Q: “Somer, I’ve been in contingency recruiting my entire career, and the last two years started working on VP and Senior Director retained searches, which is about 30% of my business now. How do I continue on that path? I want to work on fewer searches and do better quality work. Any tips?” – Recruiter
A: First off, thank you for reaching out! I love that the book and Resilient Recruiter podcast are leading me to these conversations.
Where to begin?
My advice:
- Have a long-term mindset. Relationships matter and your fan club is out there. Write back to every email. Treat every candidate with respect. It’ll come back.
- It’s all in the setup. Create a search strategy and align upfront. This will be your gravitational pull throughout the search when you lose focus or things pivot. Every search has a bump, always. You’ll get repeat business through excellent execution.
- Interview preparation. There’s a lot of secret sauce in-between interviews on both the candidate and client side. Prep everyone and make it personal. Be honest, setting expectations and preventing surprises. This will set you apart. Give everyone feedback too – both candidates and clients.
I could go on. Maybe I will. You have me inspired :)
As always, more topics and tips on the blog and sign up for the newsletter on my website: https://lnkd.in/eRMgEcK