What sways a panel, what a CV is actually for, and where senior appointments come apart.
Boards go outside for a director role far more often than the market justifies. It usually isn't because the external candidate is better. It's because promoting from within means someone has to explain, out loud, why the internal favourite lost.
Panels believe they are weighing the whole interview. Most have already decided, and spend the rest of the hour confirming it.
The CV rules senior candidates out well and rules them in badly. Three calls in one week showed why executive search should be built on evidence, not employers.
Boards run immaculate six-month searches and then abandon the hire on day one. Senior placements rarely fail on capability. They fail on the landing, and almost nobody resources it.
Reference checks at senior level have become a ritual that confirms decisions instead of testing them. Here is how to take one properly.
When your resignation lands, money appears fast. The thing that made you look in the first place almost never moves at the same speed.
They are heads down delivering a major programme, trusted by their board, and not scrolling job boards on a Tuesday night.