A History Of The Rise Of Executive Recruitment

Recently updated on October 25th, 2022 at 11:00 am

Employment agencies are either a fairly new industry or the rejuvenation of a very old one. Let us take a look at the history of recruitment in general, and the rise of executive recruitment in particular. And once you are ready to reach out, the recruiters at executive recruitment agency Eagle Headhunters will guide you through their processes. 

Apprenticeship by Another Name 

In times gone by, young people in need of employment would attend markets in the hope of finding an apprenticeship. They would live in their master’s household, learning their trade and practicing their skills for a set period of time. After they had learned all they could, they were often indentured for a further period, during which time their master could profit from their newly achieved skills.

But executive-level recruitment is a very new aspect of the industry. In former times – not quite as distant as market apprenticeships, but certainly as far back as the aftermath of the Second World War, executives gained their lofty status by working their way up in the business – or even by starting the company themselves. 

What is Executive Recruitment? 

The practice of bringing in new personnel at high levels in the company (the C-Suite) is a relatively new one, as mentioned above, but it is now a $12 billion per year subset within the larger recruitment industry. The thinking is generally that someone who can lead a successful company in one industry will be able to carry over desirable transferrable skills to a completely different industry. 

Changes in Executive Recruitment 

But even this is changing constantly. In the very early days of executive recruitment, you just needed to be clever and able, in order to be given a shot at running a business that could be entirely alien to anything you had known before.

Today you must be both clever and able still, but you must also arrive with a deep understanding of the industry into which you are moving. You must demonstrate an understanding of how it works and – most importantly – how it makes profits 

More Diversity 

The days of the C-Suite being entirely straight, white, male, and (usually) over fifty are fading, slowly but surely into a much more diverse image, one more reflective of society as a whole. This is nothing but good, despite the arguments of conservative pundits who think that diverse hires must be of inferior stock to more traditional ones – in fact, diverse hires tend to have worked harder to gain qualifications and skills than others in the field, especially those relying on family 

connections or money to make up for deficits in intellect or achievement – and businesses with a robust diversity hiring policy tend to do better, overall, than those businesses who cling to the old ways for no other reason than ‘it’s the way it’s always been done.’ 

Rolodex Days Are Gone 

And finally, the way headhunters work has changed dramatically from the old Rolodex days of the 50s and 60s. Instead of having a base of perhaps one hundred candidates, modern headhunters balance books of thousands of candidates, using sophisticated databases to keep track of their candidates and their clients, using their own remarkable and carefully honed skills to ensure that the right executive is presented for the position.