Headhunting in Bulgaria — the people who aren't looking.
The best person for a difficult role is usually employed, reasonably content, and not reading job adverts. Reaching them is a different discipline from processing applications, and it is the one we practise.
When advertising has stopped working
Job adverts reach people who are looking. These are the roles where that is the wrong group.
You know who you want
You can almost name the companies they work at. None of them are applying to you.
The role has stalled
Months open, agencies tried, and the shortlist keeps being a compromise.
The profile is genuinely rare
A narrow specialism where the whole country holds a few dozen credible people.
Adverts bring the wrong people
Volume without fit. Someone still has to read all of it, and it is costing more than it returns.
Four steps, direct throughout
- 1
Define the target
Not a job description — a description of the person. Where they work now, and what would move them.
- 2
Map the market
We build the list of everyone who credibly fits, whether or not they are looking.
- 3
Approach directly
Individually and carefully. A clumsy approach at this level closes a door for years.
- 4
Manage to offer
Someone leaving a job they liked needs the process handled properly, all the way to the start date.
Search, not selection
- A mapped list of everyone who fits — not the ones who happened to apply
- Direct, individual approaches rather than a mass message
- No reliance on a CV database that everyone else also has
- Discretion for the candidate, who usually has a job to protect
- Honest market feedback, including when the role as written cannot be filled
- Salary reality-checking before the approach, not after the rejection
- Counter-offer management — expected, when someone is being taken from a role they like
- A view of the whole market you can keep, whoever you end up hiring
Headhunting, answered
How is headhunting different from a normal recruitment agency?
An agency largely works with people who are already in the market — applicants, and names on a database. Headhunting starts from the role and maps everyone who could do it, then approaches them individually whether or not they are looking. It takes longer and it reaches people advertising never will. For a straightforward role the agency route is usually the better value; for a difficult one it often produces nothing.
What if the person we want is happy where they are?
Most of the people worth approaching are. That is not the obstacle it sounds like — people move for scope, for a better problem, for leadership they respect, and often for reasons they have not articulated until asked properly. Our job is to have that conversation well. If someone genuinely should not move, we will tell you that too.
Can you find genuinely rare profiles?
It is what the method exists for. Where a specialism is narrow enough that the whole country holds a few dozen credible people, mapping and approaching all of them is both possible and the only reliable route. We will tell you at the outset how large that pool actually is — sometimes the honest answer is that the role needs to be redefined.
Is the search confidential?
It can be, and often needs to be for the candidate's sake as much as yours. Anyone we approach still has a job to protect. If the mandate itself is sensitive — replacing an incumbent, or moving before the market notices — our executive search process adds mutual NDAs, blind sourcing and communications routed around your own systems.
How long does it take?
Longer than filling a role from applications, because the market is mapped before anyone is contacted and the right person has to be persuaded rather than selected. The pool size is what drives it. We give a realistic range once we know what we are looking for.
Which sectors do you headhunt in?
Mostly IT — technical and functional roles alike — with finance and accounting and a range of white-collar and blue-collar specialisms alongside. Where a search sits outside what we know well, we will say so rather than take the mandate and learn on your time.
Tell us who you need.
Describe the person rather than the job description. We will tell you honestly how many of them exist in this market.