Curious About Headhunting? Share Your Best Strategies and Insights Here

Hi friends,

Can you please share with me the different ways of headhunting? I am very eager to know. Please reply.

Thank you.

Dear Sari!

What is Head Hunting all about? I have a slightly different opinion about Head Hunting. I believe Head Hunting is a process of recruitment where you want to reach or contact a specific person in a company for a particular designation, and you do not have direct contact with them. I consider it an art that HR professionals possess.

For example, if you want to hire a Project Manager from a specific IT company but do not have their contact details, and you have the contact details of one of their team members, you would first contact that team member to try to get the Project Manager's contact details. This is why I consider it an art.

Hi Prashant,

True, I accept your comment. I was trying to make him understand ways of headhunting (usual & innovative).

Headhunting in recruitment is a very unique approach to tracing an individual based on the skeletal coordinates available with you at that time. To be a good headhunter, essential prerequisites are convincing skills, persuasion, ability to think beyond, and good engagement skills. In fact, search firms are adept at headhunting. It all boils down to passion. I believe if one has a passion for recruitment, headhunting skills will be honed with time.

Thanks a lot, Sari, Prashant, and Ryan, for the prompt reply. Others, please share your views and suggestions on other innovative ways of doing it.

Sari, Prashant, and Ryan, being seniors, I think you can share more about headhunting and how to crack it. For example, if I want to poach a consultant or manager in recruitment from an executive search firm or placement firm, how should I go about it? One way is by calling the board number. What should I ask next?

I could understand that you want to poach a Manager from a consulting firm. In that case, you may call the board line asking for the manager (you need not say his name) and say that this is for business. Try talking as a new client. While conversing, you may gather all his details, including his personal number, and attempt to poach him. You need a lot of tact while poaching senior members.

Headhunting is usually done for niche kinds of requirements and for senior candidates whose profiles are not available on portals.

Hi Eliz,

Hope you are doing well in your job. I am in the same situation as yours at the start of the year. I would be very thankful if you could let me know about your experience and the way you started. This information would be of great help and inspiration for me.

Thanks a lot.