Many people have responded to Moving Up columns with questions about search consultants: Who are we? What do we do? Can we offer help to candidates in search of new positions? This column will answer many of these questions -- some that you asked and some that you didn’t.
I’ll begin with some information about my own position. I am a search consultant working for a large company, A.T. Kearney Executive Search, with headquarters in Chicago. Within a global company that carries out searches for many industries, we have a practice that focuses on education.
We work with all kinds of colleges and universities around the country, usually on searches for presidents, vice-presidents, and deans. There are many other fine search consultants who do similar work, although each of us has a somewhat different approach. The information I’ll provide in this column generally holds true for most search consultants, but there are probably some areas where different consultants (even within the same company) might have different views.
The most important thing to remember about search consultants is that we work for the institution, not for the candidate. We are paid by colleges and universities to help them identify the best possible candidates to fill their vacancies. Although we hope that individual job-seekers will be successful in their efforts to find new positions, our top priority must be to serve the institution for which we are working.
You can see that it would be a conflict of interest for us to be paid by candidates, or in any way allied with candidates, since this might lead us to advocate on behalf of someone who was not really the best choice for the institution. (There are other kinds of consultants who do help candidates prepare themselves and their materials for a job search. The Chronicle carries advertisements for these services.)
Although we don’t coach individual candidates, we do depend on there being good candidates out there, and we strive to identify and evaluate them thoroughly and accurately. It is in our interest as search consultants to have as many strong candidates as possible -- which is why I write this column.
If you are a finalist in a search that is using a consultant, you may be able to make yourself a stronger candidate by getting feedback about your materials or your interview performance. It is often very difficult to find time to do this, but I usually try to give comments about interview performance via e-mail if candidates really seem ready to hear what I have to offer.
Every candidate who is appointed in a search we work on has ultimately been selected by the search committee, the administrator, or the trustees involved in the effort. We may influence the selection because of our knowledge of individual candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, and because of our experience with the search process, but consultants do not make the selection itself.
The diversity of the candidate pool is important to me and many of my clients; I hope that a diverse pool will lead to a more diverse group of leaders in higher education. Many institutions make diversity a high priority, although I have not worked on any searches in which selecting a woman or person of color was a requirement. Correspondingly, many search consultants make special efforts to identify and support the professional development of members of groups that are underrepresented, recruiting them and bringing them to the attention of search committees.
Generally speaking, search consultants are engaged by institutions only for higher-level administrative searches. There are several reasons for this. Faculty searches rarely involve consultants, because most professors view the selection of their colleagues as a privilege they are reluctant to share with outsiders. Lower- and mid-level staff searches are generally handled internally as well.
But in senior administrative positions, the stakes are high enough that search firms provide a level of confidence in a successful outcome. Search firms charge a fee, and institutions generally decide to incur this expense only when the stakes are high enough to justify the cost.
Search committees gain several things from the use of a search consultant. Most important, we bring candidates into the search who would not apply on their own. Many of these candidates are quite successful and fully engaged in their current positions. When consultants learn about such a candidate from other leaders in higher education, they phone the candidate to evaluate his or her suitability, and to try to make a convincing case that this would be a great opportunity.
Consultants can give candidates an inside view of the institution and the position. We can try to help candidates decide whether they would be a good fit for the position. We can assure them that their candidacy will be kept confidential -- or let them know what the risks of losing confidentiality might be (particularly in a sunshine state where searches at public institutions are treated as public information at some point in the process).
In addition to adding strong candidates to the pool, search consultants can do a great deal to enhance the search process. We have worked out effective ways of organizing the process, structuring the search committee, writing the position description, responding to nominations and applications, checking references, organizing interviews, verifying degrees, and the myriad other important details that are part of any search.
We can help the chair provide leadership for the process so that committee members feel involved, confidentiality rules are understood and respected, communication with the campus is frequent and appropriate, and deadlines are met. And as the process comes to a close, we can help to craft a mutually satisfactory agreement between the candidate and the institution.
From a candidate’s point of view, the search consultant can also play a valuable role. We can help you to understand the position and the institution so that you can evaluate your chances of success. We can explain the timetable, which can be especially helpful if you are in more than one search at the same time or if you are under pressure to let your current institution know if you will be staying or leaving. And if you advance to the final stages, we can sometimes provide feedback.
Many candidates would like the opportunity to be known to consultants who work on searches, but remember that consultants must serve their clients -- the institutions they are working for. I would advise you against sending your materials to consultants outside the context of a particular search. But if you have made a careful appraisal of your skills and experiences and think you would be a strong candidate in a particular search, it is appropriate to submit your materials.
In the next Moving Up column, I’d like to focus on readers’ concerns by asking you to describe the worst interview question or other experience you’ve ever had as part of a job search. Describe the situation and how you handled it. I’ll try to provide some feedback and suggest some alternative strategies. Send an e-mail message to movingup@chronicle.com by July 15.