What’s with all the mystery?

Why can’t recruiters tell me the name of the company when they call me? How am I supposed to know if I’m interested?

-Senior Lighting Designer, , theatrical lighting design firm

Paul: I hear this question fairly frequently. Some search firms will disclose the company but most usually don’t. The reasons can vary, but often include confidentiality. Many searches are either a confidential replacement of an incumbent or often with a company who doesn’t want to ‘telegraph’ to the market its hiring plans/market strategies, especially if they are going into a new channel or introducing a new product line. Some companies (especially ones who have great reputations in the marketplace) don’t want to be flooded with resumes of people who may not even be qualified. They’d rather look at a select group of ‘high quality’ candidates who seem to be a good match than deal with the ‘high quantity’ (but often of greatly varying quality) responses that an ad often may produce, and don’t want to have to deal with those interested candidates who may not even be a fit. While a good portion of our searches are retained, we like to keep the entire process as discreet as possible for both company and candidate. Lighting/SSL is really a small market in many ways and we find most parties actually prefer the high degree of confidentiality. I have a past column (‘When a Recruiter Calls’) on our website https://pompeo.com/LDA that deals with this topic.