Clockwork Recruiting Blog

Consulting is the cornerstone of the executive search process. 

As the founder of an executive search software company, one question I often get asked is, “Will advancing tech, like AI, eventually replace executive recruiters?”

As an executive recruiter, one of the key components of your job is to consistently keep your search project moving forward. That’s a multifaceted responsibility, and too often a recruiter will make one mistake in particular that can significantly slow their search project: not scheduling the interviews between the candidates and the client themselves.

It’s common practice in executive search for recruiters to send out “success emails” following the placement of a candidate. The purpose of these emails is simple: to alert colleagues, past clients, and also potential clients that you or your firm just completed a search. It’s a PR announcement that doubles, in this sense, as a marketing mechanism. It’s a smart practice.

The problem that many recruiters run into, however, is that they blindly send these emails out to all of the contacts in their network—even if the placement they’re announcing isn’t relevant to that particular contact.

There is more to executive recruiting than quickly finding and placing quality candidates. Yes, finding the right candidate is a key aspect of search, but as an executive recruiter, a huge part of your role is partnering with clients in a consultative capacity.

I’ve worked in the search industry for most of my career. Over the years—first as a recruiter and later as the founder and CEO of a recruitment software company—I’ve developed a deep understanding of how this industry operates. Probably the most important lesson I’ve learned is how successful executive search firms operate.