How To Become An Executive Search Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is an executive search consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an executive search consultant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $29.29 an hour? That's $60,920 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 58,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreExecutive Search ConsultantUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $60,920

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.68%

Asian 8.78%

Black or African American 10.37%

Hispanic or Latino 17.28%

Unknown 5.16%

White 57.72%

Gender

female 45.84%

male 54.16%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.0

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an executive search consultant

Explore executive search consultant education requirements

Most common executive search consultant degrees

Bachelor's

74.0 %

Master's

15.4 %

Associate

6.6 %

Start to develop specific executive search consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Business Development	8.67%
Linkedin	8.31%
Recruitment Strategies	5.55%
Healthcare	5.20%
Client Relationships	4.52%

Complete relevant executive search consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New executive search consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an executive search consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real executive search consultant resumes.

Research executive search consultant duties and responsibilities

Recruit a team of QA experts to do framework lead solution as a testing bed foundation for quarterly regression testing.
Generate proposals for potential customers, provide market research with competitive data for PPC accounts spending over $20K monthly.
Generate weekly performance reports including in-depth analysis of PPC campaigns.
Source and recruit executive healthcare candidates with an emphasis on nurse leadership positions and physicians.

Get executive search consultant experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become an executive search consultant. The most common roles before becoming an executive search consultant include recruiter, account executive team lead and technical recruiter.

Prepare your executive search consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your executive search consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an executive search consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable executive search consultant resume templates

Build a professional executive search consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your executive search consultant resume.