Are you thinking about starting your own executive search agency? Or maybe you would like to work for one and start a successful career as a recruitment consultant? First you will need to know exactly what this entails. The main thing you will do when working as a consultant is to search for companies who require candidates to fulfil upmarket positions, then you will have to search for candidates that meet the company’s criteria. The hardest part of your job would probably be to convince those candidates to move over to the other company; here you will need to use you excellent sales skills.

Before you can make a final decision about whether you want to either start your own executive search company or want to work for one, you first need to understand the processes that you will follow.

1. Meet with prospective clients

Once you have found companies who are looking to fill a position for either a manager, director or whatever else, you will need to set up a meeting with this company. In the first meeting you will have to tell this company about your success as an executive consultant, why you would be the best choice and what your approach to the recruitment process is.

2. Candidate Specification

If the company chose you to find them the perfect candidate then you will need to get specifications about the position that needs to be filled, the kind of candidate they would like for the position as well as specific requirements relating to the skills, qualifications and personality of the candidate. You will need to make sure that you understand the company’s culture so you will be able to sell this company to a candidate. In order to sell something, you need to make it look attractive; therefore you will need to know what kind of salary as well as benefits the company will be able to offer the new employee.

3. Market Analysis

After you have been given the exact specifications of what the company wants you will need to go out and see what the market has to offer. Let’s say the company wanted a new Executive marketing Manager, you will then need to look at other companies and see who their marketing managers are. You will need to research those people to see what their qualifications are, their skills as well as look for success stories about them. You will need to have a few candidates who seem like a good fit for your client and will then need to approach them.

4. Approach And Sell

You will now have to approach of the candidates and first see whether any of them are interested in your proposal. Remember that these people are already established in a company and will most likely be very hesitant; you need to sell it. If you have a good proposal you should have no problem in getting them interested and will be able to create a shortlist of candidates.

5. Present Shortlist And Start Interviewing

After presenting the shortlisted candidates to your client you will then help them to interview the candidates and to find the best fit. Once the position has been filled; your job is done and you most probably will be their first choice for recruitment in the future.

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The world of recruiting is an appealing profession to many.  While some choose to work for an agency, others decide to take a risk and start all on their own. Starting your own recruitment or executive search agency can seem scary and uncertain, but as long as you have some of the steps laid out you will know what to expect and will have the motivation to see it through.

1. Analyse Your Strengths And Weaknesses

In order for you to start a business you first need to analyse what strengths you would be able to contribute. If you have enough capital to put towards the business or a sparkling personality that can sell people things they don’t even want, then you have two things sorted towards your strengths. But let’s say you don’t have any knowledge, training or skills in recruitment and you know that you will need outside help to assist in that part of the business; you might want to bring in a partner who worked in recruitment and who can bring clients along with them.

2. Write A Business Plan

A business plan is a great idea and a must for attracting investors, or for convincing a prospective partner that they are making the right decision to join you. A business plan will also help to keep you on track and to make sure that you are following the guidelines regarding money, time and resources.

3. Research

In order for your business to be successful you will need to know how many recruitment or executive search agencies are close to the location where you wish to establish your business. You need to be sure that there is a big enough market out here for you to sell to and that your service is competitive with that which is being offered by other companies.

4. Legal Jargon

Before you get your business up and running, ensure that you followed the correct legal steps in order to register your business. Make sure that you know how much tax you will be liable for each year, and if possible get an accountant or ask someone who has their own business to help you with taxes,
Another important aspect would be insurance; are you going to insure the property and all of the assets you use to run your business? You will be a lot safer if you do.

5. Marketing

In order for people to use your recruitment or executive search services, they first need to know about it. Advertising is a must for any business and you need to put money aside for marketing in your business plan.
One of the cheapest ways to advertise where you would get the most publicity would be online. Use every resource available to you like job search sites, Facebook,Twitter and even start a blog if you feel up to it.
Print business cards and give them out whenever you meet someone new; stop being shy! Successful people are persistent people..

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It’s scary to think of all the scam artists that exist out in the world today, but the truth is that with any kind of technological development in society, there are people out there who will use it to make money dishonestly. We’ve all heard the saying regarding modelling and acting; when you have to pay the agency it’s a scam. But it seems as if people have become more creative and this trick now applies to executive search and recruitment agencies as well.

Trying to find a job can be exhausting and disappointing, and scam artists know this and count on it to lure good people away from their hard earned money. As the old saying goes: when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Remember this when you get approached by recruitment agencies who offer you the best jobs possible in record time, in exchange for a fee. Legitimate recruitment agencies usually do not charge a fee, except in some cases they might charge a small admin fee, but this is usually not the case as recruitment agencies get paid by the companies who they recruit for.

How To Avoid These Scams:

When you decide to go with a recruitment agency that is close to you and which you can physically visit, it might be easier to establish whether they are legitimate or not, but when you apply to recruitment agencies online, whether they ask you to pay a fee or not, you will first need to do research. Go online and look for any kind of review regarding the agency or for message boards where the agency gets mentioned.

Another popular method of scamming people is unsolicited emails. As soon as you register your CV online legitimate employers and agencies will be able to see it, but it will also be seen by scam artists. These scammers will send you an email claiming to be a recruitment company and offering you ridiculously high paid jobs. As soon as you seem interested they will tell you that you need to pay a fee in order for them to help you or for them to be sure that you are “committed”.

One way to avoid being lured into a scam is to ask for as much detail as possible regarding a position that has been offered to you; the telephone number of the hiring company, the physical address and the internet address; this way you can make sure whether the vacancy really exists.

There are many excellent recruitment and executive search agencies out there that are honest and reliable, but it is up to you to find them. You need to do your homework before you sign on with any kind of agency. Make sure that you read and understand the whole contract; some agencies have hidden fees and some even take a percentage off of your pay check; this is not the norm. You need to find an agency that does business the old fashioned way; honest and proper.

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Job searching is fun; in the beginning. After a while job searching can become pretty frustrating; you just need to look online to see how many people are currently unemployed and desperately looking for a job. Or you just need to look around you to see how many people are currently in a job which they absolutely hate.

We all want to find that dream job; the job that lets you wake up with a smile on your face and leaves you full of excitement for the day ahead, or some of us quite simply just want to find a job that puts food on the table. Using recruitment agencies or calling executive search agencies is a great way to help with your job search, but you cannot leave everything up to them; you need to be actively involved in your own future.   Whether you are looking for a dream job or for any kind of job at all, you will not find a job if you don’t get creative. As there are thousands of people close to you looking for a job as well, you will need to think out of the box, be persistent and never ever give up.

Register Your CV Online

In today’s day and age there is very little you won’t be able to find on the internet. Almost every single company out there uses the internet to post open vacancies; don’t just look for jobs on job search sites, but go into companies’ websites and look for jobs.

Join job search sites and upload your CV so companies who are looking for job seekers will be able to compare your qualities, skills and qualifications with the needs of their organization.

Cold Calling

Many jobseekers tend to look for open vacancies and ignore the fact that most companies are likely to have a position open in the future or might need someone, but did not advertise yet. Call companies and hear whether they have any open vacancies; if they say no then offer to send them your CV and ask them whether they would be willing to keep it and consider you when any positions open up in the future. It also makes a better impression when you deliver your CV in person so the company can get a good look at you and see that you are very eager to work for them.

Recruitment Agencies

Recruitment agencies can make a big difference in your job search as you will get a lot of pointers and will be sent to vacancies on the agencies data base.

For people who are looking to change jobs and who are skilled at what they do, like a marketing manager, an executive search agency would be your best bet. Look up the executive search agencies closest to you, and find out whether they currently need someone in your profession.

Your success in finding a job depends on your creativity, determination and motivation. Don’t give up and don’t take it personally when you don’t get a certain job or when no one calls you back. Rather try to find ways to improve your CV and your skills.

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“I am going to be a doctor.” If only it were that simple. We all were there once; in our youth where everything seemed possible and failing maths did not seem to be enough of a reason why you could not become a doctor; a surgeon or an accountant. But when we approach our senior years we realize that we have to make a decision so we can plan our future; this is when we often find ourselves unable to decide.

Executive search and Recruitment agencies work with careers and different kinds of jobs every day. It would be very helpful to talk to someone who works as a recruitment consultant, but you need to talk to them before you decide what degree to get or which skills you will acquire.

Some of us were sent to psychologist to be evaluated and did psychometric tests to see where our skills lie and in which direction we should go. The truth is that no one can tell you what kind of career you should choose. We all have different personalities, hopes, dreams and interest and no test can accurately measure what path in life will make us happy.

Degree Or Experience?

Some of us also fall into the degree trap; we think that getting a degree in either journalism or communications would automatically open up a career as a reporter. The truth is that it is not that simple. Before you choose to study in a certain direction you need to know exactly what you can do with that degree as well as what extra skills or certificates you will need to go into a specific career. Some careers require experience and one way to get this would be to do an internship or to work while studying part-time.

Research and Refine

The first thing to do in your quest of finding out what you really want to do one day is to research all of the possibilities. Let’s say you want to become a stable manager, as you love horses; you might have seen a movie about a stable manager and the job might have seemed very fulfilling and rewarding, but what the movie had failed to show you was that stable managers work extremely long hours, and in some countries stable managers get paid very poorly.

Your task in determining your career path is to talk to people who know everything about careers. Call a recruitment agent or an executive search agent and ask them what you would be able to do with a certain degree or what you need to one day be a journalist/ communications manager/ psychologist. When talking to a recruitment consultant they will be able to tell you about the requirements, advantages and disadvantages of a certain career. They will also be able to tell you exactly what you need to succeed and what makes some of their clients so successful.

There is no need to feel rushed and just jump into a certain degree/career or trade. Make sure that you know absolutely everything there is to know about all of the different jobs and careers you can follow. Most importantly; think about what would make you happy, not your bank account.

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There are companies who love the idea of an executive who is able to step into a position immediately and start making a difference. And this can happen with an executive search company because they focus on finding specialised talent that will be able to rise to any occasion, handle pressure and make an overall positive contribution to your company.
More and more is expected from executive search firms. Their clients don’t just want them to find outstanding talent, they want additional services added in that will take away the burden of looking for and interviewing a suitable candidate. They want candidates assessed to determine intelligence, they want background checks done, they want their candidate to have undergone leadership coaching skills as well as other services.

Good Track Records of Finding Top Candidates

Consultants at these search agencies have sharpened their search skills from having years of experience and their good track records of finding candidates live up to their client’s expectations. There are still executive search agencies that recruit for a variety of positions but some of them are becoming more specialised.
When a company suddenly needs to replace staff they often find themselves hastily filling an important position with someone who has not got the personality, skills or drive to do the job. Recruitment companies on the other hand are able to effectively find top staff for small companies right up to top Fortune 500 companies and match professionals to the right position.

Recruiters Understand A Company’s Culture

They make it their mission to understand a company’s values and culture before looking at talent from outside the company.

Everybody knows there is a critical shortage of skilled and qualified workers and this shortage places new pressures on businesses. As the economy improves, highly skilled employees look for better opportunities and companies have to fill those gaps. Executive search companies identify the unique skills so critical to certain positions and look for candidates with that special talent.
They assess the candidates thoroughly to find special characteristics and the type of person who shows a commitment to giving of their best.
Every company wants employees with fantastic leadership skills and with a commitment to excellence. They want someone who can bring about a profound life-changing difference to the company.

Top Talent for High Level Positions

Mistakes in their own hiring process have meant companies turning to search firms to help with finding top talent for high level positions. Many times businesses simply do not have the time to conduct an executive recruiting search. They do not have the resources to sort through hundreds of responses from people who are not qualified enough to run your company. After a professional search company has gone through the CV’s the search firm will interview possible talent after assessing the candidate and take care of all the frustrating and time consuming matters. They present the cream of the crop to their clients allowing for the candidate to simply step in and allow business to proceed uninterrupted.

Executive search companies have a database of strong leaders who are able to draw the best from people and have the skills and confidence to act in situations where others are reluctant. For many companies, searching for high-level executives can be stressful and time consuming. When these company’s have exhausted all efforts in finding someone they often turn to a professional recruiter to find a candidate with skills beyond the norm.

There are many companies who hire people quickly and take on someone who knows just enough to get them in the front door. Later their true colours are revealed when they are unable to cope for many reasons. Executive search companies understand how having an outstanding leader makes all the difference between having a mediocre business and one that has reached its full potential. Introducing such a skilled individual can result in your business becoming a high performing organisation.

They Make Cold Calls to Find Someone With Right Credentials

Although search firms vary in their area of knowledge and expertise, they assess their candidates thoroughly and glean information regarding the candidates work experience, their personality, their leadership and management style as well as other information. They often make many cold calls to find someone with all the right credentials. They always have a database of top well-qualified and motivated candidates who have been assessed and interviewed. They are able to present the company with a number of highly qualified candidates who can be presented at short notice.

The search firm always does thorough research on the company looking for a top executive. This is to ensure they match the perfect candidate to the position. They find out about the needs of the company as well as the culture of the organization. With this knowledge they search for someone who will be able to successfully take on all assignments and run the business effectively and with ease.

Confidentiality is Key

When you get an executive search company to search for the ideal candidate, they require the company to divulge certain information which could be regarded as sensitive and they treat all information in the strictest confidence. They keep their client company up to date with the progress of the search.

It is beneficial for any company to check the track record of the search firm they have selected. It is important to know who their past clients are and how many candidates they will be able to present. Selecting the right search firm select the right search firm that is suited to your needs. You want the search firm that you are working with to have a solid understanding of the culture of your company.

Executive Search Company With Solutions

An executive recruitment firm doesn’t just fill a vacancy, they provide solutions to clients problems. They recognizes leaders who stand out and who are able to get things done and inspire others and get results that are beyond the norm. These leaders know in tiny detail what is going on in the workplace, they are able to solve problems because they have more technical expertise that everyone else.

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Any business that is looking to recruit new employees wants to find the most applicable person for the job. Finding the right employee for a particular position is not easy and requires a business or company to carry out key steps in order to locate the right person with the skills and experience necessary for the position. There are fundamental steps that every business should carry out when it comes to recruitment. This involves understanding the needs of the position and how it fits into the business as a whole. The hiring staff or managers need to be fully aware of these needs and the recruiters involved in streamlining the right candidates to the business need to be knowledgeable and up-to-date with these needs of the business. However, aside from such fundamental steps, there are other ways in addition to these that can help a business find the right candidate. We look at how a business can enhance their recruitment process.

How a business can enhance their recruitment process – job description

When advertising a job opening in your business, including a detailed job description is very useful. However, it is the process involved in creating this job description that is important. You want to look at the qualities such a candidate should possess as well as the key responsibilities of the position. A good way to define what qualities you want in your new employee is to look at the staff you currently have. Pick the qualities you admire best in you staff and use this as a measuring stick against which to work. Then consider what it is you want out of the position you are offering. What is the reason for the opening in the first place? What is the fundamental reason for needing to recruit a candidate? From this you can develop the key responsibilities of the position. Use this information to gather a shortlist of potential candidates – from which you can start establishing the right interview questions.

How a business can enhance their recruitment process – word-of-mouth

Don’t underestimate the potential of word-of-mouth. As soon as you realize you will have a potential opening in your business or company then start advertising that you are on the look out. Tell all your staff so that they are able to tell their friends and associates. Information travels very fast nowadays due to the advancement of technology and the ability to interact with one another in a number of different ways from almost anywhere in the world. Social media sites for example, are a great way to get the word out, i.e. such as Twitter and Facebook. Also use take advantage of your connections through business associates and any other contacts that you have in your industry. A good way to develop a relationship with potential candidates is to pay your employees to involve, interact and network in industry groups, trade shows and conferences. Always have a list of potential employees – even if you are currently not hiring, containing the names of important people within the industry as well as any other potential candidates you may have come across through your various contacts both personally and professionally.

These are some ways on how a business can enhance their recruitment process. There is much recruiting potential when, as a business, you are continually working on developing good relationships with individuals in your industry, even if you do not currently have a position opening. These relationships will only become an asset to your company and will help to ensure that when you do have a position available, you have a solid list to work from and recruit the perfect person for the job.

A leading black owned executive search firm, Search Specifics has built a reputation on professional, top quality service in executive recruitment.

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A survey by a top financial magazine regarding the executive search by executive recruitment companies showed that less than five percent of those people sitting on executive committees or at the same type of level across a sample of twenty investment banks and banking divisions are women.

Not many women in top jobs

Other researches in areas such as trading and technology found that only around fifteen percent or less of the workforce in investment banking is female. And it appeared that the more senior the position the worse the inequality gets. This is the message that head-hunters and bankers are sending out.
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Pressure to overcome this situation has grown quite a bit over the past six months and some big banks have started setting targets to recruit more women globally. Interest in hiring women has increased markedly in the UK. At the World Economic Forum, at its Davos conference in January, a minimum quota for female executives was introduced. It was requested that at least one of the five official delegates sent by the largest corporations should be female.

Head-hunters investing time and effort to identify female professionals

But at the moment, because there are too few potential female candidates, head hunters are investing their time and effort into building detailed research documents to identify talented female professionals. According to head hunters the problem is that searches are often very specific. For example an oil and industry coverage banker with relationships in the Nordic region would almost entirely consist of males.

The head-hunters want to ensure that via forensic research, that those who are qualified and interested in a role are given a fair chance. Once such financial recruitment firm in the UK has put together a list of two hundred and fifty female equity analysts ranging from the junior ranks to the upper echelons of management. Head-hunters are finding these networks and industry bodies very important because they reckon that women do not often engage in self-promoting their capabilities like the men do.

Finding an appropriate entry point

In the course of an executive search process they might find a female professional who makes it on to the shortlist, but hasn’t led a big team or lacks adequate international experience for that role. But now they are looking at it differently. They are deciding that if the individual is high-potential, and there is a good cultural fit, they can actually work with their chosen client and the candidate to find a more appropriate entry point.

The chief executive of a US bank which has no women on its eight-person board and no women on its 17-strong executive committee admits that the bank has got to do more to increase the number of women in senior roles. They are now recognizing the importance and urgency of this issue in their bank and last year that same bank launched a global initiative to help attract more women into investment banking,

Sheer demand putting pressure on women

Part of the problem of finding talented women to fill senior roles lies in the sheer demands an investment bank makes on its senior staff, which can seem insurmountable for some women once the pressures of family life are taken into account.

At the Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy conference in April, it was stated that financial services companies are losing too many women who in the early to mid thirties are having more children as it is more socially acceptable so to speak for them to stay at home. But women also have to come to terms with the fact that the responsibilities of raising a family will take up more of their time.

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There has never been such a busy time than at present for the executive search recruitment consultancy. Business over the world has been forced to change rapidly or vanish without a trace. As the recession has gathered momentum, companies from all over the world have found it necessary to be part of takeovers of their companies, promote mergers and to downscale and arrange their businesses to stay on the competitive edge.

Executive recruitment consultants the buzz word

As a result of this, the executive recruitment consultants has become the buss word on the streets of employment agencies, and more and more high end providers than ever before are being asked to help find them the perfect candidate to manage the changing landscape of their businesses. Some executive recruitments consultants are reporting a steady stream of inquiries and job prospects.

Some companies that are trying to manage change are not often well suited to do it themselves. Many companies are entrenched in their habits which they find pretty hard to break. They realize the change for them is to do something new; to do something different and it is for this reason that the executive recruitment business is literally big business today.

Pick up the phone and call an executive recruitment firm

When you need a highly skilled executive to manage the changes that your company is going through, you might find that your company does not have the time or the inclination to run an ongoing advertisement and go through all the interviewing processes which might cost you a lot of time and money. You might well find that it is so much more satisfying and less time consuming to pick up the phone and call a recruitment agency.

The recruitment firm will provide you with a single candidate that they have on their books, or they will provide you with a short list of candidates, all of whom have excellent references and demonstrable histories in the field of high level company management. There comes a time when familiarity with a business sector becomes less important than a new executive coming in with the ability to see things in wider theoretical terms.

Fresh ideas can save an industry from collapse

In some cases, familiarity with the industry might even hamper an existing executive to successfully steer a company out of trouble. It has been many an executive recruitment agency that is likely to have saved several different companies in different sectors of an industry from collapse without having had any long term experience in the field a particular company.

The executive recruitment consultancy can supply an intensely special service to its clients and in the days ahead is likely to be doing more and more of this than ever before. What companies across the world need and that the executive recruitment company gives is a selection of outstanding candidates who can think clearly on their feet about company practices rather than the nuts and bolts of a particular market sector. Executive recruitment is all about supplying people who are able to make sense of business practice and company behavior and use their sense to turn a business into a better and successful channel again.

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