Executive Search FAQs

The success rate of traditional retained executive search firms is 60%, a figure derived from research by the consultancy known as ESIX. According to the Executive Search Information Exchange, 40% of retained executive searches fail to close. Given that statistic, it is not surprising that the leading search firms worldwide, collectively known as SHREK, do not disclose their success rates.

The Good Search has a 99.85% success rate. We have been in business for 20+ years and have never failed to deliver interested, qualified candidates. Traditional retained search firms lack the investigative research expertise and network we’ve developed to recruit the best and brightest executive candidates. Our near 100% success rate is unmatched in the industry.

Overview: The retained executive search process—when done rigorously—resembles a structured advisory engagement more than a transaction. We have a post that describes the steps in detail: What Are The Steps of the Executive Search Process?

1. Strategic Alignment & Intake: The executive search process begins with the reason for the search: did an executive leave, is an incumbent underperforming, or is this a new position? Are you searching for potential replacements for your C-suite executives, should the need arise? Next, the firm engages in confidential discussions with board members, the CEO, and key client executives to familiarize the firm with relevant facts and issues of the business, a client’s strategy and objectives, the climate and environment, and matters relevant to candidates. Early in the process, the search partner must identify any problems that may affect the search outcome, such as compensation issues, the company’s standing in the industry, and so on. The search firm prepares a position description and an ideal candidate specification to define the role and responsibilities, as well as the key selection criteria for the search. The specification must show a solid understanding of the industry, business situation, company environment, and how the company defines success for the role.
2. Market Intelligence and Talent Mapping: The search firm sets a strategy and develops a target list of industries and organizations for investigation and research. The search firm identifies sources and prospects, then reaches out to established friends of the firm (sources) and contacts, and elicits referrals to the best of the best. Additional sourcing is conducted to ensure all viable candidate target companies are identified.
3. Screening and Prereferencing: The firm conducts outreach to its long list of prospective candidates to develop a short list of 20 interested, qualified, and viable candidates. By now, the search partner has conducted informal Preliminary Reference Checks on the shortlist in discreet conversations. The preferencing occurs when referrals are made.
4. Interviews and Selection. The client interviews a slate of finalists — usually 3-5 candidates. Debriefing with the candidate and client after each interview winnows that list down to the finalist.
5. Finalist Dossier and Due Diligence: The finalist candidate dossier contains the candidate’s biography, resume, interview excerpts, and our Analysis and Appraisal.
6. Offer Acceptance and Onboarding: Positioning the offer. consultation on compensation and related issues, as appropriate. In the transition up to the start date, and through the first three months, the search partner stays in touch to help ensure a smooth onboarding process.

A retained executive search for a C-suite technology role typically takes 8 to 16 weeks from engagement to accepted offer. An AI executive search firm, The Good Search, on average, delivers the winning candidate in a matter of weeks (9 to 18 business days), not months. Asking how long an executive search engagement might take is a common executive search FAQ.

Traditional Retained Search Timeframes are listed below. These are standards for the SHREK firms. Boutique firms tend to move more quickly.

1. Strategic Alignment & Intake (Weeks 1–3): A deep-dive meeting with the client to discuss how the company defines success for the role, cultural fit, compensation, and to discuss search strategy.
2. Market Intelligence and Talent Mapping (Weeks 2–6): Developing a target list of companies and identifying passive candidates, often in collaboration with the client.
3. Screening and Prereferencing. (Weeks 5–10): Vetting candidates through in-depth interviews, assessments, and leadership profiling to create a shortlist.
4. Interviews & Selection (Weeks 8–11): Presenting the candidate shortlist (usually 3–5 qualified individuals) and facilitating client interviews.
5. Finalist Dossier and Due Diligence: (Weeks 10–12): Conducting background checks, conducting thorough reference checks, and negotiating compensation.
6. Transition & Onboarding (Week 13+): Finalizing the hire, assisting with resignation, and managing the onboarding process

The timeline depends on four variables: the complexity of the role and how rare the required skill set is; client clarity about the type of candidate the company requires; candidate and client availability for interviews; and the number of interviews and stakeholders needed to reach a decision.

Searches that stall almost always do so during client scheduling, not candidate sourcing. A search firm with a strong investigative methodology can quickly identify excellent candidates. Often, a client can lose an ideal candidate that they’re intent on hiring if the process drags on or requires too many rounds of interviews.

A retained search that takes longer than 16 weeks is typically experiencing one of three problems: the role definition changed mid-search, the compensation is not competitive for the market, or the decision-making process involves too many stakeholders. When a search drags on too long, we recommend a full stop and reset to identify and address the issue preventing the search from closing.

The hiring organization pays the retained executive search firm. Candidates are never charged.

This is one of the most important distinctions in understanding how retained search works. The firm’s obligation is to the client — the company doing the hiring. Retained search firms are not paid for making a placement; they are paid for the work involved in conducting a search for top-performing passive candidates, delivering a shortlist of interested, qualified contenders, and then ushering the winning candidate through to the start date and onboarding.

This is different from contingency search, where the firm is paid only if a hire is made and the fee is contingent on success. In retained search, payment is structured in installments: typically, one-third at the start of the engagement, one-third at 30 days, and one-third at 60 days. Alternatively, the installments may be tied to milestones: typically one-third at engagement, one-third upon shortlist delivery, and one-third upon offer acceptance.

Retained executive search firms charge a professional retainer — typically 25 to 35 percent of the placed executive’s first-year total cash compensation, which includes base salary and projected bonus. You retain the search firm in much the same way you pay in advance for any other professional services firm, such as a marketing firm, law firm, consulting firm, or IT firm.

The fee is paid in installments by the hiring organization, not the candidate. Standard payment of the installments is usually monthly: one-third at the start of the engagement, one-third at 30 days, and the final third at 60 days. Sometimes the installments are tied to milestones: one-third at the kickoff of the engagement, one-third upon delivery of the shortlist, and one-third upon the executive’s acceptance of the offer.

Some retained firms, including The Good Search, offer flat fee structures instead of percentage-based fees. Flat fees eliminate the structural conflict of interest inherent in percentage-based compensation — where a firm’s fee increases as the candidate’s salary increases — and align the firm’s incentives entirely with the client’s. Flat fees also avoid the awkward reconciliation of having to pay more a year later if the hired candidate earns a higher-than-expected bonus.

Contingency search firms, by contrast, are paid only upon a successful hire. The fee is based on salary alone. This model creates different incentives: the firm’s primary motivation is to close a placement, not necessarily to find the best candidate. Rarely do contingency firms work exclusively on the search. Instead, they often race against other contingency firms working on the search to be the first to present a viable candidate. That creates an incentive to lob any and all potential candidates at the client with little screening. In effect, they race against the clock to “dibs” the candidate. They only get paid if they’re the first to make the introduction to the client.

No. Executive search and traditional recruitment are fundamentally different in methodology, candidate pool, and fee structure.

Traditional recruitment is transactional. Recruiters post job listings, review inbound applications, and screen active candidates. It works well for mid-level and high-volume positions with a large pool of available talent.

Executive search is consultative and research-driven. Retained search firms do not rely on job postings or inbound applications. They proactively identify and approach passive candidates — executives who are not actively seeking a new role but may be the ideal fit. This requires investigative research: mapping target organizations, identifying decision-makers, and approaching candidates directly.

The distinction matters most at the C-suite level, where the best candidates are almost never applying to job postings. They are running something, building something, or leading a transformation at another organization. Finding them requires investigation, not a database query. Moreover, the best retained search partners excel at engaging the interest of highly sought-after talent and connecting with extremely elusive talent. Executive headhunters also understand how best to communicate with C-suite leaders, often mirroring their cadence and comms style.

Clients seeking to understand executive search deserve to know the difference between retained and contingency search. It is a frequently asked question about executive search. The primary difference between a retained search and a contingency search is that a contingency search firm is only paid if it makes a placement. Contingency firms often conduct search assignments on a non-exclusive basis. And, with no guarantee of payment for services performed and no budget for research, contingency firms may abandon difficult searches, leaving positions unfilled.

Retained search firms conduct search assignments on an exclusive, retainer contract basis only. Retained search firms are paid a retainer to do the work of executive search: consulting with the client about what qualities you need in an ideal candidate, identifying prospects, recruiting them, positioning offers, and helping close the candidate through onboarding. Often, retained search firms invest time in getting to know the client organization, position responsibilities, and all requirements before initiating a search. See the Retained vs. Contingency Search page to learn more.

Four red flags separate firms doing exceptional retained search from those you should avoid:

Red Flag 1: The research stays with the firm at the conclusion of the engagement. A retained firm that keeps the research file at the end of the search has built an asset at your expense and makes it impossible to audit their work. The research should be yours: to audit, verify, and hire from again.

Red Flag 2: The firm does not immediately disclose how many companies in your specific sector are currently off-limits to them. Every retained firm has an off-limits list — companies they cannot recruit from because those companies are current or recent clients. The best firms are transparent about this from the start. If they hedge or cannot answer, the list is larger than they want you to know. And if you sense that their answer is not entirely true, dig a little deeper. A firm with worrisome client blockage is financially motivated not to tell you the truth. The larger the firm, the deeper the specialization in your space, the redder the flag. Boutique firms avoid client blockage problems simply because they are smaller. It is one reason why boutique firms have grown in popularity.

Red Flag 3: Their sourcing methodology relies on random searches on LinkedIn and their candidate database rather than on proactive investigative research. Ask directly, “How do you find passive candidates for this role?” If the answer involves LinkedIn Recruiter or an internal database as the primary method, the firm is not conducting original research. As a result, that firm will miss out on ideal candidates.

Red Flag 4: They cannot describe the knowledge, skills, and abilities of an ideal candidate for your specific role beyond the job description. A firm that has genuinely done this work can tell you specifically what makes a candidate exceptional — the experiences, the failures, the leadership style markers that distinguish good from great. If they describe the job description back to you, they have not done that work.

SHREK is an industry acronym for the five largest global executive search firms by revenue: Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, Egon Zehnder, and Korn Ferry.

These firms dominate Fortune 500 board and C-suite search. They bring global reach, deep brand recognition, and extensive senior networks. For many large enterprises, engaging a SHREK firm signals seriousness to a board or compensation committee.

However, there’s a tradeoff, one that is structural. SHREK firms are hamstrung by extensive off-limits lists — companies they cannot recruit from because those companies are current or recent clients. For a global firm with thousands of client relationships, the off-limits lists can include hundreds of major technology companies. In other words, those firms cannot recruit candidates from off-limits companies, making them effectively invisible to the firm during the search. Client blockage can prevent client companies from making the perfect hire.

The Good Search operates independently of the SHREK firms and carries little, if any, off-limits restrictions from prior client relationships. That independence is not incidental to our model. It is the model.

Most traditional retained search firms charge a fee ranging from 30-33% of the candidate’s first-year total cash compensation, including the base salary, signing bonus, and any other projected bonuses. Moreover, they usually tack on expenses on top of that, adding another ~5%. 

This percentage-based pricing creates a conflict of interest; it enables search firms to negotiate higher salaries for the candidates they place than those executives would have accepted. They also charge an additional fee if you hire a 2nd candidate from a retained search for a different role.

By contrast, The Good Search charges a flat fee based on the estimated work involved. So you will know exactly how much a search will cost before it starts. We also hand over all the research so you can make additional hires at no cost. To learn more, check out the Definitive Guide to Executive Search Firm Pricing – 2026 Edition.

Payment timing is often more negotiable than the base percentage. The standard three-installment structure (a third, a third, and a third) can be monthly, spreading payments out evenly. Alternatively, it may be tied to milestones, which often leads to uneven spacing of payments. It is standard for the first payment to be made at the engagement launch—the start of the search. One popular milestone is the presentation of a shortlist of candidates. We usually deliver that in a week, which means our client would end up paying 2 thirds of the fee in two weeks’ time. Any fee tied to offer acceptance is not an ideal milestone, because the search firm doesn’t control what a company is willing or able to pay, the speed at which it can make the offer, and whether the C-suite sells the candidate into the role. In other words, a search firm can lead a candidate to the client and can help keep the process on track. But in the end, it’s the employer who makes the hire and owns that result.

The base percentage itself — typically 25 to 35 percent of first-year total compensation — is less frequently negotiated at top-tier firms, where it reflects the actual cost of a thorough retained search. Firms that quickly agree to significant fee reductions are often signaling something about the depth of the work they will actually do. Any firm operating at the lower end of the range (25 to 29 percent) signals that it is competing on price rather than value. Often, those are contingency firms attempting to move into the retained search space.

The most meaningful negotiation is not about the percentage but about the fee structure. Flat fees eliminate the conflict of interest of percentage fees based on total cash compensation. The Good Search offers flat fee structures that align our interests with yours: our fee does not increase if the candidate is paid more.

The research handover at the conclusion of the engagement is also negotiable at some firms, but it should be a standard expectation. At The Good Search, we provide all the candidate research to the client at close, which you can hire from again at no additional cost. We do not recommend doing business with a firm that won’t provide you with a full read-out that empowers you to audit their work.

The answer depends entirely on the level and firm type. This is one of the most misrepresented salary questions in the industry — aggregator sites like ZipRecruiter report averages across all executive search roles, including researchers, coordinators, and associates, which significantly distorts the picture.

A more accurate picture by level:

• Research Associate / Analyst: $50,000 to $90,000. Entry-level roles focused on candidate identification and market mapping.
• Associate / Consultant: $90,000 to $150,000. Manages search execution under the supervision of senior partners.
• Principal: $150,000 to $300,000. Leads searches independently, builds client relationships, and contributes to business development.
• Partner / Managing Director at a boutique firm: $250,000 to $600,000+. Compensation is typically a base plus a significant percentage of fees generated.
• Senior Partner at a SHREK firm: $500,000 to $1,500,000+. The highest earners at the global firms generate tens of millions in fees annually.

Executive search is one of the highest-earning professional service careers that doesn’t require an advanced degree, such as those required to work in law or medicine. The value is measured by the ROI that the exceptional executive hires deliver to a company’s bottom line.

This question usually comes from candidates worried about contingency recruiters who may share their information broadly without permission. The honest answer from a retained search perspective is different.

With a retained search firm working on a specific search, there is generally nothing you should withhold that is relevant to your fit for the role. The firm’s obligation is to the client organization, and the best retained searches are built on honest, complete conversations with candidates about their experience, motivations, and constraints.

However, caution is warranted. Do be careful about sharing salary information or other confidential matters with recruiters you have not vetted. Contingency recruiters in particular may share your information with multiple client organizations without your explicit permission. Before engaging with any recruiter, ask directly: “Are you retained on this specific search, or are you working on a contingency basis?”

Once you do find a trusted retained search partner, you often can gain valuable advice on how to handle delicate interview questions about a gap in your resume, about your relationship with a boss who was a nightmare and may give negative references, or about why some co-workers love you, and others hate you. These issues are relatively common. A negative reference is a single datapoint among many considered by employers. The context is what matters. Being your full, authentic self matters. Connecting with the right employer who embraces your humanity matters.

At The Good Search, we do not share candidate information without explicit permission from the candidate, and we do not conduct speculative outreach on behalf of clients without a specific, active search mandate.

A technology executive search firm specializes in recruiting for the technology industry. Often, that includes recruiting senior executives for engineering leadership roles. These roles may include Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Information Security Officer. Technology search firms recruit technology executives for technology companies and clients in other industries where business intersects with technology. For example, technology executive search firms may also recruit genomics talent for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The technology search firm sector expertise usually includes cloud software, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, identity and access management, e-commerce, data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

The executive search industry is a bifurcated business. It has 5 multinational search firms collectively referred to as SHREK. They are the top five global executive search firms: Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, Egon Zehnder, and Korn Ferry, and they offer search services in virtually every country worldwide.

Boutique firms are small by design and focus more narrowly on a more contained geography. For example, The Good Search focuses on recruiting leadership talent for jobs in the United States. However, sometimes our clients are headquartered overseas. Sometimes, we recruited talent in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and throughout the Americas. We’re able to do so from our offices in the United States because English remains the dominant language for conducting business.

However, we are a Connecticut-based executive search firm that focuses nationally on the United States. Consequently, we conduct searches across the Northeast, the East Coast, the West Coast, and everywhere in between. On the East Coast, we serve the Greater NYC Area, including Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, as well as the Greater Boston Area. On the West Coast, we recruit CTOs, CIOs, and CAIOs in the Greater Seattle Area, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. In between, we identify and recruit candidates at companies across the United States and Canada, including Austin, Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, and Washington, D.C. See Where We Recruit to learn more.

An industry specialty in executive search targeting specific industry sectors, rather than offering services across every industry as a generalist firm. Retained search firms that specialize in an industry gain deep market knowledge, senior executive relationships, talent networks, and industry-specific expertise that help them recruit more effectively. A generalist firm expends extra effort coming up to speed on an industry in which it has done little work,

The Good Search specializes in technology executive recruitment. We are an AI executive search firm, so virtually all of our engagements focus on creating Frontier AI and Generative AI (GenAI), implementing Agentic AI and Autonomous Agents, or orchestrating AI (Multi-Agent Workflows). Our technological expertise includes Cloud, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity. We also work in tech-adjacent industries, including Pharmaceuticals (Pharma), Biotechnology (Biotech), Financial technology (Fintech), e-Commerce, EdTech, HealthTech, and technology used in travel and hospitality. In other words, The Good Search stands at the intersection of business and technology. See our Industry Expertise to learn about the industries we serve. 

Retained executive search firms focus on recruiting to fill board and senior executive roles. The roles include Chief Executive Officers and all of their direct reports. So this means retained search partners focus on C-level or C-Suite positions, also referred to as CXO roles. Often, these Chief roles come with corporate-level titles as well, including Executive Vice President (EVP), Senior Vice President (SVP), and Vice President (VP). So, an executive can be Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, or Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief AI Officer.

Of course, company levels are not equivalent. A director-level executive at a major technology corporation may be calibrated as an EVP at a smaller company. So, executive search partners must constantly translate the level of the position they are attempting to fill into its nearest equivalent at target companies.

The Good Search focuses C-level or CXO executive searches down to the Vice President level. For example, we conduct searches for CTOs, CIOs, and CISOs, as well as Chief Architects. Additionally, we work on Executive Vice President (EVP), Senior Vice President (SVP), and Vice President (VP) executive recruiting engagements. We recruit to equivalent leadership levels such as General Managers, Managing Directors, and Managing Partners. Visit Search Expertise to learn more about how we approach Senior-level and C-level Executive Search. Learn more about What We Do.

It depends on how you define success and how you measure it.

Completion Rate is the percentage of searches that successfully result in a hire within the agreed-upon timeframe. Interestingly, the “SHREK” firms—Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, Egon Zehnder, and Korn Ferry—generally do not disclose their search completion rates.

That may be because across the executive search industry, an average of 40% of all retained search engagements fail to complete, according to the Executive Search Information Exchange. ESIX provides insights, benchmarking, and networking to improve executive hiring, serving as a resource for Fortune 500 and Global 2000.

Traditional retained search firms lack the investigative research expertise and network we’ve developed to recruit the best and brightest executive candidates. Our near 100% success rate is unmatched in the industry. The Good Search has a 99.85% success rate. We have been in business for 20+ years and have never failed to deliver interested, qualified candidates. 

Retained search firms maintain specialized, high-touch databases focusing on passive, top-tier executive talent, rather than active job seekers.

The leading software companies offering retained search software solutions include Ezekia and Cluen. Ezekia offers executive search software built for search firms, in-house teams, and talent partners. A modern, intuitive, AI-powered platform for managing clients and tracking candidates that is GDPR compliant. It is a client relationship management (CRM), Applicant Tracking System (ATS), and business development platform, all in one. Cluen is known for its robust relationship mapping and decades of experience in database management, though it has a more traditional, older interface.

The Good Search uses Ezekia, which managed in excess of 100,000 records. We continually update the information by conducting extensive executive talent mapping of companies that are growing the leadership clients require. We continually update org charts of the major technology companies and leading Fortune 500 companies. Of course, we still conduct fresh research for every engagement and tailor it to each client’s needs and preferences. We want to ensure we’ve given you the most up-to-date information about top-performing prospects.

According to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, there is a limit to the number of friends and acquaintances the average person can maintain. That “magic number” is 150 meaningful contacts. 

Why does this matter to executive recruiting? Many traditional retained search firms claim to know everyone in the business. But according to Dunbar’s Number, that is impossible. A good executive recruiter knows how to leverage their relationships to meet new people and uncover executive candidates. A great executive recruiter is investigative, reaching far beyond traditional recruiting resources to discover A-players others miss.

If you have additional questions, please reach out. We are happy to have a more detailed conversation to get you an answer. Your executive search questions help us understand what is most important to our clients. Positioned as an alternative to traditional retained search firms, The Good Search offers technology executive search services you can’t find anywhere else. Our investigative approach makes search smarter and gives you more—delivering the top-performing talent others miss.

Or simply drop a comment below detailing your question. We’ll get you an answer ASAP.