Are senior jobs advertised, or is Todd Combs simply an anomaly?
Todd Combs, heir-apparent to Warren Buffet wasn't headhunted. Nor did he get to know Warren through his network. Nor did he camp outside Berkshire Hathaway. Nor did he send in his CV speculatively. Todd Combs responded to a job advert.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Berkshire Hathaway placed a cryptic 'help wanted' advert in 2007.
Todd responded, and heard nothing. Not to be discouraged, he sent BH vice chairman Charles Munger a letter asking for a meeting. Munger obliged, and Todd got the job.
Is it possible to conclude from this that exciting and senior roles are likely to be advertised? Not necessarily.
"During the entire time that I've been here, we've never done any MD hiring through an advert," says the head of recruitment at one North American bank. "At that level, we would either use our networks or go through a headhunter.
"An advert might smoke people out, but at MD level, we are usually pretty clear about our target population and prefer to approach them directly," he adds.
A contingency recruiter confirms this to be so. "At a senior level, organisations often don't want anyone to know they're hiring. They keep their cards close to their chest, and won't advertise," he confides.
Conclusion: if you want a senior job, you'll probably need to get hunted, or use your network, or reply to cryptic job adverts which don't state who's behind them.
