There
are a number of fee-based executive job hunting sites for $100,000+
executives: The
Ladders, Execunet, RiteSite, BlueSteps and
Netshare.
Each has its advantages. All will charge you a
monthly
or annual fee. Many retained search firms (mine included) never use
paid advertising or pay to view resumes on free-for-job-hunters boards
such as Monster or 6FigureJobs. However, since all of these
sites
other than ExecuNet and Blue Steps allow retained search firms to post
positions for free, you’ll see positions advertised on these sites that
can be seen nowhere else. In addition, two of these sites
(RiteSite and BlueSteps) allow recruiters to view their
database of candidate resumes for free. If you're actively
looking, sign up for one or two of these fee-based services (I would recommend RiteSite and ExecuNet), in
addition to the free, 6figurejobs.com.
6FigureJobs.com. This
one is
different from the others listed below, because membership is free for
job
hunters. All jobs listed pay $100,000 or more. They have
fewer jobs listed than the fee-based sites, but it goes without saying
that you should register here, because the price is right.
Click here to go to FigureJobs.com.
RiteSite
is a site
created and owned by John Lucht, the author of Rites
of Passage at
$100,000.
Retained recruiters are permitted to search your resume for
free; other employers and recruiters are allowed to view an
identity-concealed resume
of you for free, and email you if they're interested.
Recruiters
and employers can
list
positions for free. Membership costs $94 per year.
It is
still small – only 10,000 members, and gets less activity
than does ExecuNet and The Ladders (but more than
NetShare). In addition to being the only $100K+
site
that still allows recruiters and employers to have full free usage, the
site does have two other significant
advantages:
Retained
Search Firm List/Email Service: RiteSite
has a list of Rites
Honored Recruiters
who
do
100% retained search. John Lucht claims, and perhaps
correctly,
that this list contains nearly all of the true retained firms. Some of
the firms on the Kennedy Information list (operators of Executive
Agent) do some contingency search as well as retained search, or
consider themselves retained if they take a $4,000 retainer to start
the search and get the balance of their fee on contingency.
These
firms are not on the Rites
Honored
list. Members can download this list
of
600 firms, and have their resume emailed to these firms, as part of the
membership package. This list is probably more accurate than
the
Kennedy Information list. Also, when you email through their
list, they automatically decide whether to send your resume as
an
attachment when emailing some firms and send your resume opened up
and placed in the body of the email when emailing to
others.
This may seem trivial, but some firms will not open
email
attachments for fear of viruses, while others prefer resumes to be
attached.
Reconnaissance
feature:
RiteSite scours all of the free job boards, including
Monster
and CareerBuilder, but also Craig’s List, major newspaper job boards
and obscure specialty boards for executive jobs (with each job reviewed
by a human being to ensure that it is a true
executive
jobs), and post them on the
site. These can also be emailed to you, if you set up an
agent
with keywords. In sum, they list about 10,000 jobs, and all
are
true $100K+ jobs. Click here to go to RiteSite.
Netshare
allows recruiters and companies to post jobs at no charge, but charges
them to view your resume. A good portion of the jobs
advertised
are higher-end and more senior than those at The Ladders. Cost
is
$40/month, or $360 per year.
ExecuNet
provides excellent
networking opportunities for executives - they probably provide the
best networking of any of the executive sites. The positions advertised
are more senior than those on The Ladders - they have more $200,000+
positions. However, recruiters and
companies are charged to place ads here, so there are fewer ads. Job
hunters do tell me that ExecuNet has real
jobs
- the best positions do seem to wind up here, and recruiters tell me
that they get the best candidates of any $100,000 site from here. Cost
is $39/month or $399/year.
The
Ladders
charges
$30 a month ($180/year), allows employers and recruiters to view your
resume, and allows you
to view 6-figure+ ads. Until 2008, recruiters and employers were
allowed to use The Ladders for free. Now, however, recruiters and employers have to pay a significant
fee to
use it. Positions
listed here tend to be
lower
end than those on Netshare, Execunet or RiteSite. The Ladders
reports that they have 1.6-million members
(although non-paying members who get very limited services are included
in this number), and reported that they had 35,000 jobs
listed as of early 2008. We don't have a current count, but assume that
it is siginificantly less than that now, considering that they now
charge to post ads, and that the economy is now in disarray.
BlueSteps
makes your resume available to members of the Association of Executive
Search Consultants (AESC). The AESC is made up of 270
retained
firms worldwide, and most of the major firms are members. For
a
$219 membership, you can keep your resume on the site for
life.
For an additional $60, you can download from their member list, which
lists individual consultants and their specialties. The site
has
40,000 members, who have an average salary of $230,000. If
your
income is under $200,000, this is probably not for you. If
you
use this service, you'll be missing many of the retained firms, as many
are not members, particularly the smaller firms. However,
member
firms may turn here first to view candidate resumes, and these firms
tend to be working on the more senior positions.
Bear
in mind that the vast majority of positions filled by retained search
firms are not filled from either ads placed on these executive
job-hunting sites or from resumes found on these executive job-hunting
sites (or any site). Most retained searches are filled by a
combination of networking, cold contacts to candidates working in the
client’s industry, and a review of the firm's internal database of
candidates.
