What to do when a headhunter calls
Six minutes that decide more than you think.
The call usually comes at a bad moment. You are between meetings, the number is unfamiliar, and somebody you have never spoken to is describing a role in deliberately vague terms.
Most people handle this badly, and they handle it badly in a predictable direction. They are too available, too quickly.
What the consultant already knows
Before dialling, a competent consultant has your current title and scope, a rough sense of your tenure, the shape of your last two moves, and at least one opinion about you from somebody in their network. They know what the client will pay. They usually know whether an internal candidate exists.
What they do not know is the thing the call is for. Whether you can articulate what you are actually for, and whether you would be a risk to put in front of a client.
The best time to build a search network is when you do not need one.
What the call is really testing
Three things, and none of them is your CV.
Whether you have judgement about your own career
Somebody who can say in two sentences what they fix, and for whom, is easy to represent. Somebody who lists everything they have ever done is difficult to place, because the consultant has to do the positioning work themselves.
Whether you are discreet
How you speak about your current employer on a cold call tells the consultant exactly how you will speak about them later. Anybody who is candid about internal politics with a stranger is a liability in front of a client.
Whether you are realistic
Realistic on level, on money and on the timing. A candidate whose expectations sit two rungs above their record wastes the consultant's credibility, and they will not spend it twice.
The questions that qualify the mandate
You are entitled to ask these, and asking them raises you in the consultant's estimation rather than lowering you. A serious candidate qualifies the opportunity.
Who does the role report to, and is that person in post?
A vacancy reporting to a vacancy is not ready.
Is this a retained mandate or a contingent search?
Retained means the client has paid to have the work done and is committed. Contingent means the consultant gets paid only on placement, which changes the dynamics considerably.
Why is the role open?
Growth, an exit or a dismissal, and each of those carries a different risk profile for whoever takes the seat.
Is there an internal candidate?
Ask that one directly. A straight answer tells you a lot, and evasion tells you more.
Where is the process, and when does the appointment need to be made?
A live mandate has dates. A benchmark exercise has process language.
Those last two matter most. One analysis of United States LinkedIn listings in 2025 found ghost-job characteristics in 27.4% of them, and benchmark processes sit in a part of the market that figure never captures. Somebody has to be the comparison candidate who makes an internal appointment defensible, and there is no reason for it to be you.
What never to say
- Your current package, at least in the first conversation. Once a number is in the room it becomes the anchor for everything that follows, and it will be used to price you rather than to price the role. The honest and effective answer is that you would want to understand the scope before discussing figures, and that you would expect the role to be benchmarked on its own terms.
- Anything unguarded about your employer. It costs you more than it costs them.
- That you are actively looking, if you are not. Availability lowers your price. Interest in a specific, well-qualified opportunity does not.
When the timing is wrong
Say so plainly, and keep the relationship. The phrasing that works is that the timing does not suit at the moment, that you would like to stay in touch, and that here is what would make you move.
That last clause is the valuable part. It gives the consultant a trigger to ring you on, and it converts a dead call into a live entry in their system. Say what you would move for. Scope, sector, geography, the specific problem you want next.
After the call
If it went anywhere, the consultant will ask for something to look at. Whatever you send then does its work in rooms you will never enter, forwarded to a client, discussed in a longlist meeting, read by people who have never met you.
Send it the same day, while the conversation is still fresh in their head. Two separate pieces on this site cover what that document needs to survive a committee reading, and why a two-page CV struggles at this altitude.
Mark Ross Roberts has spent thirty years in international executive search, and 30,000 hours at the table in board-level mergers and acquisitions. He is a Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst and a Commercial Banking and Credit Analyst with the Corporate Finance Institute. He has completed Executive Education at the Wharton School in Executive Presence and Leadership and in Neuroscience in Leadership, and holds a credential in Lifestyle and Wellness Coaching from Harvard Medical School.
Frequently asked questions
Should I take the call if I am happy where I am?
Take it every time. The information is free, the relationship compounds over years, and the best time to build a search network is when you do not need one.
They will not tell me the client. Is that normal?
Entirely normal early on, particularly where the incumbent has not been told. Push for the sector, the size, and the reporting line instead, since those tell you most of what you need.
How do I know if the consultant is any good?
Ask how many searches they have completed at this level in this sector in the last two years, and who the role reports to. Somebody who knows the client properly answers immediately.
Is it rude to ask about the fee structure?
No, and retained versus contingent is a fair question. It tells you how committed the client is.
They went quiet after two good conversations. What happened?
Usually the mandate moved, paused or was filled internally. There is a piece on this site covering the mechanics of that silence in full, and it is rarely about the candidate.
How do I follow up without looking desperate?
Once, after a fortnight, carrying something new rather than a request for an update. That might be a relevant result, or a change in your own position, or a question about where the sector is heading.