When undertaking such a task, it is imperative that you do your best to be visible in the sea of potential recruiters/employers.

Economic fluctuations from 2000 to 2004 had been a battlefield for the best executive talents in the market. And as with all wars, new businesses will spring up, and in this case, the business is the internet recruitment industry.

Executive recruiters rely on technology to make their business work efficiently– with less time and less effort. They have facilitated cutting-edge solutions for electronic recruiting, often having large databases and search engines that run automatic candidate sourcing. Today, a lot of people get hired not because they sought jobs, but because recruiters sought them.

The internet had provided recruiters access to a whole ocean of data and information on potential employees, for finding the perfect candidate can be easily done by skimming various business networks and databases. Data mining is an extremely valuable tool in recruiting passive executive candidates. It is almost overwhelming the way data mining software works. They’re like electronic super sleuths, searching the internet for any relevant information on companies and their employees. Company sites, databases, press releases and even personal weblogs are not spared.

Aside from ease, the technology gives the recruiters sufficient leverage to form relationships with executives.

And because of the many requirements and special qualifications that is demanded of those in executive positions, the task of finding candidates to fill those roles can be a somewhat dauntingly difficult and complicated thing to do. Companies who want to get the best and most suitable people to fill-in different executive positions within the corporation would of course, require the services of top executive search firms or executive search consultants.

As the name suggests, an executive search firm is a sort of recruitment agency that specializes in providing its clients with candidates that suit the requirements of certain executive positions that the client company is looking for. For you to have an executive search firm that belongs to that limited circle of top executive recruiters, you have to excel in many different aspects of headhunting.

For one, a Top Executive Search Firm should have a wide and varied network of contacts in many different fields and industries that would eventually help them find commendable executive prospects which their clients are searching for. Having numerous contacts in the field of advertising for instance, would make it easier for an executive search firm to find candidates for a client who needs a new senior vice president since this executive search firm would most likely receive more reliable information and referrals from people already immersed in that field.

A survey conducted by Vault, an well-recognized online site that offers services and information to employers, job-seekers and even students, on February 2001 showed the ranking of some of the world’s top executive search firms. Korn/Ferry International, Heidrick & Struggles, A.T. Kearney, Spencer Stuart, Russell Reynolds Associates, Christian & Timbers, and TMP Worldwide are just some of the top executive search firms whose names have appeared on Vault’s ranking list.

The fields of specialization of these leading executive search consultant firms and agencies range from telecommunications, investment banking,health care, e-businesses, entertainment and media, financial services, consumer and retails, industrial manufacturing, non-profit, and even family-owned businesses.