When to approach a company

The window

It opens when something changes at a company — a seat empties, a function gets built, money lands — and it closes when a comparison set forms. Inside it, there is no process to be measured against and no pile of applicants your message sits on top of. Outside it, both exist.

The width of that window varies enormously. Sometimes it is a fortnight. Sometimes a company sits on an empty chair for six months while it argues about what the job should become. You cannot know which in advance, which is the argument for moving early rather than waiting for confirmation.

Too early is a real failure mode

This is the part the timing advice usually skips. Approaching a company where nothing has changed, with no news to attach yourself to, produces the worst kind of message: one that is entirely about you. Those are ignored, and worse, they spend a contact you might have needed later.

The right moment is not "as early as possible". It is the first moment you have something true and specific to say.

What a well-timed approach sounds like

• It refers to something real that happened at their business, not to their staffing.
• It says what you would be useful for, in one sentence, without a pitch.
• It asks for a conversation, not a role — because at this stage there is no role to ask for.
• It makes saying no easy. An executive who can decline in four words is far more likely to reply at all.

Cadence matters more than the first message

One approach is an event; three over a year is a relationship. The people who do well at this are not the ones who write the best opening message — they are the ones still in touch nine months later when the thing they were early for finally becomes a search.

That is also the honest answer to how long this takes. A reverse search is measured in quarters. Its advantage is that the work compounds, which is not true of applications.