An unexpected call from a search consultant is one of the few genuinely pleasant interruptions in an executive career. It is worth taking every time — and worth understanding, because not every call is about hiring you.
A specific brief, and you fit it. The consultant will move quickly and be concrete about the role.
A legitimate and constant part of the work. The tell is that the questions are about the market rather than about your plans.
Building a picture of who sits where, often before a mandate exists. Useful to be part of, and not a process you are in.
You are being asked about a company, not about a role. Answer carefully; discretion here is noticed and remembered.
Ask two questions early and politely: is there a specific role, and where is the process up to. A consultant with a live brief answers both immediately. One who is mapping will be vague, not because they are being evasive but because there is genuinely nothing to be concrete about yet.
Take every call. Just know which one you are on, because it decides whether you are preparing for a process or building a relationship.
Never close the door and never pretend. “I am not looking, but tell me about it” costs nothing, keeps the relationship, and occasionally turns out to be the one you would move for. If it is genuinely not for you, offer two names. That is the currency of the whole market.
Calls arrive on somebody else's schedule, driven by somebody else's mandate. Pleasant as they are, a career built on waiting for them is a career where the timing is never yours.
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 firmsYou cannot apply to a search firm in any meaningful sense. What you can do is be findable, be specific, and be useful before you need anything.
Read → Searching while still employedMost executive searches happen while the executive still has a job. That constraint changes the method, not the ambition.
Read →A short call, your target list, and an honest answer about whether this fits how you are running your search.