Why the Average Executive Search Takes 5.2 Months
Most executives budget 6 weeks; the gap is spent applying while headhunters search a database.
Inside this issue:
- The 6-stage funnel that fills a VP role in 6 to 8 weeks, and the moment your resume actually enters it
- Why 16 years at Johnson & Johnson and a CEO title bought me 6 months of generic rejections
- Where executive roles went when postings fell back to 2020 levels (Korn Ferry’s 41% headcount growth is the clue)
You’ve been in the market for 3 months. Every VP posting that fits gets a tailored application. You track them in a spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet mostly tracks silence.
Unpopular opinion from someone who fills executive roles for a living: applying is the slowest path to your next one.
Most executives treat the job board as the front door to executive hiring. Write a sharp resume, apply fast, apply well, and the interviews will follow.
Wrong.
8 out of 10 executive roles get filled through direct search. Most are never posted anywhere.
I lead the global life sciences practice at a top-10 retained search firm. I run searches in LinkedIn Recruiter every day. Here is how the roles you want actually get filled.
How executive roles actually get filled
Two hiring systems run in parallel
Below Director level, hiring runs on job boards and career sites. Hundreds of applications per posting, ATS filters, recruiter screens. Your resume is the product.
From Director up, hiring moves to a different system: retained executive search. A $21 billion industry of firms paid €80,000 to €150,000 per role to go find the right person. Your LinkedIn profile is the product.
If you’re a Director, VP, or C-level executive sending applications through career sites, you’re fishing in the wrong pond.
What happens when a VP role opens
The company signs a search firm. The consultant takes the briefing, then logs into LinkedIn Recruiter. Not LinkedIn. LinkedIn Recruiter.
The search maps 2,000 to 3,000 profiles. From those, a longlist of 80 to 120 names, built fresh for this mandate. 40 to 60 profiles reviewed in depth. 20 to 40 people contacted. 3 to 5 presented to the client. 1 offer.
Kick-off to offer: 6 to 8 weeks.
Retained search is a push model. Clients push firms to find people. Firms push candidates toward clients. At no point in that funnel does anyone read an application. Your resume enters later, after the phone call, after interest exists on both sides.
The math you’re competing against
When an executive role does get posted, it draws 250+ applications. Most are false positives the team has to clear. And the posting often exists because policy requires it, while an internal candidate is already in pole position.
The response rates tell the same story. Cold applications: 5 to 10%. Warm introductions: 40 to 65%. Inbound recruiter contact converts best of all, because the role already matches your profile.
Applications sent is a vanity metric. Recruiter conversations initiated is the real number.
Volume does not solve a visibility problem.
The market moved further from the job board
US job postings sat at Index 100 in May 2026, back at their February 2020 level after 2 years of decline. Europe sits at 110.
Search firms went the other way. Korn Ferry grew headcount 41% over 2 years. Spencer Stuart 11%.
Companies under cost pressure don’t stop hiring leaders. They stop announcing it publicly. The visible market shrank. The hidden market grew.
And the slow path has a price tag. Most executives expect a 6-week search. The average runs 5.2 months. At $200k to $400k in total compensation, the opportunity cost of those extra months runs $50k to $300k.
The fix: run your search in the order the market actually works. Profile first. Headhunters second. Weak ties third. Applications last, if at all.
I learned this the expensive way
7 years ago I was the candidate. 16 years at Johnson & Johnson. A CEO track record. I assumed the search would be easy.
I did what most executives do. Refreshed the LinkedIn job board several times a day. Checked Indeed and Glassdoor. Sent carefully crafted applications and landed a response rate under 10%, all generic rejections.
6 months in, nothing.
Then a friend pulled me into executive search. Within weeks on the other side of the desk, I saw it: most of the roles I was working on had never appeared on any job board. They were filled through LinkedIn Recruiter searches and direct outreach.
I had spent 6 months applying to the visible slice of the market while the part that fills 8 roles out of 10 never knew I existed.
I lost 6 months to that lesson. You don’t have to.
My 1-Month Career Transition Program is the guided version of everything above: your profile rebuilt for LinkedIn Recruiter, your target firm list, your outreach, with me on your side of the table for 4 weeks.
What to do instead
8 out of 10 executive roles are filled through direct search. The posting you’re refreshing draws 250+ applicants and often has an internal favorite already.
The consultants filling the other 8 are searching a database. The only question that matters is whether you show up in it.
Your action step
This week, count where your last 10 job-search hours went. Hours spent applying versus hours spent on your LinkedIn profile and headhunter outreach.
If applying took more than half, flip the ratio. Rebuild your profile first, then build your list of 20 to 30 search firms that actually run mandates in your sector. The cut-rule: no new application until the profile work is done.
Your next executive role is probably being filled right now, inside a LinkedIn Recruiter search you will never see posted. Make sure it finds you.
Till next time,
Kristof
P.S. Founding members get two extras that free subscribers don’t: I personally review your LinkedIn profile, and you get live office hours in the chat twice a week.
This is spot on