In this episode, I talk with John O'Connor, a seasoned executive recruiter, who shares valuable behind-the-scenes insights into the world of executive search firms. 

We discuss the importance of building proactive relationships with recruiters, even when you're not actively seeking a new role. John offers practical tips on how to effectively engage with executive search firms and shares some surprising statistics about the volume of applications for high-level roles. This episode is especially beneficial for mid-career professionals looking to strategically manage their career advancement.

Speaker Links:

Website: https://www.pageexecutive.com/

Follow on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnoconnorfinance/

Dig a little deeper:

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment. It's a 30-minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down. I call it Derailed and it's a fabulous place to begin a joy-at-work redesign.

https://www.midlifeunstuck.com/derailed

Our next guest, John O'Connor and I worked together for a

few years, about 20 years ago, and he used to have the whole team in fits

of giggles with his storytelling.

But today I've asked him to be serious and to share some behind the

scenes insights into the workings of an executive search firm.

I asked him to focus on some practical tips.

What to do and what not to do when building relationships with the humans who

can form a critical part of your search for future roles throughout your career.

He also shares some surprising stats on a role that he'd

advertised less than a day ago.

Let's dive in.

John, I've heard you recommend in the past that

professionals should invest time fostering relationships with executive search firms

when they're not looking for a new role.

Why?

Good question.

So for me, fundamentally, our job, the job of a good recruiter is to get.

our candidates from A to B.

So career destination A to career destination B.

And I think we'd always prefer doing that proactively, almost like a taxi or a cab

driver, where the time has been invested up front in, in everybody getting to know

each other, particularly key strengths, motivators, whatever it might be.

I think the real challenge is when, as a candidate, you're trying to reactively

get to know recruiters, and in the current climate, that can often be

because of the loss of a job, which can happen quite suddenly, let's face it.

And I think the difficulty then is we become almost a career ambulance

for people or a paramedic, where an immediate response is required and needed.

When actually there can be a lot that we might be doing in the

background to be more proactive.

Love it.

Love it.

So it's a sort of long term taxi driver where you take someone to multiple

destinations over their career and you see them at their best as opposed to

sometimes when something bad has happened.

Yeah, that's right.

A lot of people that certainly at the level I operate at we hire for

companies, don't necessarily know that they're looking when we first

contact them, they'll feel that they're in a relatively good, happy place.

And it's only when you instigate a conversation about, look at

this opportunity, would it appeal?

That the mindset starts to shift to, oh, okay.

Well, I, you know, I'm, I'm pretty happy, but actually what you're saying is quite

interesting and those conversations can take, they can take a long time

I've placed candidates where an initial conversation with them has happened 12 or

18 months before we end up talking about a particular opportunity, and I think it

can be highly stressful for a candidate when they're thinking in a matter of.

I only have weeks to find a job and I now need this network for want of a better

phrase to spring into action for me.

And that's not always easy to achieve, particularly at the senior level.

absolutely.

You've made me really curious.

Can you give me maybe a window into your world, like an average week?

As a partner in a executive search firm, how many CVs are you looking at?

How many people are you meeting?

Just give us a little window.

To give you context from an outsider perspective, what

kind of volumes are we dealing with?

I posted a finance director role yesterday evening at about five 30 on LinkedIn.

And as of wherever we are this afternoon, which is early afternoon.

There's been over three and a half thousand impressions on that

post, over a hundred applications so far via the advert itself.

And I've received probably in the region of about 20 to 25.

direct approaches from candidates asking if it's possible to have a conversation,

be considered, and so on and so forth.

And that's the biggest challenge for me, and probably most of my peers in

the industry at this level, is the sheer volume of connectivity, if you like, we

can be found, and that's not a, that's not a, that's not a, That's not a problem.

But it does mean that, look, as a recruiter, that fundamentally as a human

being at a basic level, there comes a point where you have to rationalize your

time and decide who you can respond to, who you can engage with and onwards.

So that you could get home at the end of the day to your family.

Brilliant.

That's right.

We live in an age where, connectivity is hard to just switch on and off.

So of an I could be Sat there from a family perspective and I look at my phone

and there's your LinkedIn feed continually glowing with various requests and whatnot.

So, um, I don't listen.

I'm not complaining as such.

I think it's just important to give people a.

a feel for, in the same way that I work with individuals who they've

been in a CFO role and they're now available and looking for work.

And you often have to ask them to step back to, okay when you were in your CFO

role, how many approaches from recruiters were you getting on a daily basis?

Probably three, four, five different,

Yes.

Individual approaches, and you might look at all of them and think

they all look incredibly credible, really sensible people, but I simply can't sit

here all afternoon calling them all back.

I totally get that.

And I remember that from my previous life.

So going forward, practically, how would you recommend, give me, I don't

know, two, three, four recommendations.

How would you recommend professionals go about creating fruitful, relationships

with executive search firms.

The starting principle for me is probably less

is more and that might sound.

The recruitment industry is incredibly fragmented these days, and I think

it's easy to think, okay, I've, I have a list of 50, so I will

contact all 50 of those recruiters.

My advice would be start to filter down that list.

Look at their website.

Look at their bio.

Are they genuinely an expert in that field.

Do they have tenure?

Do they have a track record?

What are they posting?

What kind of opportunities are they putting out there?

And if you can narrow that down to a more manageable list of people to

contact, that's where I would suggest being proactive, a more tailored.

Introduction, something that's going to catch the eye of a recruiter,

because effectively it can sound a bit trite, but you are in a marketplace

and you essentially become a human capital product and you need to

catch the eye of that buyer of that recruiter and get them to engage.

So I would look for credibility.

I would look for track record.

I would keep it to say five, six, seven individuals to try and

invest time in to get to know.

then more reactively, if you're seeing an interesting advert pop up from

someone that you don't really know, but the advert looks really appealing, then

absolutely apply, attempt to engage.

But as I was saying earlier, in terms of kind of volume and a number

of applicants, try not to take it to heart and to take it personally

if people aren't engaging with you.

It genuinely is nothing personal.

I think all good recruiters are fundamentally, good people trying to

do a decent job and do right by people.

And it's tricky.

It's difficult.

We don't always get it right.

Oh, totally.

Totally.

So one final question for you.

What does joy at work mean for you personally?

It probably means different things on different days of the week.

Yeah, look, I think Lucy, we know each other.

I thrive on being in an environment where there is a genuine feeling

of you're part of a team.

You are working towards something.

Yes, you're getting rewarded for doing good work.

But I like to be challenged intellectually.

I do being kept on my toes.

I think I've really enjoyed recruitment because it's very

difficult just to stand still.

You're always moving.

So I guess for me, it's that feeling of being part of

something where you're having fun.

We're not saving lives as such, but you are adding value.

You genuinely helping people at times to get from that A to B and they

can go on to have amazing careers.

So I think it's that sense of, I enjoy what I do.

I, I get credit for that.

I, I thrive on being told that I'm doing a good job.

I think that's very important, but you've got to not take yourself too

seriously and have a bit of fun as well.

. Lucia Knight: If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my

Life Satisfaction Assessment.

It's a 30 minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas

of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you time.

I call it D.

It's a fabulous place to begin a joy at work redesign.