Laura Duksaitė: Knowing how to hire people and looking for a job yourself are two different skills

Executives Often Mistake Hiring Skills for Job Search Skills

“If I’ve already hired hundreds of people, surely I can find a job for myself without much effort — after all, I know everything about recruitment.” And this is where the problem quickly becomes visible: hiring colleagues and “selling” yourself are two very different things. In the first case, the key is being able to identify a candidate’s strengths and present the company attractively. In the second, it is essential to clearly understand your own competencies and strengths, know where they can be applied best, which companies operate in a way that suits you, where you could be valuable — and where you likely would not.

They Start Their Introduction With What They Don’t Want

This pattern appears in conversations more often than I would like: “I wouldn’t want this, I wouldn’t want that… I wouldn’t want to work with foreign markets, I wouldn’t want relocation. I wouldn’t want to stay in my current industry. I wouldn’t want to work in a company going through reorganization.”

It is natural to know what we do not want. However, in job interviews it is far more important to clearly know what we do want, where we can create the most value, and where our experience is the strongest fit.

They Expect the Headhunter to Decide What Role Fits Them

Many executives are not clearly defined in terms of where and in what role they want to work, what responsibilities they are looking for, what kind of work would genuinely interest them, or where they could best apply their experience. We speak, and I hear:
“I’ll wait for your email if you come across positions suitable for me.” In that moment, the decision-making responsibility is handed over to the executive search consultant.

They Cannot Clearly Present Their Core Value

This is related to the previous point, but it is also a separate issue. Executives are often not used to analyzing their own achievements and results. They have not clearly defined what truly makes them stand out. They can talk about the company they worked for, but not about themselves. They can present the company’s strengths and competitive advantages, but not their own. For many, this is simply unfamiliar territory — they have never had to formulate their own professional positioning. In consulting, I see this very often: they struggle to explain briefly and clearly, in one sentence, what career direction interests them.

For example: “I am a B2B sales professional focused on export growth in manufacturing.” or “I am a marketing executive in the FMCG food industry.” The ability to package your experience into a clear direction and positioning is also a skill.

They Don’t Know How to Search for a Job

Many executives stay in one position for six to ten years. After such a long time without job searching, it is natural that they may not have an updated CV. Often, they also lack a professional business portrait or a polished LinkedIn profile. They no longer know how the market moves, how executives are hired today, or what compensation is considered competitive. Suddenly, they find themselves in unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory — a place they have not been in for years. Because job searching is also a skill. And perhaps this is where the uncertainty behind “let me know if you have something suitable” comes from.

They Believe They Can Lead in Any Industry

When hiring others, executives look for candidates with highly specific industry experience — people who understand their market, competitors, and regulatory environment.

The requirements are concrete:
if retail — then retail experience;
if banking — then financial sector experience.

The bar is set high, and expectations are detailed and specific. Yet when executives themselves enter the job market, many suddenly assume they can lead in any industry. They stop applying the same labor market realities to themselves that they apply to others — and often become disappointed when their experience is not in demand outside their own industry.

Next time, I will write about the solutions I recommend for these challenges and what executives can do to make finding a new position smoother and easier.