Mis Tres Headhunters

The learner is the financial controller of a 1,100-person industrial group in Bilbao, Spain, earning EUR 118,000 base, who wants to become a CFO in the north of Spain within two years and receives many recruiter messages but no relevant process, and who has to choose which few headhunters to work with and what to give them.

Decision 1, January 2027: who to work with (everyone who writes, the three biggest search firms, or three chosen by practice, level and region), how to check them (trust them, pay a candidate-paid career agent EUR 3,500, or ask for recent placements and call two executives they placed) and what to send (a CV and open to anything, a one-page brief with written consent before every submission, or a CV blast and a public open-to-work signal).

Decision 2, April: what to give them (nothing, the names, salaries and ratings of his 46-person team from the HR system, or be a source who suggests people with their permission), how often to talk (only during live searches, a short quarterly call, or weekly) and how to answer a search that does not fit (say yes and withdraw later, ignore it, or decline within 24 hours and refer two people).

Decision 3, June: a CFO search that fits, with a double submission by a second recruiter (let both run, do nothing, or keep one representative), a parallel process (hide it, disclose it, or invent an offer) and interview preparation (improvise, pay a coach, or prepare with the recruiter).

Decision 4, October: the offer and a counter-offer (renege on the acceptance, auction the offer, or honour it), what happens afterwards (drop the recruiters, give the next search to the cheapest firm, or keep in touch and become a client) and a request for names from his former team under a non-solicitation clause.

A deterministic model combines the relevance of what reaches him and the goodwill of his recruiters into the chance that a fitting search reaches him and ends in an offer, and drives expected pay in 2028, expected pay from 2029 to 2031, the risk that his employer finds out and the hours spent.

The score combines the quality of each decision with those four outcomes and is capped when he gives a recruiter his team personal data. Spanish (primary, Spain) and English.

An intermediate simulation for participants who already know the core concepts of the subject, designed for master's and MBA programmes.