other job seekers who must wait for the opportunities to be posted publicly!

So if you are a top performing professional looking to forge a new career path, consider partnering with a trusted executive recruiting firm like Strategic Recruitment Solutions. We work with most of the law firms and technology companies in the Louisiana Gulf Coast region, as well as top companies throughout the nation. Therefore, we can provide access to positions in the Legal and IT fields that may not be advertised on job boards or a company’s website. Search our current opportunities or submit your resume to get started!

[su_note note_color=”#f4f4f4″ text_color=”#1b1b1b”]Although they are sometimes referred to as “professional headhunters”, executive-level recruiters generally try to work with candidates within a few specific industries, allowing executive recruiters to maintain a high level of expertise within those select fields. Their expert knowledge is used to match talent clients with positions where they’d most likely excel, help prepare candidates for the interview process, and even facilitate negotiations based on the most current industry data.[/su_note]