Navigating the Current Executive Search Market
To our Talent Community,
Market Overview: A Return to Normalcy
After a rollercoaster period from 2019-2024, the talent market is finally close to showing signs of stabilization. From 2019-2022, we witnessed unprecedented demand and limited supply for top recruiting and HR roles. This was followed by an 18-month period where people and recruiting teams faced significant and disproportionate RIFs, leading to a seemingly barren opportunity landscape. As we enter 2025, we're seeing a more normalized market with increasing opportunities, the challenge is that they are not always visible on the surface.
The Rise of "Pocket Listings"
Much like in real estate, where some properties are sold through private networks without ever appearing on public listings, companies are increasingly using "pocket listings" for senior talent and HR roles. Rather than posting positions publicly and before engaging a search firm, organizations are leveraging their investors and personal networks to connect with potential candidates. This shift in hiring strategy has created a unique and sometimes frustrating dynamic for leaders trying to get a sense of opportunities in the market.
The Connection Challenge
These market dynamics have created an interesting paradox: while opportunities exist and qualified candidates are available, making meaningful connections between the two has become more opaque. The traditional job posting for a leadership role was always rare and is now nearly non-existent given the onslaught of applications (real or otherwise) any role now receives. Coupled with the trend of companies opting to try to fill a role on their own rather than engage with an outside firm, the result is a more nuanced, relationship-driven approach to hiring.
With all of this in mind, here’s advice we give candidates in this more hidden job market:
Invest in your network
Build and nurture your professional network, even when not actively searching. It is much easier to cultivate connections over a longer horizon rather than feeling a time crunch where it will likely come off as selfishly motivated. Attend events, join slack groups, reach out and connect with peers and always take the call about a role even to just learn about what else is out there.
Be specific about your career goals and non-negotiables. Paradoxically, the hardest person to help in a job search is the person who is “flexible and open to anything”. When you have a clear, crisp, and concise idea that you can convey to others, it is much more likely to spur ideas and connections they will have for you.
Stay top of mind with a handful (10-15) of people in your network who are likely to have an ear to the ground on opportunities and who you have shared values with. They are going to have access to more opportunities and be more likely to surface ones that are going to be of interest to you. Through your conversations, you’ll likely get more conviction in an ideal direction. Regularly check in with this group every 3-4 weeks: even if it’s just a “no action update” so you reset the clock on you being top of mind for them. That email can include a concise and easy to remember summary of what type of role and company you are looking for.
People naturally want to help, but you have to make it easy for them to do so. For example, if you are asking them to make an introduction for you, create a draft email intro that they can copy and paste in email.
Don’t be a taker. Taking lessons from Adam Grant’s “Give and Take”, ask others what you can do to help them even if you initiate a connection request or ask for an introduction. Celebrate others’ successes and proactively reach out to support your network.
And if you are helping others, blind introductions are almost never a good idea. The best way to be helpful is to check in with others to see if they’re open to making the connection first, which sets both sides up to be helpful to each other.
The talent market of 2025 presents both challenges and opportunities. While the volume of opportunities has increased compared to the previous 18 months, the way these opportunities are discovered and pursued has evolved. Success in this market requires adaptability, strong networks, and strategic thinking from both hiring organizations and candidates*.
—
Adam, Mike & Jill
*To learn more about this, GBD Founding Partner, Adam Ward, discussed this topic in the HR Heretics podcast earlier this month.
🗓️ Upcoming Events:
📋 Training and Development Survey!
GBD is currently assessing how companies are approaching training and development in 2025. The survey closes tomorrow, February 28th! For participating we will share early access to insights we gather and benchmarking data from peer companies.
Take the survey here!
✨ Client Spotlights
ATS optimization and implementation work has accelerated dramatically! We've successfully partnered with several Talent Acquisition teams—including Abridge, Magic, and Ambience Healthcare—to implement new ATS platforms or enhance existing configurations. While modern ATS solutions offer powerful customization and valuable data insights, achieving optimal setup requires specialized expertise. Our clients have benefited from GBD's deep knowledge in critical areas such as interview workflows, scorecard design, and permission structures to overcome implementation challenges and maximize recruiting effectiveness.
If your organization needs help with ATS implementation or optimization, reach out at hello@gbdtalent.com.
🚀 February Leadership Moves in the Market:
Emma Chui, former Talent at Kleiner Perkins, joined Ambience Healthcare as Talent Lead.
Camila R., former Head of Talent Programs & Emerging Talent , joined Handskake as VP of People.
Jacki Leonard, former Global Head of HR Programs & Experience, joined Salesforce as VP, Global Talent Acquisition - Operations and Analytics.
Brianna Rooney, former Chief Learning Officer at Thriversity, joined Premier Financial Search as Recruiting Director.
Chris Middlemass, former Head of Talent at Sleeper, joined Groq as Talent Partner.
Matt Valentino, former Chief People Officer at Shape Therapeutics Inc., joined Chime as VP of Talent.
Dipti Sood, former Senior Manager Talent Acquisition at Intuit, joined Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies as Senior Manager Talent Acquisition - Engineering.
Kenny Mendes, former COO at Coda, joined Grammarly as Chief People Officer.
Leigh Levine, former Tech Talent Lead at VMG Partners, joined Vintage Investment Partners as Head of Talent and Community.
Drew Plack, former Head of Talent Acquisition at Higher Ground Education, joined Meta as Recruiting Lead - Software Engineering.
Chad Rogers, former Executive & Leadership Recruiting - Engineering, Product, and Design at Grammarly, joined Quantam as Director.
Rachel Taylor, former Chief Executive Officer at CxO Whisperer, joined Aviatrix as Head of GTM Talent.
Zac DeMarco, former Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition, joined TechWolf as Head of Talent.
Lisah Barry, former Vice President of People at SIMULATE, joined Elevated Materials as VP of People.
Carleigh Morba, former Client Partner at SPMB Executive Search, joined Index Ventures as Talent - GTM.
Evan Palmer, former Recruitment Consultant at Squad, joined Lazer Technologies as Talent Lead - Crypto.
Michelle Rojas Blackett, former Director, Business People Partner at Spring Health, joined Reformation as Senior Director of Talent Strategy & DEI.
Valerie Vadala, former Head of Talent Acquisition at Shutterstock, joined HUMAN as Vice President Talent Acquisition.
Sam Sams, former Vice President, Talent at Raft, joined The Swift Group, LLC as Vice President of Talent and Brand.
Ally Baker, former Vice President, Executive Talent at Insight Partners, joined Uber as Director, Global Non Technical Executive Recruiting.
Joseph Ortiz, former Global Talent Acquisition Manager, Tech at Datadog, joined EvenUp as Director, Talent Acquisition.
Charlie Farrell, former Principal Executive Recruiter, joined OpenAI as a member of Recruiting Staff.
Marcus DeSean, former Technical Recruiting Manager at Dropbox, joined Scale AI as Technical Recruiting Manager, GenAI.
Cynthia Coutinho, former Head of Talent Acquisition at ZipRecruiter, joined Veeam Software as VP of Global Talent Acquisition.
Hetal Shah, former Director, Global Recruiting at Handshake, joined Terradot as Director of People & Talent.
Austen Hinton, former Senior Technical Recruiter at Stripe, joined the Talent Team at Bain Capital Ventures.
Dino Pearson, former Head of Talent Acquisition & People Operations at Knowde, joined PsiQuantum as Director, Talent Acquisition & Operations.
Cindy Gordon, former Chief People Officer at Policygenius Inc., joined Madison Energy Infrastructure as Chief People Officer.
Jennie Yoo, former Head of Talent Acquisition at Wisetack, joined Adyen as Senior Recruiter.
Selena Gee, former Head of Talent and Workplace Experiences at Plaid, joined Atlassian as Head of Talent Acquisition.
John Kempe, former member of Recruiting Team at Notion, joined Mercury as Head of Technical Recruiting.
Brian Cannon, former Head of Talent at Airbyte, joined Mistral AI as Head of Talent, US.
Rhonda Jakub, former Fractional Head of Talent at Flowcode, joined Demandbase as VP Talent Acquisition.
Camila Thomsen, former Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, joined Meta in Executive Recruiting, Specialized Software Engineering.
Did we miss your career change? Let us know: hello@gbdtalent.com
📖 What We’re Reading & Listening to:
Inside Anthropic's Race to Build a Smarter Claude and Human-Level AI - WSJ
Recruiting Benchmarks Uncovered: Trends and Insights for 2025 - Gem
AI That Works With Me: 10 Use Cases and The Tools I Trust - James Raybould
Building a world class interviewing culture - Jordan Mazer, a16z
Beyond Hires per Recruiter - Will Ducey
ARK Invest Big Ideas 2025 - ARK Investment Management
State of Hiring in 2025 - Willo
How to Design an Org for Founder Mode - Dan Hock
3 Freaky AI tricks candidates use to fool recruiters - LinkedIn Post
Y-Combinator Interview with Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb - The Social Radars
Donald Knight, SVP of People at Warner Bros Discovery: The CPO Role Across Industries - Scaling People Podcast
📚 Playbooks:
Your Guide to Evaluating and Selecting an ATS: A guide with helpful process frameworks, and evaluation templates to help you make an informed decision about selecting the ATS that is the best fit for your company.
Navigating an IPO: A guide to help you navigate your team through the IPO process. It includes tools and tactics to prepare your team, proactively communicate to pending candidates, and evolve your recruiting operations to support the shift in business.