How Executive Recruiters Assess Candidates: The Memo You Never See
Most senior candidates will never have the opportunity to read what a search firm wrote about them. A recent Wall Street Journal story offered a look at one of those documents, a one-page memo that search firm Korn Ferry prepared for the Las Vegas Raiders about NFL coach Brian Flores. It became public this month when it was unsealed as part of an ongoing lawsuit. What caught our attention was how the executive recruiters quoted in the story described the document itself: as a fairly typical way to size up a candidate for a top job. The takeaway for anyone pursuing a senior role is that if you are in a serious executive search, a candid assessment of you is likely being written, and you will not be the one reading it.
The memo splits into two columns, with strengths on one side and weaknesses on the other. Martha Heller, CEO of an executive-recruiting firm, said boards expect a “warts-and-all presentation.” The Journal describes extensive interviews, background and reference checks, and psychological testing behind a page like that. Executive advisers Mark Thompson and Byron Loflin added on HBR’s IdeaCast that recruiters also speak with people you never listed as references. The picture of you gets built from conversations you are not part of.
You also rarely see the result. Korn Ferry pushed to keep this memo sealed, and its lawyer described it as confidential work product drawing on information from confidential references. Even when a summary like that is accurate, it reflects how someone else chose to frame you. Several of the recruiters quoted in the Journal pointed out that the memo listed one trait on both sides of the ledger, which shows how the same trait can read as a strength or a liability depending on the story told around it.
That leaves a gap for the candidate. The people closest to you tend to be kind, and the references you list are people who will speak well of you, so neither is likely to give you the unfiltered read a search committee will hear. Thompson advises having someone in your corner whose only agenda is to help you succeed, and Loflin put it plainly that ignoring how your personality comes across is one of the main reasons candidates lose out on senior roles. Candidates need someone to tell them the honest truth about how they’re coming across, and before it’s too late.
As a Miami Dolphin super fan over many decades (I'm in NY now for the Jets/Fins game where the loser gets the top draft pick next year), this confidential report strikes close to home as I watched every game Coach Flores presided over and followed closely all three seasons of his tenure. In my opinion, he failed to make the step up from Coordinator to Head Coach because of his people skills, a fact that the report listed as a weakness. He is currently the Defensive Coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings and they are the number one defense in the NFL. Great coach, but he failed to build a winning culture when he ran the whole team. The recruiters were correct in their assessment.
Getting that unfiltered read before the process starts is what we do for candidates at Top of the Stack. Our team comes from the hiring side, so we know how a resume, a LinkedIn profile, and a professional story get read and evaluated by the people deciding. We decode how recruiters assess candidates to tell you where your materials undersell you, where your narrative is scattered, and which parts of your background may raise questions, before anyone else is writing them down. Then we work like a PR agent for your candidacy, sharpening your resume, LinkedIn, and professional narrative so your strongest evidence comes first. Explore our Services and get started today.
Learn more from other professionals we trust:
The Wall Street Journal: "The Unsealed NFL Memo That Shows How Recruiters Really Size Up Candidates"
Harvard Business Review IdeaCast: "What You Need to Know About Executive Recruiting"
Harvard Business Review: "How to Stand Out to C-Suite Recruiters"
