Executive Search: Explore the Lucky Hunter Service

We at Lucky Hunter currently offer four services: IT staff recruitment, Executive search, IT market research and analytics and Relocation assistance.

Today, let's delve into Executive Search service, exploring its distinctive features, advantages, and benefits.

What is Executive Search?

Executive search is a service dedicated to identifying and recruiting exceptional and rare IT professionals. While the IT industry is commonly linked with headhunting, which involves recruiting professionals from one company to another, there are instances where businesses engage in more than just this practice.

Executive search differs from regular tech staff hiring in the following ways:

1. Limited pool of candidates and specialists who work for specific companies.

When offering traditional IT staff recruitment services, we can rely on a broad candidate pool, align salary expectations with market standards, and expect candidates to have a somewhat universal technology stack.

Executive search revolves around professionals with exceptional skills, extensive and remarkable experience, and, of course, salaries that surpass market standards.

These circumstances limit the pool of candidates, making tech candidates stand out in the market. Recruiters who can successfully attract such specialists demonstrate true expertise in their field.

2. Rare or high-level position in the market

In the tech industry, a unique combination of specialised skills, proficiency in an "exotic" programming language, and exceptional experience can render a position rare in the market.

For instance, once we located a Senior C++ developer for a startup. This position fell under the Executive search category because the developer also needed expertise in Node.js, a skill combination considered rare in the IT market.

The rarity of a position can stem from the nature of the role itself. For instance, just a month ago, we successfully filled a vacancy for the position of DevOps Evangelist. It is an exceptionally rare profession in the IT market, prompting us to search for specialists worldwide. In the end, we found a qualified specialist from Portugal who successfully joined our client's company.

Additional "Executive" positions that Lucky Hunter has successfully filled include CTO, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, Head of Product, VP of ML, Game Producers, and Analysts.

3. Unique recruiting methods

To hit the target and find the right candidate, in Executive search, we use not only classical recruiting methods but also:

always conduct market research based on the position we need to fill (sometimes, we create a list of specific names);
analyse the companies at which such specialists work;
identify the salary ranges such specialists get;
search for specialists from all over the world, expanding the boundaries of the market;
use non-traditional recruiting channels to find tech talents;
use unique techniques to motivate specialists.

4. Search duration

In the majority of cases, filling a vacancy for specialists with a standard skill set takes about a month or two, depending on the task's complexity. However, when searching for rare, unique specialists in the market, the selection process may extend beyond this timeframe.

This is due to the specialised preparation for the search, a restricted pool of specialists suitable for the profile, and the utilisation of additional recruiting channels and markets.

5. Expertise

Executive search is a service that only top-class specialists can offer. With a successful track record of providing Executive search services for over five years, Lucky Hunter has demonstrated our exceptional expertise and profound knowledge of the global IT market.

The filling of vacancies requiring the Executive Search method is exclusively handled by the company's professional IT recruiters.

6. Service cost

Given the specific nature and complexity of the service, the cost of filling a vacancy is higher, amounting to at least 25% of the employee's annual income. Depending on the uniqueness and profile of the position, the service cost may extend to 30%.

The executive search typically features an agile hiring approach that involves headhunting in 100% of cases and maintains confidentiality. At Lucky Hunter, we do not emphasise these conditions separately, as they are inherent factors in traditional tech recruiting within the IT field.

Benefits of Executive Search

The selection of IT specialists using the Executive Search method has plenty of advantages:

1

We conduct market research tailored to the position we aim to fill, including compiling a list of specific names in some cases.
2

You will find the perfect specialist for a position that was challenging to fill using traditional recruitment methods.
3

Partnering with Lucky Hunter ensures the hiring of top-level specialists.

When to use Executive Search?

Executive search is a relatively uncommon service. While every search for an IT specialist is unique and complex, not every position falls into the Executive Search category.

The key metrics for categorising a position as "Executive" typically include:

A rarity in the market;
Occupied by top management, such as C-suite or VP roles;
The specific combination of candidate skills.

These criteria will assist in identifying whether your vacancy qualifies for the Executive Search category.

Nevertheless, the optimal solution is to reach out to Lucky Hunter: we can provide recommendations for your position, assist in shaping the candidate profile, and, of course, find the ideal specialist for you!