The 21 Best Reasons to Work with a Headhunter (Part 5)

Reasons 16-21 could be called “Free Advice”. An experienced headhunter who specializes in your industry or profession can be a great resource.

16. Your resume. You can pay a lot of money to have someone prepare your resume. I see a lot of those. Occasionally they are good, but mostly not. Your headhunter is a well of information when it comes to resume writing.

17. Compensation information. Whether you are a hiring authority or a candidate, a headhunter is one of your best sources of compensation information. For example, transportation/logistics industry compensation information is very general and not of much value. There is not enough consistency in job titles within and across segments and regions. A headhunter, or better yet a search firm with multiple headhunters who specialize in this industry, is an excellent source of compensation information.

18. Timing your next career move. If your headhunter is knowledgeable and honest (and why would you work with one who is not), they will tell you if it makes sense for you to consider making a job change. They will look at your work history and give you an honest assessment as to if and when you should consider making a move.

19. Hiring decisions. A headhunter who knows your industry, knows your competition and knows your company can help you when it comes down to making a hiring decision.
I have had clients call me and ask my thoughts about creating, upgrading, downgrading or filling key positions in their organization. I have had clients call me and ask what I know about a certain person they are considering for a position. I want to see my clients succeed and I will give them my best advice (for free). If it’s good for them, it’s good for me in the long run.

20. Firing decisions. I’ve had clients call me, frustrated over poor business results and ask about replacing someone in their organization. More than once, after talking through it with the client, they have concluded that other factors are driving the poor results and replacing this person is not the solution.

21. New Market decisions. If your headhunter specializes in an industry, you owe it to yourself to discuss these types of decisions with them. It’s amazing to me how often a client reads the latest “how to run your business better” book or article and decides it’s time for their company to blaze new trails. I’m not suggesting that you make your decision based on what the headhunter thinks. But I am suggesting that the headhunter can be a good source of information and one more base worth touching as you consider new business ventures.

So there you have it, The 21 Best Reasons to Work with a Headhunter. I considered pushing this final installment back a week in order to rant about LeBron James, but thought better of it. I will say that my “free advice” to King James would have been to stay in Cleveland. And I do think there is a lesson here for all of us. When you want one thing too much (i.e. an NBA Championship), check yourself. You may be on the doorstep of making a really bad decision that will last a lifetime.