Accelerating Your Career Advancement

Anita Brick: Hi, this is Anita Brick. And welcome to CareerCast at the Chicago GSB, to help you advance in your career. Today we’re speaking to Tom Linquist, a GSB alum and a very successful businessperson who is a consultant with executive search firm Egon Zehnder International. Tell us a little bit about what you did before search.

Thomas Linquist: I started off as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, and I did that for four years before going to the GSB; spent two years at the GSB and did a career change by design. I went to ABN AMRO Bank for four years, and I was in project finance, so I was utilizing part of my engineering knowledge or project management knowledge, doing international financings, mostly for power generation projects.

And then from there I went to … locally here to People's Energy, which is now Integris Energy. I was the corporate treasurer there, and I was also in charge of doing project financing for their developments in the power generation arena. And then from there, I went on my own for a couple of years doing real estate development just prior to the peak and during the peak.

After that, I went to Accenture and I was a strategic management consultant for them for a couple of years in their energy and utilities practice area. And then somehow I was looking to get back on the CFO path, back into the corporate world, and I was talking to Egon Zehnder about a couple of different opportunities in the context of that.

They said, have you ever thought about executive search? And I said, as a candidate, certainly, but never have thought of being a consultant before. And so that started a dialogue that ended up resulting in me coming here and being a search consultant, changing careers again.

Anita Brick: So … what kinds of searches, I guess, do you work on?

Thomas Linquist: There's a method that you go through. You come into the firm and for the first three years, really, you focus on executing search, not so much on business development. So I focus on executing search in a couple of different industry areas, mainly industrial and within that, energy utilities, chemicals, and doing a lot of automotive searches. Right now also, I focus on financial services, given my banking background, and then functionally speaking, if I have a forte, it's in the financial officers area, and I'm a core member of our financial officers practice area.

But I do searches across functional areas. I've done presidents, CEOs, COOs in a variety of industries.

Anita Brick: And you have counterparts in 38 countries around the globe.

Thomas Linquist: Right, 62 offices in 38 countries.

Anita Brick: And everyone wants to know, how can I get executive recruiters to find me higher and higher and better-paying jobs throughout my career? How does someone who wants to be well positioned with a firm like Egon Zehnder, how do they go about doing it?

Thomas Linquist: I think the first step is making contact. I guess I would frame the answer based on who it is and where they are in their career right now, but generally speaking, I would make direct contact with someone—and I guess my best advice there would be try to find someone that is a consultant, not a researcher in the firm, and someone that may be newer to the firm because they have a more, maybe a more vested interest to spend the time developing these potential candidates.

We have a practice, we call it courtesy interviews. And when we don't have a particular search going with the client, we'll spend 15 minutes or maybe a little bit more meeting potential candidates where we don't exactly have a search going for them right now, but we'll extend the courtesy and get to know them and get them in our database.

And so when something does come up, they're sort of at the forefront of our mind. We share them based on practice groups. So if someone in a financial officers area contacted me, I would have a courtesy interview with them and I'd share them with my other colleagues globally in our practice group.

Anita Brick: Not everyone who makes contact receives a courtesy.

Thomas Linquist: That's true. If someone writes to us, someone will make contact with them. General advice about executive search across the board: I don't really agree with the internet-based contact with search firms. The internet doesn't replace personal contact. My best advice is for everyone to do what they can to establish personal contact. Look at the biographies—everyone has them. Find someone that you might have some common background with—education or industry—and try to contact them directly based on what level they are in their organization at that time.

If they're a director level, you know, typical director level, one step below VP in an organization, that's probably the time to start making contact with executive search firms and trying to build an awareness of yourself out there.

Anita Brick: What would make that person particularly attractive, either their background and/or their approach that would make someone say, yeah, we really should meet with her?

Thomas Linquist: Pick someone that's about your age so you have something maybe in common with them. It's about establishing a relationship, and then by all means come with a degree of humility. You know, I say that just because I find that a lot of younger students might feel that they have everything to offer. And it's a very competitive world that we face out there.

And we're looking at many people that are experts in their particular fields. And so be humble when you approach. And that goes a long way in just, you know, getting that call back.

Anita Brick: I think I actually heard this from one of your counterparts in Asia, that someone may be in the queue and really establishing trust and credibility for multiple years before they would ever be considered for a search. So what might that look like? Because I think a lot of people are not aware of that. They just figure, well, they're not interested; move on.

Thomas Linquist: To be patient, but understand that we're being paid by our client to find the best for them, and we're bringing a slate of candidates into every search. They're up against some very intense competition when they're working with a retain-based search firm.

Anita Brick: If you were going to advise GSB candidates, what are some things that people might be able to enhance or tweak or develop to be better candidates?

Thomas Linquist: I guess I would get really personal here, because you really have to know yourself well. It's going to move fast, and there's going to be a lot of pressure on you. And if you haven't decided that this is exactly what you want to do in your life … wherever this is going to lead you is going to take you to your career goals.

And if all that's not in sync, I think you'll find yourself maybe not convincing enough, maybe hesitant, and maybe not prepared enough. So I would spend the time doing your own personal self-assessment and, you know, look at some of these things that you guys have on your career website and work through some of those things …

Anita Brick: And sometimes you can get caught up in the moment and say yes to something that you're not really clear about, right? You … that was a bad decision.

Thomas Linquist: And you're ruining your credibility longer term with that search firm and with the client of the search firm. And it's a difficult … a difficult thing. But most importantly, you know, in this whole career development process, or the whole career search process for these candidates, it all comes down to something very personal. And, they need to really focus on that before they get—I believe, before they use search as a component of their, you know, overall arsenal, so to speak, of career search and career development.

Anita Brick: Some people don't understand what the process is.

Thomas Linquist: Absolutely. And just to touch on that, we spend a lot of time with the client understanding their needs, understanding the direction of the company. I mean, we take a very consultative approach with our clients, and we define a pretty detailed role specification for this particular role. And that goes from just the skills and the past experience, but also competencies, such as in certain cases … and Great People Decisions, the book by Claudio, that will be in your career library, I guess that goes into that in quite a lot of detail.

The competencies that we look for, it might be strategic orientation, results orientation, team management skills, people development skills, commercial orientation. And it all depends on which role and at what level we're looking for.

So it might be a 6- to 7-page role specification that we put together, and we, you know, bleed over, I guess with our clients. And so we have that, and we're equipped with that when we start to go out into the market, we have our researchers here, and we sit down with them in a kickoff meeting, and we define exactly what we're going to be looking for in terms of the likely industry that we're going to find the solution in; the likely function that they're going to be in; and the likely level that they're going to be in.

And these researchers are incredible. I mean, they're sleuths, and they go in and they somehow, you know, find these people. And they put together a pretty extensive work list for us. And we—and one of the differentiating factors of Egon Zehnder is the consultants, people at my level and above, all the way to our most senior partners, they're the ones that are making the calls to the candidates off this work list.

So you're likely to get a call from the partner or the consultant that's working on this, and you're going to know them all the way through the search process. The primary source of those leads and discovery of those names is through our database.

So if you're not in our database, you're likely not to get discovered. Of the individuals that we have in our US database that we have coded as having an MBA out of that group, only about 300 of those have earned an MBA from the University of Chicago. So only about 4 percent of our people in there. And I guess that's a call to you all in the audience.

Anita Brick: You can get into the database by … going to the website?

Thomas Linquist: By going to the website, again, finding someone that might have some match or commonalities with your background.

Anita Brick: But not just sending a resume … don't really .. make the contact, start the relationship.

Thomas Linquist: Start the relationship. Make contact.

Anita Brick: By phone? By email?

Thomas Linquist: I think by email is the best way. And, you know, keep it short and sweet. Don't oversell yourself, and just try to make contact. And what would likely happen is either the consultant will pass that around to the appropriate person that they think should call you, given your background.

Anita Brick: Great.

Thomas Linquist: Or you might get a call from one of the researchers just to establish the link. And that's a positive sign too, because then you're sure you're going to get recognized and you're sure you're going to go in the database and be coded properly and all that. So I think that's key.

Anita Brick: OK. So now I'm in the database and you do a search on the criteria and I pop up. So now what happens next?

Thomas Linquist: You would probably get a call. We act in a very confidential manner. So we would never present your resume or your background before talking to you and making sure that it's something that you would want to do. And to get your approval of that, normally we'd contact you very briefly, less than five minutes. Tell you about the opportunity, get your reaction.

You know, if you're not in the database for whatever reason, in terms of … if we don't have your resume in the database, but we have your name in there, we would send you a role specification, ask you to review it at your leisure, take your time, and let us know if you're interested. And if you are, you know, send us your CV and then we'd have a more detailed discussion after that.

Usually I try to do about a 30-minute discussion just to sort of screen and make sure that, you know, it sort of fits the generalities of the role spec. And then beyond that, the next steps would be about a two-hour interview, usually face to face. If we can't arrange time conveniently to meet face to face, we do a video conference.

And then after that, if, you know, if the next steps are warranted, then they would go in to our client and begin to go through the process with our client. We try to be in … and we offer to our clients, we like to be in all the interviews that they go in through with the client, which I think is unusual.

Anita Brick: Very unusual.

Thomas Linquist: Yeah. And we act like a fly on the wall in those situations. And it's very helpful because we can observe. Is this the same candidate that we met, you know, a week ago? What … how is the dynamic going? And, you know, is our client seeing the same things we are? And is this, you know, we can kind of control things and have a much more educated view on … and provide much more advice to both parties as we see that.

And that just deepens the relationship. When you get close to closing the search, there is a lot of discussion, very personal discussion, that takes place between you and the candidate in terms of where they're at in their career and kind of getting them over that hump. It sounds amazing that it gets to that. But, you know, a lot of times these are very big decisions.

Anita Brick: For sure, and candidates … of course, especially if relocation is involved and different lifestyle and all of those things.

Thomas Linquist: And everyone wants it to be a fit, you know, you don't want it forced, right?

Anita Brick: Right.

Thomas Linquist: And the position, you want it to be a very long-term solution for client and candidate.

Anita Brick: Let's say someone gets that initial call. It sounds good. You send them, you know, the entire description, and they realize it's not right for them. What would you advise someone to do? And they want to say no to that one opportunity but yes to the relationship.

Thomas Linquist: Yeah, absolutely. Think of someone that you would recommend and make sure it's a good recommendation. I mean that it's a quality person that you're recommending. But you know, I can tell you a story about cases where we've been very thin on candidates because maybe a role was a very unique role and a very … maybe a difficult market or a smaller market to place in.

And I was … what built my ability to solve the search was … great potential candidates maybe not being interested, but knowing someone that would be interested. We go out and we're trying to solve the search, and, you know, we're a service provider. But, you know, I'd like to think that the product we're really providing is a great candidate that's going to accept the job.

And stay with the company for a long period of time. So we're providing a service. But the product we're providing are these individuals. And if we don't know the product that's out there, you know, we're kind of hamstrung in our efforts. So, you know, part of ensuring our success is these candidates that are out here, you know, helping us, find quality candidates also.

That's so helpful. And it leads to much more likelihood of real success when you've got good people recommending good people out there.

Anita Brick: Absolutely. And it strengthens all the relationships.

Thomas Linquist: Absolutely.

Anita Brick: And the book that you've been referring to is called Great People Decisions. And I think it's good to understand from the recruiters’ side what they're looking for. So as you are hiring, you know how to assist, but also as candidates, you know how to tell your story right and position yourself right.

Thomas Linquist: And by the way, every referral that a candidate would make or that one of the people in our audience would make—that goes on their record too. We say, hey, they referred this person and this person. And so whenever we're talking or looking at them in the future, you know, we look at that, we say, oh, wow, this is a real friend of the firm here. They've recommended these people in the past. They won't mind me calling them and bothering them for five minutes—ask them some questions and get some direction.

Anita Brick: So it sounds like one way that you stay in touch with candidates, even if they're not for a particular position. What's the best way for candidates to stay in touch with the firm, and to keep themselves top of mind without being annoying?

Thomas Linquist: Right. I think that, to check in whenever there's a big event, you've moved on … and you've changed addresses and contact information and changed titles, by all means send a little note to your contact person, whoever it was that you made contact with and that followed up. And, they'll make sure that your information stays updated.

So, you know, I would say on a regular basis, maybe check in every six months or so and just say hello, you know, by email is probably the best way. And then if there's a big promotion or something, by all means, send the press release or whatever it might be. Send that along and keep in touch that way.

Anita Brick: So if you just say hello … to me, it seems a little forced to say, oh, by the way, I'm still alive. You know, if there's anything interesting that you think I'd be a good candidate for, please consider me. Are there any other things? Would it be appropriate for someone to say, you know, we just moved into a new house, we just had another child? Or are those things sort of not the kinds of—I mean, I would think it would be more professional, but ….

Thomas Linquist: Right.

Anita Brick: But what if there isn't anything? Is there another reason, or are there some other things that you find attractive or that you'd be interested in to know about the person?

Thomas Linquist: It depends on the level of our relationship. I guess what we would do is if just information came in that needs to be put in the database, it wouldn't be much of an effort for us just to hand it off to our researchers or, you know, the people to put it in and update the database. So, you know, I'd say that, if there's an event, you know, something that's changed that you definitely want to—and by all means, I mean, if it's a change in contact information, if the headquarters relocates and you replace it with it, just send it along.

Anita Brick: What about things like ... I just got an email from someone today who's going to be the keynote for a very important conference in his field. With things like those and … being published or even being quoted, would you want to, say, get a PDF of an article that someone had been quoted in or someone had written?

Thomas Linquist: Yeah, absolutely. I would like to be contacted about, you know, speaking engagements that these candidates are doing in the area. But again, it goes back to the very beginning of our conversation. Hopefully the connection’s been made on some basis that we have in common and then …

Anita Brick: Right.

Thomas Linquist: You know, if someone sent me something on ..

Anita Brick: I don't know. Oh, the industry.

Thomas Linquist: Yeah. You know, it may not be relevant for me, but it would be for one of my colleagues. And I find—and as I said, if that person contacted me and I saw “food industry” and they said, hey, I just didn't know who to contact, but I know you're a GSB alum, I would get it to the proper person.

I don't know who that is offhand, but I would … I'd find the right person and say, hey, this is maybe someone you should spend a little time with and get to know.

Anita Brick: And I have a question that's a little bit different than what we've been talking about. But still in the same room. Occasionally very senior people will come to us and say, I know that the way to get on a corporate board is through an executive search firm. What would you advise someone who was at that stage of their career, obviously very senior, very well established, who wanted to add that to his or her repertoire?

Thomas Linquist: The process of entry is the exact same way. It's to make contact with someone that you feel that is focused on the industry that you'd like to serve on a board, and make some contact with them. And these are probably going to be, I would say, the more senior people in our organization, the consultants that have been here for 10-plus years, I would say just reaching out the same way, sending an email.

And I do have contacts out there … They're probably, I guess I would say my mentors in the banking industry that are now at that level where they're looking to serve on boards, and the entry is the same way. They're just put into the database and notes are put in there saying the types of boards, and maybe the types of functional skills that they bring to the board, whether it be, you know, accounting background, or financial expertise. So it’s the same exact thing.

Anita Brick: To close, any final advice that you would give someone who maybe is embarking on or reestablishing relationships with Egon Zehnder, but also and obviously, we need to step up the number of people we have in the GSB … reestablishing those kinds of relationships with search firms. What would you recommend?

Thomas Linquist: I would recommend just, you know, making the effort to make the contact. It's so important. I mean, if I could just illustrate with this example: we had a search that we were doing earlier this year, and it was a small town. We were trying to put someone with a private equity fund, and it was a private equity portfolio company, manufacturing company.

And they were looking for a corporate controller in a small town. And, we knew right away it was going to be really difficult to find the quality of person they were looking for and then encourage them to move kind of off their track that they were on into this smaller … city, I should say; it wasn't really a small town.

I found a GSB alum and that person was our placement there. And, they weren't in our database. We advertised actually for it, which is sort of, we tend not to do that in our organization. And again, Great People Decisions talks about that. Only in rare cases do we advertise. And when I say advertise, I don't mean putting an ad in the paper. I mean putting, you know, a targeting advertisement like we did through your placement office.

Anita Brick: Through the job postings. Right.

Thomas Linquist: And, yeah. This individual contacted us through that, and so we wouldn't have known that person had we not put that out there. And, we should have known that person because, you know, maybe enough will respond to this where we know quite a few after this, but we solved the search with a GSB student that was … and it worked out very well personally and kind of, you know, the moon and the stars aligned for family reasons.

They wanted to move to this small city. And it worked out swimmingly. And so I guess I would say to everyone, just, you know, attempt to make the contact and to make the personal contact and maybe, hopefully, I'll be flooded with emails, but, we'll direct them and get them to the right place and get the right attention.

But again, you know, I tell people that, based on the level they're at in an organization, if they're headed … you know, director level, that's probably the time to start considering talking to executive search firms, retain search firms. I would say that, if they've done something very unique in their background and they feel like they're only one of a kind, that they should be probably communicating with executive search firms, maybe even before that.

And to be patient with it and to do their homework before they go in. And I'll tell you, there's a great book in your career library, I know, down at the Harper Center, it's called Rites of Passage.

Anita Brick: But we have it at the Gleacher Center too …

Thomas Linquist: Oh, you do?

Anita Brick: We probably have about 5 or 6 copies.

Thomas Linquist: Oh, good. That's good.

Anita Brick: That John Lucht wrote, right?

Thomas Linquist: Yes. Right.That's a fantastic book. When you're talking to someone that has gone through all the rigamarole of working with executive search firms as a candidate … before, you know, landing at search myself. But that's a fantastic book to kind of explain the caveats and the buyer-beware mentality that you need to come into the executive search contingency versus retained world.

It's very good to have that understanding and be aware and not give your resume up too awful quickly. Confidentiality should be important to you. And protecting your reputation and your name and not just having that scattered by contingency firms. I mean, I think that book is a great guidebook to read for anyone considering getting into working with executive search firms.

Anita Brick: I think it's a good point. And I think, you know, also doing research about the specific firms, because in different parts of the world, the names that people put on their firms—contingency versus retained, etc.—sometimes is a little bit different. So … but I think absolutely, you need to be a really good consumer.

So go out there, make sure you're prepared, have the courage to reach out, make sure you've done your homework on the most likely person to reach out to where you have the most affinities and do it humbly.

Thomas Linquist: Yes, absolutely.

Anita Brick: It's great, humility. Well, Tom, I thank you so much. And we've mentioned the website many times. So let me just spell it out. It's EgonZehnder.com. So we thank you very much. Time for giving us lots of insight. This was really great. And all of you listening, this is Anita Brick with CareerCast at the Chicago GSB. Keep advancing.