A Senior Executive Candidate Journey

Here is an example of what I am increasingly seeing in the executive candidate market:

A senior executive had been highly recommended to me by a long-term client whose professional opinion I value. The candidate had been made redundant from a major T1 publicly listed company after 5 years of great service.

I was very happy to meet with the candidate. We always value top talent, and especially when it’s clear they have high EQ, a great career record and are very experienced in their field of expertise. This individual is a senior executive in a high-salary range. I kept the candidate in my ‘A’ team of available on-market talent.

I reached out from time to time to check in: how are you, how is the family, anything on the horizon? As time passed, it became apparent to me that it had become a very lonely and frustrating experience for them. This is when people start to doubt themselves. What’s wrong with me?

This is when resilience is important for someone who is on the job market. By the nature of executive search, there can be an opaqueness to the process by search firms, often involving a lack of candidate follow-ups, and treating people like a transaction, which can be demoralising and often unprofessional.

This individual applied for 80+ positions across many industry sectors, with many that 100% aligned with their experience and qualifications, yet they were being knocked back time and time again. In many instances, there was not even an acknowledgement of an application, which suggests a flawed screening process. A lot of this is AI-driven. No calls, sometimes a ‘no thanks’, mostly nothing. This suggests, in many instances, no human interaction.

A couple of face-to-face interviews did eventuate through the process for this individual. In one case, after 5 interviews with a range of different managers, they were told, ‘you’re the top candidate’, and suddenly a decision is made: ‘we’ve decided to go in a different direction.’

Unfortunately, there are no winners in this type of transactional recruitment process. An organisation can suffer perceived brand damage and potentially miss out on outstanding talent, which, especially in a tight market, can be a costly exercise.

It doesn’t have to be like this. We are all busy and under pressure, but it’s the little things that we can do to make a difference; to make it a respectful candidate experience where they don’t feel invisible and demoralised. We’ve all been there.

Unfortunately, with the involvement of AI often in the process now, I feel this is only going to become more prevalent. We must be mindful. AI absolutely has a place in the talent market, removing the menial tasks, some screening and some HR administration. However, it should never replace the human relationships that are vital for a business to succeed. To qualify a candidate’s culture fit, energy, kindness, honesty, emotional intelligence, motivations and drivers.

I believe ALL business is about great relationships, no matter what product or service you’re selling, and AI is not that! Yet…..

PS. There is a happy ending. The candidate was placed with a fantastic T1 company and, as a result, was internally promoted in the first 12 months.

Rebecca Laurence Laurence Executive Search