Cold cold heart

I do headhunting, but seldom speak to other headhunters, and when I do, it is muted conversation; we are a very proprietary group, lone wolves..

The only way I know the style or behaviour of other headhunters is from candidates I interview, as they are often courted by search firms. And I have heard enough negative stories about many headhunters behaviour with candidates to make me believe I’m usually doing it the right way. By no means perfect, but perfection is not the goal; authenticity is.

I had breakfast the other with a friend, a senior executive who had been weighing two job offers. The first was a national MD role (through his own contacts), the second a VP global role (through a search firm).

Both offers would have required him to move to a different city (same country) but he did not want to move. His preference was the global role, as it was an easier fit, same industry, and would have allowed him more visibility and scope in a large MNC. The second was a smaller company, privately held, and oversight of one country as MD.

The reason he did not want to move was that his father was quite ill, and felt it best to stay where he was to be close to family. He told both parties, and focused on his father’s recovery.

Unfortunately, his father had an unexpected relapse, and passed away, and in mourning, he sent notes out to friends and acquaintances, letting them know.

One week after his father’s death, the headhunter called him, and asked him that now that his ‘circumstances had changed’, would he consider moving and take the job?

He looked at me in recounting the story, and said, “I actually liked this company very much, and it would have been a great job for many reasons. I was so furious at the headhunter for calling me one week after he died, I would never consider that job–only because of her, not them.”

I said maybe she was relatively new or just young, and he replied that she had been in search for 25 years, so not likely.

Search is often labelled as a transactional business, but it really isn’t at its essence. It is emotional. Ask any candidate–or client–after an interview, and almost always it is about how it “felt”, not functional, but emotional, and all the adjectives that go with the word..

The world is full of bloodless people, headhunters or otherwise, and can’t be avoided, but the less you deal with it, and know how to politely move away, the greater the quotient for emotional health.