What Is An Executive Recruiter?

When companies are seeking help with their hiring, for either direct-hire recruitment or contractor staffing, they typically call someone like EXPECT for help. The positions we help with include everything from entry-level to management-level.

However, if a company is seeking to hire at the executive-level, including vice presidents, presidents, chief officers, and directors, they use what are called “executive recruiters”.

Many times executive recruiters are brought in to help recruit a specific person or a very specific skillset from a competitor or from a closely related industry. In this case, they are seeking someone with deep industry experience and a proven track record of both people/project management at a high level, and very large budget profit & loss (P/L) responsibilities.

When a company uses executive recruiters they tend to approach passive candidates and present them with initial offers of employment including stock options, equity, bonuses, and access to top teams. They do not usually make outward job postings in these cases.

Large Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, fractional leadership providers, and state & local governments use executive recruiters for these critical hiring needs and will oftentimes pay a retainer fee in order to begin the process, which can take up to a year in some cases, to find just the right person.

Executive recruiters are professionals trained in this area to find matches for high-level and sometimes difficult-to-fill positions. They often work for well-known recruiting agencies that specialize in finding, screening, and interviewing executive-level employees to find a specific match.

Executive Recruiter Typical Duties

• Defining requirements: Executive recruiters can work with companies to understand the position requirements and find the most qualified candidates, often those working as executives for other companies.
• Researching candidates: With the specific candidate requirements, executive recruiters search professional networks to find which candidates closely match the job description. These professionals often have a unique talent pool where they can identify qualified candidates.
• Screening candidates: Executive recruiters often screen candidates by holding initial interviews or requesting documents, like candidate resumes. They might review candidates’ work history to ensure they have a positive experience in each of their roles.
• Detailed vetting and interviewing to ensure there is a good fit before presenting to the hiring company. Interview processes are long and clients expect to be thorough.

Job Titles Executive Recruiters Specialize Include:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Technology Officer
• Vice President
• Director of Operations
• Managing Director
• And other Executive-Level positions