Glossary · DefinedTermSet

The vocabulary of Reverse Recruiting, defined once.

48 terms in plain prose, each with the practical meaning for a senior job seeker. The same definitions are used across the National Reverse Recruiter Association, iCareerSolutions and arnomarkus.com, so that a term means one thing wherever you meet it.

Reviewed September 29, 2026 · Published by the National Reverse Recruiter Association · Edited by Arno Markus

A B C D E F H I L M N O P Q R S T W

A

Applicant tracking system (ATS)

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is the software an employer uses to receive, store, search and screen applications for posted roles. Most large employers route every online application through one before a person reads it.

An ATS is a database, not a judge. It parses your résumé into fields, stores it, and lets recruiters search and filter. Whether you are seen depends on whether your document parses cleanly and whether a recruiter's search terms match what it contains. Practical consequences: use a plain, well-structured executive résumé for online applications, keep the wording of your titles and skills recognisable, and never rely on the ATS route alone for a role you care about. Claims that a service can beat the ATS should be read sceptically; what works is clean formatting and a direct approach to the decision-maker.

Application service

An application service submits applications to posted roles on a job seeker's behalf, typically at volume, using the client's documents and, in some cases, lightly tailored versions. It works the visible job market only.

Application services are sometimes marketed as Reverse Recruiting, and they are not. Submitting applications is a small, mechanical part of a search that does not require judgement about targets, does not reach decision-makers, and produces no conversation until an employer responds. At senior level, high-volume applications can do harm: they put you in front of employers you have not chosen, at levels you do not want, with documents nobody adjusted. If a provider's main measure of activity is applications sent, you are buying an application service. Useful in a limited way; not a substitute for a target map and direct outreach.

B

Board-level search

A board-level search is a search for a non-executive director, chair or advisory board seat, or for a chief executive role appointed by a board. It is conducted almost entirely through networks and retained firms rather than advertising.

Board appointments are made by people who already sit on boards, on the advice of nominations committees, investors and retained search firms. Very few are posted. A candidate-side search for a board seat therefore depends on decision-maker mapping, warm paths and an executive bio written for a nominations committee, with the résumé in a supporting role. Expect a long time to offer, and expect to be asked what you bring that the current board lacks. If you are seeking a first non-executive role while in an executive seat, run it as an in-seat, confidential search with a small, well-chosen target map.

C

Candidate-side search

Candidate-side search is any search process in which the person seeking the role is the client and the party who pays. Reverse Recruiting is the fullest form of candidate-side search; résumé services and coaching are partial forms.

The phrase identifies whose interests a provider serves. In a candidate-side search you set the target list, you approve the messages, and the provider answers to you alone. This is the mirror image of employer-side search, where the recruiter's client is the company and you are a candidate being screened. Knowing which side a provider sits on tells you how to read their advice: an employer-side recruiter will only help you toward the roles they are paid to fill, while a candidate-side provider is obliged to consider the whole market on your behalf.

Career coach (job-search coaching)

A career coach is an adviser who helps a job seeker decide what to pursue and how, through structured conversations. Job-search coaching is the narrower service of advising on search tactics, documents and interviews. In both, the client does the work.

Coaching is valuable when the question is what you want, or when you need a disciplined outside view on how you present. It is not a search. A coach does not build a target map, identify decision-makers, send outreach or manage a pipeline; they prepare and advise you to do so. Many people who buy coaching expecting a search are disappointed, and many who buy a search without having settled what they want waste the first cycle. Establish which you need. Reverse Recruiting engagements include advice, but their defining feature is that the reverse recruiter carries out the work.

Comp band

A comp band is the range of total compensation a company has set for a given role or grade, within which an offer will normally fall. It reflects the company's pay structure, the market for the role and internal equity.

Knowing the comp band turns negotiation from a guess into a placement question: where in the range does your experience justify sitting, and what evidence supports it? Bands are rarely disclosed in full, but a reverse recruiter can often establish the likely range through the target map research and through the conversations in the pipeline. Ask early where a role sits; a company that cannot say has not yet defined the role, which is itself useful to know. If an offer is at the top of the band, further gains will usually come from equity or a sign-on payment rather than base.

Confidential search

A confidential search is a candidate-side search conducted while the client remains in a role, structured so that the current employer, colleagues and the wider market do not learn that the client is looking.

Most executive searches are confidential, and the method has to respect that. Outreach goes to named decision-makers, not to public channels; profile changes are gradual; references are not approached without permission; and the provider never discloses the client's name to a company before the client agrees. Ask how your provider manages confidentiality in practice, including who inside their firm sees your file. A confidential search also constrains pace, since you cannot interview freely during working hours, so build that into the expected time to offer. Tell the provider at the outset which companies and people are off limits.

Contingent recruiter (contingency fee)

A contingent recruiter is an employer-side recruiter paid only if a candidate they introduce is hired. The contingency fee is that payment, normally a percentage of first-year salary, owed by the employer to the recruiter on the hire.

Because a contingent recruiter is paid on placement, their incentive is speed and volume: submit candidates who are likely to be hired quickly, on as many open roles as possible. That can work in your favour when you match an open brief closely, and against you when you do not. The contingency fee is a cost to the employer, which some hiring managers weigh against a direct approach from a candidate who arrives without a fee attached. Do not confuse a contingency fee with a percentage-of-salary fee charged to the candidate by a Reverse Recruiting provider; they run in opposite directions.

D

Decision-maker mapping

Decision-maker mapping is the research step that identifies, for each company on a target map, the specific people who can create or approve the role a client wants, and the people who influence them.

For a senior role the hiring decision usually sits with a chief executive, a divisional head, a board member or an investor, not with a recruiter or a talent team. Mapping means finding those names, understanding their reporting lines, and noting any connection that could provide a warm path. The output is a named contact against each target company, with a reason for the choice. This is the difference between an approach that reaches the person who decides and one that lands in a general careers inbox. Ask your provider to show you the map, not just the count.

Direct approach

A direct approach is an outreach message sent to a decision-maker with whom the client has no prior connection, written in the client's name and grounded in specific research about the company and the person.

The direct approach is how executive search firms reach people who are not looking, and it works in the other direction too. What separates it from a cold pitch is preparation: a reason the company is on the target map, a reason this person is the right recipient, and a proposition that relates to their situation rather than to your wish for a job. Direct approaches should be short, sent from your own account, and followed up on a schedule. Because they go out in your name, you should see and approve them before they are sent.

E

Employer-side search

Employer-side search is recruitment carried out on behalf of a hiring company, which pays the fee and defines the brief. Retained executive search and contingent recruiting are both employer-side; the candidate is the product, not the client.

Most recruiters a senior job seeker meets are employer-side. They are professional and often helpful, but their duty runs to the company that engaged them, and their attention is limited to the assignments they currently hold. They will not search the market for you, and they cannot represent you to companies that have not hired them. Treat employer-side recruiters as one channel among several. Keep them informed, respond quickly, and make it easy for their researchers to find you, but do not mistake being on a recruiter's list for having a search under way.

Equity refresh

An equity refresh is an additional grant of shares or options made to a senior employee after the initial grant, typically on a schedule or at a review, so that vesting continues to reward retention beyond the first grant's term.

Equity terms deserve as much attention as salary in a senior offer, and refresh policy is one of the terms most often left unstated. A generous initial grant with no refresh can leave you fully vested and with no forward incentive within a few years. Offer analysis should ask whether refreshes are policy or discretion, what triggers them, how they vest, and how the company has treated existing leaders. In PE-backed companies the equivalent question is about the management incentive plan and what happens at exit. Ask in writing; the answer belongs in the offer, not in a conversation.

Executive bio

An executive bio is a short narrative profile, usually a few paragraphs, that introduces a leader in prose for use in introductions, board packs, speaker notes and the messages that accompany a direct approach or warm introduction.

Where the résumé is a record, the bio is an introduction. It is what an introducer forwards, what a chief executive reads before a first conversation, and what a board reviews alongside a shortlist. It should say what you do, at what scale, with what results, and what you are looking for, in a voice that sounds like you. The bio is produced from the same outreach narrative as the résumé, so the two never contradict each other. Ask for a full version and a two-line version; both get used.

Executive résumé

An executive résumé is the document that presents a senior leader's record of results, scope and progression in a form a decision-maker, board member or search consultant can absorb quickly. It is written from the outreach narrative, not before it.

At executive level the résumé is read by people deciding whether to have a conversation, so it must show the size and difficulty of what you have led and the outcomes, in the language of the reader on your target map. It is a positioning document, produced in the second stage of the Reverse Recruitment Method™, and it should be consistent with your bio and profile. Expect a master version plus targeted variants. A résumé on its own, however good, is not a search; it is one of the tools a search uses.

F

Fixed engagement fee

A fixed engagement fee is a candidate-side pricing model in which the job seeker pays an agreed amount for a defined scope of work over a defined period, regardless of the salary of the role eventually obtained.

A fixed fee makes the cost known in advance and keeps the provider's advice independent of the size of the offer. It is the model iCareerSolutions uses for Reverse Recruiting, priced per monthly cycle. The trade-off is that a fixed fee buys effort and process, not a result; the written scope should therefore say exactly what work is included, how it is reported, and what happens at the end of each cycle. When comparing providers, ask what the fee covers, what is extra, and whether any part of the payment is refundable if the engagement stops early.

Founding firm

A founding firm is a Reverse Recruiting practice that took part in establishing the National Reverse Recruiter Association and its standards. iCareerSolutions, where the Reverse Recruitment Method™ was formalised, is the association's founding firm.

The designation records the origin of the standards rather than conferring any preference. The Standard Process and Code of Ethics were written from the founding firm's practice, and the association is intended to extend them across the profession. For a job seeker the practical meaning is provenance: the Method the association describes has been used in real engagements, and the terms in this glossary have specific operational meanings within it. It does not mean a founding firm is the right provider for every search, and the association's credential and code apply to it in the same way as to any member.

H

Hidden job market

The hidden job market is the set of senior roles that are filled without ever being publicly advertised, through retained search, internal moves, investor networks, or an approach from a candidate who arrived before the vacancy existed.

The more senior the role, the more likely it is to be filled this way, because companies at that level prefer discretion and a small, trusted shortlist. This is why a search built around posted roles under-serves executives: it competes hardest for the smallest and most visible part of the market. Reverse Recruiting is designed for the hidden part. The target map and direct approach reach companies before they advertise, and sometimes before they have decided to hire. Treat the phrase with care; it describes how roles are filled, not a secret list anyone can sell you.

I

In-seat search

An in-seat search is a search run by a leader who is currently employed and not under pressure to move, aimed at a better role rather than any role. It is usually confidential and often slower by choice.

Searching from a position of strength changes the economics: you can be selective about the target map, decline early approaches that are not right, and negotiate from a base you already hold. The risks are drift and complacency, since nothing forces the pace. A Reverse Recruiting engagement supplies the structure an in-seat search otherwise lacks: a target map, scheduled outreach, and a pipeline report that shows whether anything is actually moving. Be clear with your provider about your threshold for moving, so that the outreach narrative and the definition of a qualified interview reflect it.

Interview guarantee

An interview guarantee is a provider's written promise that a client will obtain a stated number of interviews within a stated period, usually with a defined remedy such as continued work or a partial refund if the number is not reached.

Read the definition of interview in the guarantee before you value it. A guarantee counted in any conversation with any company is easy to meet and tells you nothing; a guarantee counted in qualified interviews is meaningful. Check what triggers the remedy, whether it depends on you meeting conditions, and whether it can be met by steering you toward roles below your level. A guarantee is a marketing device as often as a commitment. The more useful question is what the pipeline report shows week by week, since that is where the interviews come from.

L

LinkedIn positioning

LinkedIn positioning is the deliberate structuring of a leader's LinkedIn profile, headline, summary and activity so that it supports the outreach narrative and is found by the recruiters and decision-makers on the target map.

Your profile is checked before almost every reply to an approach, and it is the primary place recruiters run searches. Positioning it means aligning it with the résumé and bio, choosing the words that the people you want to reach actually search for, and making the current headline say what you are, not what your last employer called you. It also means deciding what to leave out. Positioning is not the same as posting content; visibility helps, but a clear, consistent profile does most of the work. Review it whenever the target map changes.

M

Managed job search (done-for-you search)

A managed job search, also sold as a done-for-you search, is an engagement in which a provider runs the search on the client's behalf rather than advising the client to run it. Reverse Recruiting is the executive form of managed job search.

The label covers a wide range, from application services that submit at volume to full Reverse Recruiting engagements built on a target map and direct approaches to decision-makers. The question to ask is what, exactly, is managed: is someone identifying companies and people, writing to them in your name, handling replies and reporting weekly, or is someone pressing apply? The written scope will tell you. For a senior leader, a managed search that does not include decision-maker mapping and outreach in your name is unlikely to reach the roles that matter, however much activity it generates.

Monthly cycle

A monthly cycle is the unit of engagement in Reverse Recruiting as practised by iCareerSolutions: a fixed period in which a defined amount of research, outreach and pipeline work is done, reported, and reviewed before the next cycle is agreed.

Working in cycles keeps a long search under control. Each cycle has a plan, drawn from the target map and the current pipeline; a set of approaches to be sent; and a review at the end that looks at replies, qualified interviews and what should change. You decide at each review whether to continue, pause or stop, so the commitment is one cycle at a time rather than an open-ended retainer. When reading a written scope, look for what a cycle includes, how many targets and approaches, and what the review covers. A cycle without a review is just a billing period.

N

Negotiation support

Negotiation support is the help a reverse recruiter gives a client in responding to an offer: preparing the case, deciding what to ask for, drafting the response, and advising during the exchange. The client always speaks for themselves.

At senior level, negotiation is usually expected and rarely resented, provided it is specific and well-founded. Support means turning the offer analysis into a request: which items, in what order, backed by what evidence, and where you will stop. The reverse recruiter drafts, rehearses and advises, but does not negotiate on your behalf, because the relationship being formed is between you and your future employer. Check whether negotiation support is inside the written scope, whether it continues after the fee is paid, and whether the provider has any interest in the size of the outcome.

NRRA Code of Ethics

The NRRA Code of Ethics is the set of obligations a National Reverse Recruiter Association member firm accepts toward its clients, covering loyalty to the candidate, transparency of fees and scope, honest reporting, confidentiality, and the accuracy of claims made about results.

For a job seeker the Code is a set of questions to ask any provider, member or not. Is the fee stated in writing before payment? Is there a written scope? Does the provider report actual activity, with names, or only totals? Is your search confidential by default? Are the claims on the provider's website ones they can evidence? The Code also settles a point of principle: a reverse recruiter acts for the candidate alone and does not take payment from employers in the same engagement. A provider that will not commit to those points in writing should be judged accordingly.

NRRA credential

The NRRA credential is the designation the National Reverse Recruiter Association awards to individual practitioners who demonstrate competence in the Standard Process and commit to the Code of Ethics. It identifies a qualified reverse recruiter.

The credential exists because the term reverse recruiter has no legal protection and is used loosely. Holding it means the person has shown they can build a target map, position a senior candidate, run outreach in the client's name, and manage a pipeline to offer, and that they work under the Code. It is a credential for people, not firms; a firm's membership is a separate matter. When you engage a provider, ask whether the senior strategist on your search holds it, and check with the association rather than relying on a logo.

NRRA Standard Process

The NRRA Standard Process is the National Reverse Recruiter Association's published description of the stages a Reverse Recruiting engagement should follow, from target map and positioning through outreach in the client's name to pipeline management and offer. It is derived from the Reverse Recruitment Method™.

The Standard Process gives a job seeker a checklist against which to read any provider's written scope. If a stage is missing, or a stage is present in name but not in deliverables, the engagement is not Reverse Recruiting as the association defines it. It also gives member firms a common language, so that a pipeline report or a qualified interview means the same thing from one firm to another. The Standard Process describes what must be done; it does not fix how each firm prices or staffs the work.

O

Offer analysis

Offer analysis is the structured review of a written offer, covering base salary, bonus, equity, benefits, notice and restrictive terms, set against the client's requirements, the comp band for the role, and any other offers in the pipeline.

An offer is a document to be read carefully, not a verdict to be accepted or refused on the spot. Analysis means establishing the total compensation, identifying what is missing or vague, checking the equity terms including vesting and any refresh policy, and noting clauses that limit your future moves. It also means placing the offer in context: the comp band for comparable roles, where the company sits on your target map, and the state of your other conversations. The output is a short list of points to accept, clarify or negotiate, in priority order.

Outplacement

Outplacement is a career transition service paid for by a former employer for people it has made redundant, typically providing coaching, document help, workshops and access to job listings for a fixed period.

Outplacement is a benefit, and worth using, but it is designed around the employer's budget and duty of care rather than around your next role. It is usually delivered at volume, with generic materials and limited individual outreach. For a senior leader it can cover the basics of documents and interview practice while a proper candidate-side search runs alongside. Check whether the outplacement provider will actually contact companies on your behalf; most will not. If your severance is being negotiated, it is sometimes possible to take the outplacement allowance as cash and apply it to a Reverse Recruiting engagement instead.

Outreach narrative

The outreach narrative is the concise, consistent account of who a leader is, what they have done, and what they are looking for next, written to be used across approaches, introductions, profiles and interviews.

It is developed in the positioning stage and precedes the documents; the executive résumé, bio and profile are all expressions of it. A good narrative names the kind of problem you solve, the evidence that you have solved it, and the type of company where it matters next. It is written for the reader on the target map, not for a general audience, which is why it changes when the target map changes. If every message your provider sends could have been written for anyone, the narrative has not been done.

P

PE-backed company

A PE-backed company is a business owned or controlled by a private equity fund, usually for a fixed period, with a plan to grow value and sell. Its senior hires are shaped by that plan and often by the investor directly.

Private equity ownership changes how leadership roles are created, filled and paid. The investor's operating partners and deal team frequently make or influence the appointment, so decision-maker mapping should include them, not only the portfolio company's board. Roles are tied to a value-creation plan with a defined horizon, and pay leans heavily on equity that vests on exit, which makes total compensation harder to compare with a listed or private company. The pace is fast and the tolerance for missed plans is low. If PE-backed companies are on your target map, the outreach narrative should speak to the plan, not to the job.

Percentage-of-salary fee

A percentage-of-salary fee is a candidate-side pricing model in which the job seeker pays the provider a proportion of the first-year salary of the role obtained, in addition to or instead of a fixed engagement fee.

This model is sometimes presented as aligning the provider's interest with yours, since payment depends on a result. Consider it carefully. It can encourage a provider to steer you toward any offer rather than the right one, and it can produce a large bill on top of what has already been paid. Whatever model is used, insist that it is stated in writing before the engagement starts, with the base it is calculated on and the events that trigger it; the NRRA Code of Ethics treats fee transparency as a baseline obligation. Compare the total expected cost with a fixed engagement fee before you sign.

Pipeline

The pipeline is the live record of every conversation a Reverse Recruiting engagement has opened, from first reply through interviews and offer, showing where each one stands and what happens next. It is the fourth stage of the Reverse Recruitment Method™.

Managing the pipeline is most of the work once outreach is under way. Each entry has a company, a named contact, a stage, a last action and a next action with a date. The reverse recruiter keeps replies moving, chases silence, schedules conversations and prepares you for each one. The pipeline is also the evidence of whether the search is working: how many approaches produced replies, how many replies became qualified interviews, and how long each stage is taking. You should be able to see it at any time, not only in a summary.

Pipeline report

A pipeline report is the regular written summary, usually weekly, that a reverse recruiter sends a client showing outreach sent, replies received, conversations at each stage, actions taken and actions due.

The report is how you hold a provider to the written scope. It should be factual and cumulative: this week's activity against the total, with names rather than counts wherever possible, so you can check it against your own inbox and calendar. A report that only lists messages sent, with no replies and no next steps, tells you the search is stalled. A report you have to ask for is a warning sign in itself. Use the report to make decisions: which targets to drop, where to add warm paths, and whether the outreach narrative needs to change.

Placement guarantee

A placement guarantee is a provider's written promise that a client will receive and accept an offer within a stated period, with a remedy if not. It is rare in candidate-side search because the provider does not control the hiring decision.

No candidate-side provider decides who gets hired, so a placement guarantee is either heavily conditioned, priced to cover the risk, or not what it appears. Read the conditions: the level and type of role that counts, the obligations placed on you, the exclusions, and what the remedy actually is. A remedy of continued work is not a guarantee; it is a description of the engagement. Be more cautious still if the guarantee is paired with a percentage-of-salary fee, since the provider then gains from any acceptance. Prefer a clear written scope and honest reporting over a promise nobody can keep.

Posted role

A posted role is a vacancy that has been publicly advertised on a company careers page, a job board or a professional network, and which will typically receive applications through an applicant tracking system.

Posted roles are the visible job market and a legitimate part of any search, but at senior levels they carry two disadvantages: high competition and a screening process that starts with software and junior reviewers. Applying through the posting is rarely enough on its own. Where a posted role is on your target map, the reverse recruiter should still find the decision-maker and approach them directly, so the application arrives with a conversation already open. Where it is not on the map, ask why you would apply at all. Volume of applications is not a measure of progress.

Q

Qualified interview (first interview)

A first interview is the initial substantive conversation with a company about a role. A qualified interview is a first interview with a company on the target map, for a role at the intended level, held with someone who can influence the hire.

The distinction matters because counting interviews is easy and counting useful ones is not. An exploratory chat with a recruiter about an unrelated role is an interview; it is not a qualified one. Reverse Recruiting engagements should report qualified interviews as the measure of whether outreach is working, and the written scope should say how they are defined. For you, each qualified interview is a milestone that deserves preparation: a brief on the company and the person, the questions you will be asked, and the questions you should ask. Track them yourself as well as in the pipeline report.

R

Recruiter search

Recruiter search describes how recruiters and researchers query LinkedIn Recruiter and similar databases to find candidates, using filters such as current title, company, location, years in role and keywords, and ranking the results by relevance to those terms.

Understanding recruiter search tells you why some profiles are found and others are not. Recruiters rarely browse; they filter, and profiles that lack the filtered terms are simply absent from the list. The practical steps are to hold the titles and keywords your target roles use, in the fields recruiters filter on, and to keep your location and openness settings accurate. This is a defensive measure: it makes employer-side search work in your favour. It is not a substitute for candidate-side outreach, because a search only finds you for the assignments a recruiter already holds.

Résumé service

A résumé service produces a résumé, and often a cover letter and profile, for a fee. The deliverable is the document; the service ends when the document is delivered, and the job seeker conducts the search.

A well-written executive résumé is a necessary tool, and a good résumé service produces one. The limitation is not quality but scope: a document does not decide where to aim, does not reach a decision-maker, and does not follow up. Judge a résumé service by whether the writer understands senior roles, works from a narrative rather than a template, and produces something you would send to a board. Judge it separately from a search. A provider that sells a résumé as if it were a search, or a search that is mostly a résumé, has confused the two.

Retained executive search

Retained executive search is employer-side search in which a firm is paid an exclusive fee, usually in instalments, to fill a senior role regardless of outcome. The firm typically handles one assignment per role and works from a defined brief.

Retained firms are the model that Reverse Recruiting reverses. They research the market, approach people who are not looking, and manage a shortlist through to appointment, all for the employer. For a senior job seeker they matter in two ways: they run many of the board-level and chief executive searches that are never posted, and their methods show what a thorough candidate-side search should look like. You cannot hire a retained firm to find you a role; their client is always the company. You can, however, make sure their researchers can find and understand you.

Reverse recruiter

A reverse recruiter is the professional who runs a Reverse Recruiting engagement. The role combines the research and outreach skills of an executive search consultant with a duty of loyalty to one client, the candidate, rather than to an employer.

Expect a reverse recruiter to do the work a search firm would do for a hiring company, turned around: map the market, identify the people who can hire you, write and send the approaches, handle replies, and keep a live record of every conversation. The reverse recruiter is not a coach who tells you what to do; the reverse recruiter does it. Ask who will personally handle your outreach, how many other clients they carry at once, and how their work is reported to you each week.

Reverse Recruiting

Reverse Recruiting is executive search run for the candidate instead of the employer. A reverse recruiter identifies the companies and decision-makers that fit a leader's next move, builds the positioning and documents, runs the outreach in the leader's name, and manages the pipeline of conversations until an offer is accepted.

For a senior job seeker the distinction matters because the work is done in your name and for your benefit, not for a hiring company that pays a fee. You remain the decision-maker on which companies are approached and what is said. The service covers the whole search, from deciding where to aim to accepting an offer, rather than a single deliverable such as a résumé. Judge any provider that uses the phrase against that standard: if nobody is contacting decision-makers on your behalf and reporting the results to you, it is not Reverse Recruiting.

Reverse Recruitment Method™

The Reverse Recruitment Method™ is the structured process for Reverse Recruiting formalised in 2021 by Arno Markus at iCareerSolutions. It runs in four stages: target map, positioning, outreach in the client's name, and pipeline to offer.

The Method exists so that a candidate-side search follows a repeatable sequence instead of improvised activity. The target map decides where to aim before any document is written. Positioning produces the narrative, résumé, bio and profile that the outreach will rely on. Outreach goes out under the client's own name to the mapped decision-makers. The pipeline stage tracks every reply through interviews, offer analysis and negotiation until the client accepts. The NRRA Standard Process is derived from these four stages, so a firm that follows the Standard Process is applying the Method in substance.

S

Senior strategist

A senior strategist is the experienced reverse recruiter who leads a client engagement: designing the target map, shaping the positioning, directing the outreach and owning the pipeline, with research and drafting support from a team where one is used.

The title tells you who is accountable. In a firm of any size the work is shared, but one person should hold your search in their head, know every conversation in the pipeline, and be the one you speak to about strategy. When engaging a provider, ask who the senior strategist on your search will be, what their background in executive search or senior hiring is, and how many searches they lead at once. A strategist who cannot answer for the pipeline in detail is not leading it. The NRRA credential is intended to identify people qualified for this role.

T

Target map

A target map is the researched list of companies, and the decision-makers inside them, that fit a leader's next move. It is the first stage of the Reverse Recruitment Method™ and the document from which all outreach is drawn.

The target map replaces the job board as the starting point of a search. It is built from your criteria, such as sector, company stage, ownership, size, location and the scope of role you want, then tested against the market to see which companies actually match. Each company entry names the people who could hire you or influence the hire. A good target map is specific enough that every message sent can be traced back to it, and small enough to work through properly. Expect to review and approve it before any outreach starts, and to see it updated as replies come in.

Time to offer

Time to offer is the elapsed time from the start of an engagement, or from the first approach to a given company, to the receipt of a written offer. It is the main measure of how long a candidate-side search takes.

Senior searches take months, not weeks, because decision-makers move slowly and the hidden job market involves creating a role as often as filling one. Ask a provider how they measure time to offer and what their typical range is, and treat any exact promise with suspicion, since no provider controls the employer's timetable. Knowing the likely duration helps you plan finances, manage a confidential search around a current role, and judge whether a stalled pipeline is normal or a problem. The monthly cycle exists partly so that you review progress against time at fixed points.

Total compensation

Total compensation is the full value of an offer: base salary, target and maximum bonus, equity or long-term incentive, pension or retirement contribution, benefits, allowances and any sign-on or retention payment, expressed over a defined period.

Senior offers are compared on total compensation, not on salary, and the mix varies widely between listed, private and PE-backed companies. Offer analysis should convert every element to a value over a common period, note which parts are guaranteed and which are at risk, and show what is forfeited by leaving your current role, such as unvested equity or a pending bonus. That comparison is what negotiation support is built on. When a provider or recruiter quotes a figure, ask which elements it includes; package is used loosely and the difference between base and total can be large at this level.

W

Warm path (warm introduction)

A warm path is a route to a decision-maker through someone who already knows them, such as a former colleague, investor, adviser or board member, resulting in a warm introduction rather than a cold approach.

A warm introduction changes how a message is received: it arrives with a name attached and a reason to read it. Decision-maker mapping should identify warm paths wherever they exist, drawing on your own network and the provider's. A warm path does not remove the need for a clear outreach narrative; the introducer lends credibility, but the substance still has to be yours. Where no warm path exists, a well-researched direct approach is the alternative, and most target maps will need both. Keep a note of who introduced you to whom, and close the loop with them afterwards.

Written scope

A written scope is the document that sets out what a candidate-side provider will and will not do, over what period, for what fee, with what reporting, and what the client must supply in return. It is the basis of the engagement.

Read the scope before the testimonials. It should name the stages of work, the deliverables in each stage, who performs the outreach, how often you receive a pipeline report, how the fee is calculated, and how either side ends the engagement. Vague phrases such as full support or unlimited revisions are not scope. If a promise made on a sales call is not in the written scope, assume it is not part of the engagement. NRRA member firms are expected to issue a written scope before taking payment, and to work to it.

Edited by Arno Markus

Editor. Former executive recruiter, Founding President of the National Reverse Recruiter Association, creator of the Reverse Recruitment Method™, Founder & CEO of iCareerSolutions. About the editor · Editorial policy

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