A senior role is decided in five stages and posted at the last one. You join at the second, when someone leaves and the company has not yet decided who replaces them. From there it is four steps, in order.
At every stage before the posting you are one of a handful of people. After it, one of hundreds.
A role is funded before anyone is told it exists.
The departure becomes visible before the replacement search does.
The brief takes shape internally; a search firm may be briefed.
Longlists are built from people already known to the searcher.
By now, a shortlist usually exists.
Typical candidates in contention at each stage of a senior hire. Illustrative — it describes the shape of the problem, not a measurement of your own search.
Each step has its own screen, and each one hands you to the next.
Roles at your level that just opened, a new CEO or a funding round, a role still unfilled, the companies you would join watched for you, and what the role pays. Weeks before the job posting.
Everyone you know, matched to every company that is hiring. The three people worth calling this week, and the introduction request written for you.
The first message, interview preparation and the offer, written from what happened at that company and from your CV. A coach answers from your own search.
Every conversation on one board. A warning before silence costs you the role. Alerts, summaries and reports you can share with a coach or your search firm.
This is the difference between a name on a shortlist and a name the board already knows.
Not a cold approach. A person who can walk you in, and the exact ask that gets a yes.
Written from what happened at that company this week, and from what you have actually done.
What changed, what they need, the questions that decide the interview, and what the role pays.
Take the whole course free, and see how many roles are already opening. A Search Pass names the companies.