Can anyone refer some good corp. headhunters in Asia?
Finance, management, or tech?
If you were to say “Predominantly a mix of management in tech and or FMCGs.” I would suggest ITP Worldwide, Heidrick & Struggles, and Russell Reynolds. I have heard good things about them. I am not in high tech and have relied on other headhunters. I think using them is the right way to go.
Predominantly a mix of management in tech and or FMCGs.
Cheers.
Much appreciated, I’ll check them out.
Cheers
[quote=“swiftvin”]Much appreciated, I’ll check them out.
Cheers[/quote]
What market are you interested in? You said Asia
There are a number of Singapore HH firms that have set up shop here. I would consider them to be middle tier - so, more appropriate if you are looking in Singapore, China, in addition to Taiwan.
Do you know the difference between Retained vs Contingency. Some friends of mine who have completed searches recently were amazed at the stark differences as a candidate.
I would say that all the headhunters mentioned above are retained by corp. clients. Now, having a headhunter working for you…
PNG corp. are good in head hunting … 
[quote=“ed”][quote=“swiftvin”]Much appreciated, I’ll check them out.
Cheers[/quote]
What market are you interested in? You said Asia
There are a number of Singapore HH firms that have set up shop here. I would consider them to be middle tier - so, more appropriate if you are looking in Singapore, China, in addition to Taiwan.
Do you know the difference between Retained vs Contingency. Some friends of mine who have completed searches recently were amazed at the stark differences as a candidate.[/quote]
Agreed on the above point. Different positions/levels calls for different methods. Retained search are also refered to as executive search, thus it’s on an higher level of profesionalism compared with contingent firms.
There is a “bulge bracket” set of global retained executive search firms that includes:
Korn Ferry kornferry.com
Heidrick & Struggles heidrick.com
Russell Reynolds russellreynolds.com
Spencer Stuart spencerstuart.com
Ray & Berndtson rayberndtson.com
Egon Zehnder egonzehnder.com
These firms strictly work on retainer and really only recruit for senior management positions. Principals and MD/partners of these firms often have worked for several years in senior management roles in the industry sectors that they service.
There are also numerous firms that only handle senior assignments but are: regional and/or specialize in very specific industry sectors such as finance and legal services. And, even within finance sector firms, you’ll find some specialize further in investment banking, back office, IT etc… some examples of these firms would include HK-based Global Sage eban.com There’s a whole list… a significant number will do searches on contigency.
And, then there are thousands of local recruiting firms – one-man shops to large “boiler room” operations. The most of them in contigency. Some handle almost all sectors while some specialize in IT, finance, media etc. The quality and professionalism varies widely and can be likened to a pyramid.
In all cases, remember:
The fees are paid by the CLIENT, not candidate. So remember who the recruiter works for… many people operate under the mistaken assumption that the recruiter’s job is to help get them a job or that the recruiter is being a “nice guy”.
The “bulge bracket” firms aren’t interested in you at all unless you are clearly senior executive material and happen to match their current search assignments. Otherwise you are “wasting their time”. There is also some weird psychology at work to – even if an amazing candidate were to approach them directly, 90% of such firms would think that they were dealing with damaged goods. Strange but true.
In the contigency world, some recruiters “promise” the client that they will get to see at least 10 candidates – it is not unlike a staged beauity contest, and sometimes they need to sweet talk nine additional candidates that really have no chance in Hell to go through the motions. It’s always good to know where you stand – but don’t count on the recruiter to share it with you. He or she is counting on their cut of the fee ( 30-33% of the first year compensation of the candidate) – they get anywhere from 5% to 40% depending.
If looking at jobs in IT, marketing etc at the mid to senior level, consider looking at Monster.com For Taiwan, we have:
You can quickly identify which posts are directly from the companies and which ones are from search firms. It pays to go direct in many cases. In some cases, especially for mid-management, companies can be fee sensitive. With a 30% differential, one could possibly swing the decision to hire in their favor or at least allow for more room to negotiation on comp.
Hope this helps.