Mastering the Executive Job Market: Strategies, Networking & Profile Optimization
Colin shares key strategies for navigating the executive job market with Bobby Gormson, Partner at True Search and a seasoned executive recruiter with over 20 years in search firms and leading internal talent teams - including Etsy through their IPO and Frame.io through their Adobe acquisition.
Scroll below for Key Takeaways, Slides, and Examples!
⭐️ My Maven bootcamp on the executive job search starts next week!
The session with Bobby covers:
The importance of reputation and networking
Crafting effective outreach messages
Interactively crafting your “Executive Blurb”
Creating compelling LinkedIn profiles
Leveraging your networks
Connecting with decision-makers
Differentiating between contingent and retained search firms
The episode emphasizes strategic job search techniques, utilizing both warm and cold outreach, and refining profiles to attract recruiters, with interactive elements and Q&A sessions to address common challenges.
00:00 Introduction and Session Overview
00:29 Meet Bobby Gormson: Executive Recruiter Extraordinaire
03:34 Interactive Q&A and Audience Engagement
04:03 Agenda and Icebreaker Activities
07:17 Real-Life Job Search Success Stories
11:34 The Importance of Reputation in Executive Search
16:48 Crafting Your Executive Blurb
35:29 Leveraging Your Network for Job Search Success
36:27 Crafting Genuine Outreach
37:47 Leveraging Peer Networks
40:58 Understanding Executive Search Firms
43:47 Contingent vs. Retained Search Firms
45:20 Effective Networking Strategies
46:14 Q&A Session: Best Practices and Tips
53:19 Final Thoughts and Program Preview
Key Takeaways:
1. Your reputation matters more than you think
Bobby revealed that every interaction with an executive recruiter is carefully tracked and documented in their systems:
"Every interaction that you have with an executive recruiter is tracked, okay? It's tracked within their system. All firms take notes, whether it's an associate, a principal, a partner. We all take notes and these notes are going to live with your profile within the system."
Colin added:
"Even if you're unresponsive, if you never even answer the message in the first place, that also comes up."
Action items:
Utilize time with recruiters effectively
Highlight quantifiable results and achievements
Be professional and responsive in all interactions
2. Understand the difference between retained and contingent search firms
Bobby emphasized the importance of knowing which type of firm you're dealing with:
"There's two different kinds of search firms. And this is big. There's contingent and there's retained. And they work a bit differently on how they find and present candidates. All search firms are not created equal."
Key differences:
Retained firms (e.g., True Search, Riviera Partners): Paid upfront, relationship-driven approach
Contingent firms: Only paid if they place a candidate, more transactional process
3. Craft a compelling "executive blurb"
Having a concise, achievement-focused summary of your experience is crucial.
Example blurb:
"Senior director of product with 12+ years experience in B2B SaaS. Led LLM powered products at Twilio and Dropbox, managing teams of 30+ across US and EMEA, with GM style experience scaling from 1 million to 50 million ARR."
Bobby advised including:
Your archetype as a product leader (e.g. technical, design-focused, business-oriented)
Quantifiable results and revenue/growth numbers
Specific transformations you've driven
"Any anecdote, any numbers, any quantifiable achievements that I can actually take in and then regurgitate to my client is going to be super helpful."
Colin added an important insight:
"If you use very subjective language or things that could be said about pretty much any product leader... So even if it is true for you, if it's also true for the next three people, then it's not useful."
4. Leverage your network strategically
Rather than cold outreach to every recruiter, focus on building warm connections through your network.
Bobby shared:
"I get a lot of warm outreaches from candidates that I have engaged with over the last 5, 10 years...If you're going to put your stamp of approval on this person, I've already built a relationship with you. I'm going to listen to you and feel free to intro."
Colin provided a surprising tip:
"This is a really good hack. If you're, you have a very dry network, and you don't know any executives who have talked to recruiters for some reason, or you're just in a very niche market, and so your network isn't relevant, I like to find people who are peer title peers to me."
Networking tips:
Reconnect with former colleagues now at target companies
Engage with industry peers at events or online
Offer to help others before asking for favors
5. Persistence pays off in outreach
If you don't hear back from a recruiter initially, don't give up. Bobby advised:
"3 is probably my magic number. And it's pretty much spot on, with that 3rd outreach, people, executives are busy, recruiters are incredibly busy...I would say 3 outreaches...Nobody's going to get annoyed by your outreach. If anything, I really appreciate persistence."
Outreach best practices:
Keep messages concise and tailored
Reference specific roles or areas of expertise
Follow up politely after a week or two
Less “credentialed” profile:
6. Optimize your LinkedIn presence
Bobby confirmed that recruiters heavily rely on LinkedIn and its algorithm.
LinkedIn optimization tips:
Turn on "Open to Work" for recruiters only (not publicly visible)
Regularly update your profile
Engage with industry content and post thought leadership
Colin shared a surprising hack:
"If you turn off and on the LinkedIn Open To, does it actually send the pings again? I've heard from executive recruiters that this does work. I've noticed I did this with candidates cause I found out accidentally I told someone to turn it off and on. And the next day he got seven recruiter inbound." “Yes!”
The Hidden Job Market is Real
Perhaps most importantly, Bobby confirmed that for senior executive roles, much of the market is indeed hidden:
"Things have to be confidential at the top level. and honestly, the hiring managers only want to see five to ten candidates."
Colin emphasized the importance of networking:
"What they should do is about 75 percent networking. And that includes some semi cooled outreach, but Outreach with some warm connection, right? Actively going and finding connections into things. And what they actually do is about 10 percent that, and a lot of cold applying, cold DMing people with templates, that type of thing. And it's just completely backwards at this point in your career."
FAQ from the Audience
Q: How do we find out what reputation we may already have in the system?
Bobby: "If you build a relationship with the recruiter, you can just ask them. Hey, what's the word internally here at true or Riviera? How is my profile, internally there, is there anything I can do to bolster my profile with you all?"
Q: If you reach out to a recruiter and don't get a response, should you follow up? How many times should you try before giving up?
Bobby: "I would say 3 outreaches... Nobody's going to get annoyed by your outreach. If anything, I really appreciate persistence."
Q: What do you recommend for someone that doesn't have big brands on their resume?
Bobby: "Even if you don't have the brand names, there are other ways to bolster that, whether it's articles, blog posts, interviews, share ideas, thought leadership ideas, post on LinkedIn. And of course the videos that I just mentioned of, if you're a speaker at a conference or leading a small event."
Q: Should you always focus on the bigger ARR numbers in your blurb?
Bobby: "I think there's a different inflection point, 0 to 40, and I have a role that we're working on now from, it's a CTO role, that this company's at 40 million ARR. And they're looking for someone to take them from 40 to 100. And the person that is in the seat now took them from 0 to 40. And it's a different profile."
Q: How would one represent ARR if work experience has been at Fortune 25 companies?
Bobby: "The number is going to be big. What was your impact? I would just say here is what I did to either cut costs or to scale revenue from 250,000,000 to 350,000,000. You had to do something really well."
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