Get Your Resume in the Hands of Top Recruiters

Also: Distribute your resume to VC and PE firms

There are multiple ways to get your resume into recruiters’ hands: you can upload your resume through their websites to get into their databases; you can get introduced through a mutual connection; or you could reach out with a short note on LinkedIn.

These are all great ways, but if you’re in transition and actively looking, you might want to make a bigger splash and attract more recruiter interest in a short period of time. In that case, a resume distribution to recruiters makes sense!

How does resume distribution work?

Kelly Donovan & Associates uses a database of 40,000+ recruiters across 16,000+ search firms that is meticulously maintained to be as up to date as possible. Your resume will be emailed to a targeted subset of these recruiters who, based on the information in the database, are likely to recruit for positions in your target industries and professions (up to 3 industries and up to 3 professions); a typical distribution might go to roughly 500 to 2,000 recruiters.

The database has both retained and contingent recruiters, and includes leading firms such as Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Egon Zehnder, DHR International, Robert Half Executive Search, Stanton Chase, Witt/Kieffer, and many smaller, specialty, and boutique firms.

The email will be a mass email sent using software, but will appear to be coming from your email. Each recruiter will be addressed by name at the top of the email (thanks to mail merge software).

I (Kelly) will create wording for a concise, yet compelling letter to the recruiters that will go in the body of the email to entice them to open the attached resume and consider you for searches that might be relevant.

Afterwards, you will receive a spreadsheet with a list of all the recruiters it went to–and you can follow up with any of them if you wish.

How does this compare to other services?

This should not be confused with cheap, low-quality services that post your resume to dozens of job boards and send messages to an unfocused list of recruiters. That is unlikely to garner you an executive position.

Who shouldn’t do this?

If you are employed and keeping your job search secret, there is a small risk that word of your job search could get back to your employer. What if one of those recruiters is buddies with an HR exec at your company?

There is a small chance your boss could find out, so you will have to weigh this against the potential benefit.

Some clients who are employed have decided to do distributions–and their employers never heard about (at least not to the clients’ knowledge).

What results can I expect?

You might attract some responses from some of the recruiters and might get one or more interviews as a result. However, there is no guarantee; it’s possible that you might not get any interviews.

It depends on luck to an extent because recruiters are usually unlikely to contact you unless you happen to match up with a search the recruiter is presently engaged in. So it will depend on whether any of those recruiters just happen to be doing a relevant search.

It also depends on the type of jobs you are looking for and how big of a role recruiters play in hiring for those jobs. We can talk about whether this might make sense for you!

In general, I recommend relationships, referrals, introductions, networking, and similar methods as the #1 way to pursue executive roles in most industries. You can diversify by including a recruiter distribution and/or targeting advertised openings.

How much does it cost, and what’s included?

This can be included in your package; or, current clients (and past clients from the last 120 days) can receive a discounted rate. Your service will include:

• Resume distribution via email campaign on your behalf
• Spreadsheet with the list of recruiters who received it
• A compelling intro letter that will go in the body of the email to motivate the recruiters to actually open and read the resume

What if I want to be a CEO of a VC or PE-backed company?

Another option is distributing your resume to venture capital and private equity firms that might be looking for C-level executives for their portfolio companies. This option is for typically clients who are targeting CEO, COO, CFO, and other C-level positions. The database encompasses 2,600 private equity and venture capital firms, and 9,100+ contacts at those firms.

This can be included in your package at a discounted rate; or, a la carte the investment is $250 for current clients (and past clients from the last 120 days). Just like the recruiter distribution, this includes the email campaign, the spreadsheet with the list of contacts it went to, and a compelling letter for the VC/PE firms that will go in the body of the email.

How do I get started?

This is a service exclusively for current and past KDA clients. Just let Kelly know you are interested!