We do not keep a database and we do not post roles. Here is how our searches meet candidates, and how to make yourself easier to find.
More than half the people who find this site are candidates: family office CIOs and CFOs checking the market, estate managers and EP professionals benchmarking an offer, chiefs of staff, flight department leaders, and yacht captains wondering what the next seat pays. This page is for you, and it is honest about how we work.
Talent Gurus is an executive search firm for family offices and UHNW principals. Engagement structures vary, but every search runs on a retained model: a specific seat, a defined brief, and candidates we approach directly. That shapes everything about how we deal with candidates, including what we can and cannot do with your information.
Our searches are also confidential. We do not post roles, and we approach the people we want to talk to directly. If a live search fits you, we find you.
No Database, No Pipeline
Every search we run is a new search. We do not keep a candidate database, we do not file resumes for later, and a call does not put you in a pipeline, because there is no pipeline. When a search closes, the file closes with it.
How Candidates Actually Get Found
Retained searches at this level are outbound. Nobody worth placing is sitting in an applicant stack. We build each pool from referrals, from operators we have met in past searches, and from targeted research, which mostly means LinkedIn. The practical consequence: you do not apply your way into these seats. You get found.
How We Read a Candidate
When a search puts a profile in front of us, we read the resume and the LinkedIn side by side, because the gap between the two is usually the finding. We skim like a stranger, the thirty-second pass a principal gives a page. And we run the file through the same extraction tools recruiting systems use, because the version a machine reads is the version many readers actually receive. The patterns below cost candidates more seats than any missing skill.
Eight patterns, in the order we usually catch them. Scroll through them sideways →
Two documents selling two different people
The resume says generic senior executive, the LinkedIn says specialist with a named process, or the reverse. Decide which person is doing the search and make both pages say so.
A hedged headline
"CEO / CFO" or "Estate Manager / Chief of Staff" reads as someone who would take either seat, and that is a reason to keep looking rather than a reason to call. One position, stated plainly. Say the second lane out loud in a sentence, not a slash.
Adjectives where the work should be
Distinguished, proven, dynamic, exceptional. A reader finishes the paragraph without learning what you run. Lead with the seat, the scope, and the numbers: team size, budget, portfolio, properties, AUM.
Claims the record cannot carry
A highlight that says "built" when the entry beneath it says "supported" is the fastest way to lose a careful reader, because once they catch one, they test everything else on the page.
Three versions of the same number
One career span on the resume, another on LinkedIn, a third in conversation. We recompute the dates from your own entries, and so does everyone careful. One number, everywhere.
Jargon the reader does not speak
The person screening you for a private seat is usually a chief of staff, a COO, or the principal. Translate the record into their vocabulary. That is translation, not dumbing down.
A file that breaks when a machine reads it
Two-column layouts and text boxes scramble when recruiting systems extract them, and you never see the version the reader sees. Single column, standard fonts, live links.
Discretion leaks
Named principals, posted interiors, tail numbers, family details. In this market a profile that leaks reads as a risk, and risk disqualifies before skill is even discussed.
And if you are reading the salary guides on this site: they are the same dataset we price live searches from. Use them in your next negotiation. That is what they are for.
Written Notes, by Request
We are asked for advice calls constantly, and we say no to most of them, because the calendar is where searches live. What we do instead is written: private positioning notes for a small number of candidates. The resume and LinkedIn read side by side, the claims that will not survive a careful reader, and what to fix first, in order.
Email charbel@talent-gurus.com with "Positioning notes" in the subject, your resume attached, your LinkedIn URL, and the seat you are targeting. We read everything, and we reply when there is something worth saying. If a call is worth it, we will suggest one.
