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Your Experience as a Candidate

Find out how we aim to work with leaders like you and what you should expect from the process moving forward
By Jason Baumgarten and Katharine Ashforth Hurley
June 2023

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At a glance

  • In this guide to being a candidate at Spencer Stuart you will find a variety of explanatory insight and advice tailored to your needs as one of our candidates for a senior level role, either now or in the future.
  • Our personalized process means that no two opportunities will unfold in the exact same manner. However, it will include the following three parts: Learning About You, Communication and Coaching and Development.
  • Regardless of the outcome, we hope you will ultimately come to view this experience with us in a positive light and consider us a valuable partner and advisor invested in your future success.

Introduction

Whether this is your first time or tenth time working with Spencer Stuart, we want this to be a positive experience for you. By now, you have advanced past initial conversations about an opportunity and your career accomplishments, reflecting our positive view of your leadership strengths and potential fit with this opportunity. As this conversation gets more serious, we thought it would be helpful to let you know how we aim to work with leaders like you and what you should expect from the process moving forward.

Our purpose as a firm drives us to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships with leaders from around the world. As a result, we want to make sure that this experience provides you with actionable feedback and insights to help you improve as a leader and continue your upward trajectory.

Our Purpose

Discover and develop leadership for a better future.

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Though Spencer Stuart remains most widely known for board and executive search work, we have evolved considerably from the “traditional” recruiting business and now operate as a broader leadership advisory firm with a diverse range of human capital and consulting services. Said plainly, we are not here to “sell” you on this particular opportunity. Instead, we hope you will come to view this particular engagement as an important chapter in what becomes a long and rewarding relationship centered on our serving as a trusted advisor focused on helping you navigate the twists and turns that come with a long and successful career.

Finally, the majority of our candidates are not actively seeking a new job, and even those proactively “in the market” are often balancing a wide range of competing professional and/or personal demands. We value your engagement, will rely on your open and transparent partnership and thank you in advance for taking this journey with us.

The personalized process that Spencer Stuart offers means that no two opportunities will unfold in the exact same manner. That said, the foundation of your experience will include the following three parts: Learning About You, Communication and Coaching & Development.

Before you meet the client organization we represent, our team will make sure we have all of the information required from you to make the conversation most impactful.

  • We will confirm that we have your latest resume (this is critically important — see our Common Myths section at the end of this document).
  • We will ask you to sign a data consent form, allowing us to share your information with organizations we represent.
  • We will request that you provide information that allows us to validate your educational background (if you have worked with us recently this step might already be complete).
  • Because we believe that culture and leadership are inextricably linked, we will request that you complete a 20-minute online style assessment designed to help surface your orientation to navigating change and working with others. This is not a “test” that will be used to determine whether you advance as a candidate, as there are no right or wrong answers, so there is no value in trying to guess what you think you should answer based on the current opportunity you are exploring. Instead, the value of the assessment comes from the insights we can provide our client organization around what energizes you most as a leader and the personalized coaching and support we can offer to you based on the findings moving forward.

If you become one of 2–3 finalist candidates for a role, we will conduct more in-depth background screening and referencing, as we place a high priority on presenting you in the most accurate and comprehensive light as possible. Preserving strict confidentiality at this stage and throughout the entirety of the search is one of our guiding principles. We explain early on to the organizations that retain our services that it is best practice for us to manage the referencing process.

  • Maintaining open, timely and transparent communication with you is a critical priority for us. We know that exploring a new opportunity can elicit a broad range of emotions and spur a host of questions. As a result, we will proactively communicate relevant updates and insights.
  • One question you have likely already considered is how long this process might take. While we aim to provide you with a realistic sense of timing upfront, the human element at the center of a process like this one, which is centered on finding a good fit for multiple parties, makes exact timing hard to predict. That said, the process can take six months or more. We will do our best to keep you updated on timing, even if the latest we can share is that we are in a holding pattern.
  • As you near the final stages, the frequency of our communication can intensify to ensure you continue to remain confident with where things stand. We also play an active role in assisting with compensation negotiations and, because of the sensitive nature of these discussions, will remain in close touch to ensure you feel comfortable with how this stage of the process is unfolding.
  • It is important to us that we work together to shape your leadership story and that we put you in a position to succeed. Before you meet the client we represent, we will share any insights we have gleaned from the process that will allow you to amplify the most unique elements of your story.
  • After your meeting(s), we will connect with you to get your impression of the conversation(s). We will respect your investment in the process by letting you know where you stand against the other finalist candidates whenever we can.
  • Should the process end without you taking on a new role, we will provide straightforward feedback when possible and work with you to address any potential areas for development.
  • If you are the candidate of choice, then we are happy to discuss any feedback that may be relevant for your onboarding process.

Though it is our responsibility to manage the core elements of the search process, we do ask for your help along the way. It is in your best interest to get ahead of any question marks that could surface (i.e., background, education, references) by providing us with as much context as you can when filling us in on your leadership journey.

Throughout this experience, we ask that you keep us informed on any relevant updates that could impact your standing in this process. We know that your interest or availability could change based on job changes, personal events, openness to relocation or a variety of other factors. That said, surprises in any of these areas during a search tend to negatively impact the experience for all stakeholders.

If you find yourself feeling “in the dark” at any point, please let us know. Please don’t hesitate to ask us for a check in on where your candidacy is. If you do not hear from us, it is usually because we do not have anything meaningful to share, but we respect that your candidacy is likely front of mind and want to avoid your feeling detached from the process. While we do need to respect the wishes of our client and the confidentiality of others involved with each process, we will certainly share what we are able to share, and will make ourselves available to you for questions, general guidance or suggestions along the way. It is not uncommon for candidates to share other opportunities they are considering and to use us as a sounding board for thinking through the opportunities and risks, be those options internal or external to your current organization.

An executive search process requires a considerable amount of time and personal investment and is not without emotional highs and lows. Regardless of the outcome, we hope you will ultimately come to view this experience with us in a positive light and consider us a valuable partner and advisor invested in your future success. Our getting to know you better as a part of this process will enable us to be most helpful at your pivotal career moments — as they unfold now or in the future.

The myths listed below are the ones we see most often from people we speak to during a search. Though they are not necessarily widespread, these myths can quickly derail a process. Luckily, following a few basic best practices and behaviors can help ensure you avoid any of the associated pitfalls.

Myth Reality
1 1. As a senior executive, I do not need an updated resume.

Reality: Your resume is not just a document designed to simply list titles and metrics; it is a chance to tell your leadership story. Take advantage of the opportunity!
2 2. I am not looking for a job, therefore I do not want to engage in the conversation.

Reality: The organizations we work with are typically very receptive and understanding of the fact that most candidates are gainfully employed and not active job seekers. As a result, they value the chance to get to know talented executives in the process, even if the outcome is just an extension of their professional network. However, it is important that you are transparent about your availability and intent.
3 3. I don’t need to do any prep — I can rely on my past experience to support the strength of my candidacy.

Reality: The world has shifted in a way that requires an executive to develop a wellreasoned point of view on the company they are engaging with and a hypothesis on what they might look to accomplish once in the role. This type of contemplative thinking and analysis is not work that occurs once you are in the job, it is the work required to get the job.

Simply put, the candidates who perform best with the organizations we represent are well-prepared, show up with interest in the opportunity (even if they remain in the “information gathering” stage) and avoid playing “hard to get” (see Myth #4).

4 4. I am more likely to get the job by “playing hard to get” or going directly to the company.

Reality: Being as responsive and open with us and the organization regarding your interest in the opportunity benefits all stakeholders. Additionally, it is in your best interest to come to us with any questions or concerns as opposed to the company we are working with, as we can use the conversation as an opportunity to make sure you continue to be positioned in the best possible way
5 5. All candidates clear the educational verification and background check.

Reality: We have had searches get held up for months because certain parts of the background check can take longer than expected, particularly if an academic institution is slow to respond to a verification request (this happens most often with international degrees). As a result, being proactive about completing your educational verification request form is critical.

Now is also the time to mention any “question marks” that might come up during the background check. Trust is a critical component of the relationship we aim to build with you, and we want to make sure we fully understand any potential grey areas so that we can explain or address them most appropriately. Please know that confidentiality underpins our entire process during these sensitive conversations.

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