Page 214 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Manage Your Career and Don’t Let Others Do It • 195

strategic thinking and lots of business and industry exposure, and then
return to an industry with a major international business.
It also helps in your profile if you were accepted into a good school,
got great academic grades, earned an MBA, had internships at Fortune
500 companies, speak two languages, traveled widely, had parents who
were both executives at Fortune 500 companies, and two of your siblings
work at big companies.
In addition, it also helps in your profile if you are a proven performer
and had multiple assignments in more than one function, line of busi-
ness, and geographic area. And you’ve worked in other companies, had
international experience, make a positive impression, are well known by
senior management, are willing to move anywhere, and are poised for
more. Then your potential is pretty high to be recruited by a search firm.
They do not try to find you a job (they are not your friend, only
professionally friendly); they try to find the ideal candidate for their
paying client. If they think you might have the exact requirements for the
position or know someone who does, they will contact you. They almost
always know of you before you know they are looking at you. They solve
their needs, not yours, on their timetable. So don’t think keeping them
on speed dial will get you into a new role.
There are good ones and not-so-good ones, as in any profession.
We see the good candidates before they even know they’re being
watched.

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We sometimes initiate a silent search where no calls are made, but a
year in advance we’ve started working with a search firm.

Make sure that your assistant doesn’t screen their calls. Instead, have
him or her convey a helpful attitude and put them through to your voice
mail—as he or she would for your mentor, boss, or subordinate. Be a
source of ideas, contacts, and introductions when they call or when you
meet someone that might be of interest to them. Don’t plan on contact-
ing them only when you’re looking for a job. First, it’s not their role to find
you a job. Second, they want to hear about you from others, not you.