Over the past six months, we’ve been hearing more leaders tell us that they’ve never worked harder to find their next role. They’ve invested in their CV, refined their LinkedIn profile, reconnected with their network, spoken to recruiters and applied for positions that genuinely fit their experience. On paper, they’re doing everything they should be doing. Yet weeks turn into months, responses become increasingly sporadic and it’s easy to arrive at the same conclusion: perhaps there simply aren’t any executive opportunities out there.
Working with organisations and executive candidates across the UK, Europe and increasingly the US, we don’t believe that’s what’s happening. The market has undoubtedly changed. Hiring decisions are taking longer, organisations are understandably more cautious about investing in senior appointments and boards are giving greater scrutiny to every executive hire they make. But cautious doesn’t mean inactive. In fact, many organisations are continuing to recruit experienced leaders. They’re simply doing so in a way that feels far less visible than it did a few years ago.
The biggest challenge facing executives today is understanding where opportunity actually exists. At Hanover Talent Solutions, we’re fortunate to see both sides of the market. Alongside supporting hundreds of senior professionals through career transition each year, we also work with organisations recruiting executive talent and advising leaders on succession, coaching and leadership development. That perspective often challenges the assumptions candidates naturally make. While many executives tell us recruitment feels as though it has almost ground to a halt, employers describe something rather different. They’re still hiring, but they’re taking longer, asking more questions, considering a wider range of options and often beginning conversations months before anyone outside the organisation has any idea a role may eventually exist.
One HR Director summed it up perfectly during a recent conversation. She described their hiring strategy as ‘slowing down to speed up.’ Rather than immediately replacing a departing executive, the board spent several months redefining the role, thinking carefully about what capability the business would need over the next three to five years and speaking confidentially with a retained executive search firm before deciding whether they even wanted to recruit externally. From a candidate’s perspective, there was never a vacancy. From the organisation’s perspective, the hiring process had already been underway for months. We’re hearing variations of that story more and more frequently.
Why executive roles are created long before they’re advertised
When you stop and think about it, that’s how many executive appointments have always begun. A CEO secures investment and starts thinking about the leadership capability needed for the next phase of growth. A private equity investor wants to strengthen the management team ahead of an acquisition. A board begins succession planning because a long-serving executive intends to retire within the next year. A business embarks on a significant AI transformation programme and realises it needs a different blend of leadership around the executive table. None of those conversations starts with a job advert; they start with a commercial challenge. Recruitment only becomes part of the solution later.
Executive opportunities aren’t deliberately concealed; they just evolve differently. By the time many senior appointments appear on LinkedIn or a corporate careers page, weeks or sometimes months of conversations have already taken place. Internal succession may have been explored, executive search firms may have mapped the market, trusted contacts may have been approached for recommendations and a shortlist of potential candidates may already exist. Occasionally, the role is filled before the wider market even knows it was available.
None of this is new, but today’s economic climate has made it far more common. Every executive appointment represents a significant investment, both financially and strategically. The wrong hire can delay growth, disrupt culture and affect commercial performance for years, so organisations are understandably taking more time to ensure they recruit the right person rather than simply recruiting quickly.
That’s certainly reflected in the conversations we’re having with employers. Few tell us they’ve stopped recruiting altogether. Instead, they’re asking different questions. Do we need a permanent executive, or would an interim leader solve the immediate challenge? Can we develop someone internally? Has artificial intelligence changed the capability we actually need? Should we reshape the role entirely before we appoint someone? Those are very different conversations from the rapid hiring decisions we saw in parts of the market just a few years ago.
AI has changed recruitment for everyone
At the same time, candidates are navigating a recruitment landscape that has changed just as dramatically. Artificial intelligence has transformed the way people search for jobs. Producing a tailored CV, generating a personalised cover letter and submitting an application can now take minutes rather than hours. Unsurprisingly, application volumes have increased significantly. LinkedIn recently reported that applications have risen by more than 45% over the past two years, while many employers tell us they’re now receiving hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of applications for a single leadership position.
What’s particularly interesting is that AI is changing both sides of recruitment simultaneously. Candidates are using it to produce more applications. Employers are using it to manage the sheer volume of applications arriving in their inboxes. In many respects, recruitment has become AI versus AI.
Ironically, AI hasn’t made hiring easier. Employers regularly tell us how it’s increasingly difficult to distinguish genuinely exceptional candidates. That’s one of the reasons so many experienced executives become frustrated. They’re doing everything right, but they’re competing in a market where almost everyone else is doing exactly the same thing.
Stop searching for today’s vacancies. Start anticipating tomorrow’s demand.
One of the biggest mindset shifts we encourage executives to make is to stop asking, ‘What roles are available today?’ and start asking a different question altogether: ‘Where is demand likely to emerge over the next six to twelve months?’ While the difference seems subtle, it changes the entire approach to a career transition.
The first question leads naturally to job boards, recruitment websites and LinkedIn vacancies. The second encourages you to understand the market itself. Which organisations have recently secured investment? Which sectors are growing despite wider economic uncertainty? Where are leadership teams expanding internationally? Which businesses are preparing for an acquisition, integrating one they’ve just completed or embarking on a major transformation programme? Where has a new CEO been appointed who may reshape their executive team over the coming year?
Those are the conversations we find ourselves having every day with clients, because the organisations creating demand tomorrow are often far more important than the vacancies available today.
Looking across the executives we’ve supported over the past year, the people making the greatest progress haven’t necessarily been those submitting the highest number of applications. They’ve been the leaders who took time to understand where change was happening before everyone else noticed it. Some secured opportunities that never appeared on a public job board because they had already built relationships with executive search firms specialising in their sector. Others reconnected with former colleagues who introduced them to organisations preparing for growth. In several cases, conversations that began as exploratory meetings evolved into executive appointments months later because the timing happened to align.
That’s one of the realities of senior recruitment that isn’t always obvious from the outside. Alongside our sister company Hanover Executive Search, we are seeing that organisations rarely wake up one morning and decide to recruit a new executive. Leadership appointments are usually the outcome of months of strategic discussion. By the time a vacancy reaches the public domain, much of the thinking has already taken place. The challenge for candidates is that none of those earlier conversations are visible, yet they’re often where the real opportunity begins.
Networking isn’t about asking for jobs
This is also why networking has become one of the most misunderstood aspects of executive career management. Many leaders tell us they dislike networking because they associate it with asking people if they know of any vacancies. It’s an understandable concern, particularly for executives who have built successful careers through performance rather than self-promotion.
The most valuable networking conversations are rarely about jobs at all – they’re about understanding what’s changing. A conversation with an executive search consultant might reveal that private equity investment is increasing in a particular sector. A former colleague may mention that their organisation is preparing for international expansion. An investor might describe the capability gaps emerging across their portfolio companies. A board member may share the strategic priorities occupying leadership discussions over the coming year. None of those conversations guarantees a role, but together they create something arguably more valuable: a much clearer picture of where demand is building.
That’s why we often encourage executives to think of networking less as relationship building and more as market intelligence. You’re not simply expanding your network; you’re developing a deeper understanding of the organisations, sectors and leadership challenges where your experience is likely to have the greatest commercial impact.
One executive we worked with earlier this year illustrates the point perfectly. After several months of applying for advertised positions with little success, we stepped back from the job boards altogether. Instead, we identified organisations undergoing significant transformation within his sector, mapped the executive search firms operating in that market and reconnected him with senior contacts he hadn’t spoken to for several years. Within weeks he was having conversations with two organisations that hadn’t advertised a role. One of those discussions ultimately became his next executive appointment. Stories like that are increasingly common.
Why we created Board and Executive Opportunity Mapping
It’s one of the reasons we’ve evolved the way we support executives. Producing an outstanding CV and LinkedIn profile remains essential, but they’re no longer enough on their own. The real challenge is understanding where demand is likely to emerge before everyone else is competing for the same advertised opportunity.
That’s exactly why we developed our Board and Executive Opportunity Mapping approach. Rather than starting with today’s vacancies, we start by understanding the market around each individual. Which organisations are growing? Where is investment flowing? Which executive search firms specialise in that sector? What leadership capability is likely to be in demand over the next six to twelve months? Where are the conversations already beginning?
Once you have that intelligence, every subsequent decision becomes more strategic. Networking becomes more purposeful, conversations become more relevant and opportunities become easier to recognise because you’re no longer reacting to the market; you’re anticipating it.
At Hanover Talent Solutions, we’ve found that’s where the strongest executive career strategies now start. Not with a vacancy, but with understanding where opportunity is likely to emerge next. Because in today’s executive market, the leaders who make the greatest progress are rarely those who are first to apply. More often, they’re the ones who have already positioned themselves before everyone else realises there’s an opportunity worth pursuing.