When Supply Meets Demand: Executive Hiring in the Fast Lane

I good friend of mine - we’ll call him John - has been less than satisfied with his current position as the national sales manager for a household-name hardware company. He took the position about a year ago in an effort to lighten his travel schedule to spend more time with his family and establish more of a long-term presence on the East coast. John has been working in sales management on a national level for roughly 10 years and was able to grow within a company that eventually purchased his current employer. He moved to his current position as much out of convenience as anything else, but he’s always been a go-getter and has taken on new roles and responsibilities that were never part of the initial job description. The point is that he is definitely a talent in his field and his passion for his work is undeniable, even if his like of his position is wavering.

Because he’s not entirely happy and he knows that he brings some legitimate credentials to the table, John started floating his resume around to a few companies and was surprised to get a call very quickly from another well-known maker of a globally-recognized product. The new potential employer is in a different industry, but there are some similarities and the open position is that of the head of their consumer products division. This represented a fairly large leap in terms of responsibility and salary from his previous positions. He was also openly surprised (as was I) when he received a call from HR to schedule a phone interview after he had submitted his resume through their web site. The phone interview lasted about an hour and a face-to-face interview was scheduled with the president and other executives at their U.S. headquarters for approximately one week later.

Even at this point, John was not really expecting too much out of the interview. First, he hadn’t been on a formal interview in over 10 years. He also found it hard to believe that he would be a front-running candidate for the open position, considering there would be a significant learning curve involved. But he attended the interview at approximately 8AM on a Friday morning and spent about 2 hours meeting and interviewing with the top brass of the company. At 4PM that same Friday afternoon, he got a call saying that he was being offered the position and that the formal offer and related documentation were being shipped to his home immediately.

This definitely caught him off guard and now John is trying to figure out if the position is something that he wants to commit to. He has another child on the way and the new position would require yet another re-location. The potential employer wants him on board right away and, of course, his current employer has no idea that he has even been looking at other options. It may simply turn into a case where the new offer gets played against his current situation and the current employer is able to persuade him to stay. Or he could be off to a new and exciting position with an entirely new company.

Tough to say, but what I found interesting about the process is just how fast it can move when a legitimate candidate applies for an open position within a company. This is clearly a high-level position, but the entire process was about as simple as it could be. John shopped around for open positions online. He found one and submitted his resume. HR reviewed his resume, liked it, and called to set up an initial interview. Phone interview went to face-to-face interview, then the offer was made. With all of the nightmare scenarios with job boards, recruiters, HR people, interview disasters, etc., it’s refreshing to hear about a process that went this smoothly. Of course, an eager and reputable potential employer may be left with nothing if John decides to stay put. So I guess there are two sides to every story.

Tags: executive hiring, executive job search, filling open positions, hiring process, recruiting, sales jobs

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