The Invisible Job Market: Why the Best Roles Are Never Posted
Above a certain level, recruitment stops being a public process. Here is how senior mandates are actually filled — and how to get inside the conversation early.
Most senior roles never reach a job board. They are shaped in board conversations, filled through trusted introductions, and decided long before a posting is drafted. For the candidate, this means the public market is not the real market — it is the leftover market.
The problem is structural. Search firms are paid by the employer. Internal recruiters are incentivised to protect the process. Networking alone can work, but it costs privacy and relies on who happens to be listening.
Representation changes the geometry. A third party can approach the organisation, frame the value, and hold your name back until the conversation is real. That is the work Westmere does — not applications, but access.
If you are waiting for the right role to appear online, you are already late. The better question is whether the people deciding already know what you can do.
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