Press Coverage
How to get yourself head-hunted
The Observer - 2001-04-08
1 Get yourself quoted in the press, advises Jo Bond of Right management consultants. 'Make yourself visible in the market, appear on platforms and get yourself listed on the website.' There is no point in being brilliant but low-profile. These firms mostly work through referrals, so you also need to stay popular with colleagues in the trade as well.
2 Be helpful to headhunhters who ring you for advice and contacts, says Zena Everett of Perriam and Everett. They will think more kindly of you later on if a vacancy comes up in your field. 'Assume that you are big watched by employers in a lifelong interview process,' she says. So keep updating you CV and planning your career.
3 Expect a rather crusty world of expensive cuff links, cut-glass decanters and famous Conservative wives. Head-hunters Ffion Hague an Carolyn Portillo are naturals in this world, which revolves around networking and implies the existence of a superior class of talented leaders that only these headhunters can sniff out.
4 Fit in with the mystique that headhunters create: they need to create mystery to justify their fees (typically one-third of a year's salary for each post they fill). 'Plan to have a career, not a series of jobs,' says James Gray of the Spencer Stuart Talent Network, a new branch of the well-known headhunters, which aims to help younger people on salaries of £50,000 and above. 'A career takes a long time to build and needs constant.
5 Brush up your presentation and media skills. Headhunters are increasingly looking for would-be captains of industry who are popular with the press as well as good at the rest of the job. It is a lot easier for a headhunter to research your media profile than to evaluate your experience in engineering, so many emphasise to their clients the desirability of media-friendly qualities.
