Job-hunting vs. Headhunting

The FSRI wanted me to clarify a few items from yesterday's post. While discussing job-hunting strategies I cited the Wikipedia definition of "cold calling" as "...something a headhunter might do." This is correct. Headhunters cold call, and they cold call often, ...as do many job-hunters. But this shouldn't confuse the issue.

Here are the official FSRI definitions for these two types of people:

Job-hunter: This is someone actively seeking employment at a company or corporation. A job-hunter hunts for jobs - seeks employment - using traditional methods of finding work. Once a job-hunter has found a job he or she is no longer a job-hunter but is now a fully fledged employee with all the perks and benefits the position may bestow.

Headhunter: A company employs a headhunter when it doesn't want to deal with the awkward business of firing one of its own employees. A professional headhunter is brought on to "serve an undesirable employee's head on a platter" to the upper brass, thereby completing the company's dirty work. If a company or corporation is large enough there may be a full-time staff of headhunters at the corporate board's disposal.

Now, there may be an instance where a job-hunter is job-hunting for a headhunter position. If you have a professional headhunting license (...and you have the stomach for it) this can be a lucrative and fulfilling career. But be forewarned ...if you ever get a cold call from a headhunter you haven't met before, clean out your desk and start job-hunting again before things get messy.

KWA