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 take one more step to attract more recruiter interest during this period of time. In that case, a resume distribution to recruiters could be worth considering.

How does resume distribution work?

Kelly Donovan & Associates uses a database of nearly 50,000 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, depending on the parameters.

The database has both retained and contingent recruiters, and includes larger firms such as Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Egon Zehnder, Stanton Chase, and Witt/Kieffer, as well as many specialty and boutique search firms.

Keep in mind that it does not include any in-house recruiters working in employers’ HR departments.

The email will be a mass email sent using software, but will be set up so your email appears as the sender, and replies will go directly to your email. The software will customize each email with the recipient’s name.

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 spam out your resume to an unfocused list of recruiters with a poorly worded message. That is unlikely to garner you an executive position.

Who shouldn’t do this?

If you are 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.

What results can I expect?

Results are variable, and there is no way to know for certain whether you will get any traction from this. Some clients have garnered interviews from recruiter distributions, while others haven’t.

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.

Additionally, recruiter biases can come into play–like a bias toward candidates who are currently employed. Retained executive recruiters want to be able to show their client companies that they’re providing a valuable service by presenting candidates the employer couldn’t have gotten on their own.

We can talk about whether a distribution might make sense for you. I’ll only do a resume distribution if I think you have at least a possibility of getting something from it.

In general, I recommend relationship-based efforts with other executives (referrals, introductions, networking, etc.) as an effective way to pursue executive roles in most industries. Recruiters should be another piece of the puzzle, but not the sole thing you fixate on. You can also pursue advertised openings if they’re a fit for you.

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 in the C-suite of a PE/VC-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 PE/VC database encompasses 2,500+ PE and VC firms, and 9,000+ contacts at those firms.

This can be included in your package or added on within 120 days at a discounted rate. Just like the recruiter distribution, this includes a compelling letter for the VC/PE firms that will go in the body of the email, the email campaign, and the spreadsheet with the list of contacts who received it.

Some executives choose to do both types of distributions to get on the radar of both recruiters and PE/VC firms.

Just the facts, ma’am 

If you’d like a spreadsheet with the list of relevant recruiters or PE/VC contacts, but don’t want to do an automated resume distribution, this is another option. This can be used if you’d like to cherry-pick individuals to look up on LinkedIn, review their websites, and reach out with a personalized message.

This is available at a lower cost than resume distribution, but keep in mind that it would entail more work on your end to actually take advantage of it.

How do I get started?

These services are only for current and past KDA clients. Just let Kelly know you are interested!