Recruiters (and Talent Partners)
Recruiters (and talent partners) are valuable partners in your search. Whispered can teach you:
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How recruiters and talent partners evaluate talent
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How to engage with them (including a directory of the top ones)
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How to leverage these relationships
How anyone can leverage recruiters in your search
Our team has worked with hundreds of recruiters over the years. Here are a few playbooks with strategies:
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How to recruiters and talent partners work
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How recruiters evaluate talent (aka Are you an "A" candidate)
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Use the company database to come prepared to talk with talent partners: You can pull up their portfolios and know which companies are hot and where they might have roles.
How Pro Members can leverage recruiters
Whispered has relationships with ~150 talent partners and recruiters focused on GTM exec search. Because they prioritize discussions around active roles vs. meeting execs to chat generally, we don't automatically introduce Pro members to recruiters.
“Send me who you think is qualified and if they are great we will ask to talk to them.” Top VC Talent Partner
Whispered can help you leverage recruiters in the following ways:
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Determine if recruiters are a high-leverage tactic for you: Review our playbook on recruiters and get feedback from our team if recruiters are a search strategy where you should focus
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Reach out to recruiters / talent partners on roles you are a great fit for: It is much more effective when Recruiters/Talent Partners are focused on right-down-the-fairway candidates but if you are a great fit this approach is very effective.
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If a role is lead by a recruiter it will be noted in the "How to Find" field in Role Database. Reach out directly to build a relationship with the recruiter.
- For talent partners, feel free to contact Whispered if we have a strong connection
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Know who the best recruiters and talent partners are for your search:
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Identify VCs focused on your stage / target companies (see Investor Database)
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Review roles in your function to identify recruiters that see the most relevant roles (reach out to our team for help here)
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Know how to engage recruiters and talent partners: Direct outreach to recruiters often works well, while we find networking through investing partners or PortCo CEOs works best for talent partners
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Have the intelligence to rock every conversation: Filter our role database by recruiter / VC so that when you are talking to them you have inside knowledge of where to steer the conversation.
This recruiter engine above is powered by member contributions. Help us keep making it more powerful for you:
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If you are aware of the recruiter, add it when submitting a role
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We love introductions to recruiters we haven't met to team@whispered.com or one of the GMs
DOs and DON'Ts
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Don't share you found specific information on Whispered
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Don't say to a recruiter / talent partner "I saw on Whispered you are leading the search for XX role"
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Do reach out to them to engage "I am looking for YY function role and would love to connect."
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Do feel free to mention when speaking to them "I heard from my network you have XX role, that one sounded like a good fit with my background." This will demonstrate you are in the know and networked which recruiters value
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Don't go around recruiters to companies. This can cause them to blackball you.
The databases below are exclusive for Whispered Pro members
current password is in #member channel header
Talent Partner Database (add talent partner)
Recruiting Firm Database
This is a new database we are building out and where we will focus our list of recruiters. DM us to add a new one
Investor Database