Headhunters (or just hunters) are engaged in search and luring of top managers and senior executives. They can find any valuable specialist, to persuade him/her to go away from a rival’s company and close the position.

The profession is no less complex and demanding than other professions of this sphere «HR-specialists, recruiters, etc." After all, headhunters should know perfectly well not only the theory of their work, but also be a great practitioner.

The specifics of the profession

Unlike recruiters choosing a suitable candidate from a large number of applicants, headhunters are looking for people who are not interested in changing work, earn well and are quite successful. Such specialists can be attracted by conventional methods. And hunters have to show the wonders of tricks, using almost a spy working methods.

Education and skills

Any university diploma can become a personal start-up capital for a headhunter. The specifics of education (humanitarian or technical), most likely, will affect what customers have to deal with. Time management skills and knowledge of foreign languages must be accompanied by default.

Age: it does not matter, but for high-level positions it’s preferably 30+.

Myths

Some people see spies in headhunters. Communicating with candidates and employers, they get information useful for competitors. First of all, it is important for IT-developments, high-tech businesses. Information leakage is fraught with professional death - word of mouth is working with frantic speed.

Place of work

Specialized headhunting company.

Responsibilities: make contacts with clients who are looking for employees; search for candidates.

Management Hierarchy: Director, Practice Leader, Consultant, researcher.

Work schedule

The wider geographical field of headhunter’s activity, the more reliable it is to forget about the normalized working day. If you're a pro with international coverage, and entice in New York experts from Berlin or London, negotiations and participations in online conferences at night are a common occurrence.

Personal qualities

1. stress resistance
2. convincing speech
3. self-confidence

Career and Salary

There are just two basic steps of career: a consultant and partner. The further career growth is not measured by job title and experience and the level of wages.

Earnings of a headhunter consist of salary (it’s rather high) and the percent of the annual revenue of the found candidate.

About the author: Ann Aldrich is a freelance writer at essay-service.biz and recruiter. Her personal interests include visiting horse racing, playing bowling and reading about technologies.