1084. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be an Executive Search Consultant?

“I remember starting at Sony in Soho, London and I was in the situation where there was no onboarding, there was no Human Resources. We had just started the PlayStation division. It was like this mini startup. We were young, scrappy, and hungry and trying to make it work, trying to generate revenue and to get the license for the PlayStation. I felt like I was this odd person that had just been added to a team without any formal integration on what the goals are, what the challenges are, how we need to work together. Instead of there being a cohesive collaborative culture being formed, we were all just shooting off in our particular areas. And that’s where I think the first “100 Days Concept” came about and which repeated itself time and time again. Every time I moved to a new country, every time I changed jobs, I thought: ‘Okay, I’ve had enough. I’ve REALLY got to change this model.’”

Caroline Stokes leads an executive search and emotional intelligence coaching company for successful leaders and global technology organizations to move forward together. Her entire approach to executive search, the employer brand, the candidate and employee experience is included in her business book “Elephants Before Unicorns: Emotionally Intelligent HR Strategies To Save Your Company,” published by Entrepreneur Press (2019).