Sending a CV to a general inbox is the least effective thing an executive can do with an afternoon. Here is what actually puts you in front of the consultants who work your level and your sector.
Search is organised by practice — a function, a sector, sometimes a region. The consultant who fills finance roles in industrial companies is a different person from the one filling marketing roles in consumer businesses, and they do not share a queue. Being known to the right two or three is worth more than being on file at twenty firms.
By an order of magnitude the most effective route. A consultant asks their network for names constantly; the whole job runs on it.
Your public profile is what a consultant reads before deciding to call. It should make your level and your speciality obvious in seconds.
Suggesting two credible names for a brief you cannot fill puts you permanently on the useful list.
Not a CV to an inbox. A named consultant, a sentence on what you do, a sentence on what you want next. Brevity reads as senior.
Consultants do not keep a list of good executives. They keep a list of people who were useful, precise and easy to place.
Two or three touches a year, each carrying something other than a request: a name for a search, a note when you move, a comment on something happening in their sector. The aim is that when a relevant brief lands, you are already a person rather than a file.
Even perfect visibility only works when a matching mandate exists. Being on the radar shortens the wait; it does not create the seat. That is why this is one channel in a search rather than the search itself.
Almost everything a search firm does toward you is explained by who pays them and when. Once you know that, their behaviour stops being mysterious.
Read → Recruiters and search firmsThe call is flattering and it is also a data-gathering exercise. Both things are true, and knowing which one is happening changes how you answer.
Read → The reverse job searchThirty to sixty companies, chosen in three layers, filtered by the things that actually predict fit. The list is the foundation of a reverse search.
Read →A short call, your target list, and an honest answer about whether this fits how you are running your search.