The two faces of search firms.

• Author: Dimarchi, Paul
• Position: Career Development

Do you think of executive search firm professionals as nuisances when you're employed and prima donnas when you're not? Maybe you're taking the wrong approach when you meet up with them.

It's no secret that the relationship between executives and executive search firms doesn't always run smoothly. The two parties often have very different objectives and different ways of achieving them. So how can a financial executive, employed or unemployed, benefit from establishing an ongoing relationship with an executive search firm? The first step is to understand how executive search firms work.

The role and function of search firms has changed dramatically over the last 10 years. Today's search professional takes on more a job of "mining" than "hunting" for talent. In the past, the ratio of jobs available to candidates was tipped in favor of the candidates, but now it's the other way around. Downsizing, restructuring and other economic factors have put potential employers in a position to review many quality candidates. That's why having good mining skills serves a search firm better than having the more straightforward hunting skills.

Search firms have two key constituents: the client company for whom the firm is conducting the search and the candidates who the search firm ultimately decides to recommend to the client for interviews.

A qualified search professional has to represent his clients' interests while at the same time he's nurturing relationships with qualified candidates. The goal is to find the right candidate, not simply a list of candidates, for a key position. That requires research, knowledge of the market and a perspective that's both broad and focused.

So what does all this mean to you? Well, it means one thing if you're employed and another if you're not.

YOU SCRATCH MY BACK ...

If you're like many securely employed financial executives, when a search professional calls, you say you don't have time to talk to any "headhunter." But when you do that, you may be cheating yourself out of an important networking opportunity. Here are three ways you can benefit from having conversations with qualified, retained search firms:

* You'll learn about business trends -- Because search firms are constantly interviewing executives and researching employment topics, they're in a position to sight trends in the marketplace. For instance, would you like to know which markets are showing an increase in hiring activity? Maintaining ongoing...