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The homework, shared.
How the best search firms map a market, size the comp, and build the longlist. The methods behind every MergeSearch map, written for the people who do the work.
Comp & market intelligence
Make-Whole Packages: What It Actually Costs to Buy Out a Candidate's Forfeited Equity
What comparable SEC filings show companies actually pay to buy out a candidate's forfeited equity when they hire them away, real numbers, not a rule of thumb.
Mathijs Bronsdijk5 min readComp & market intelligence
Golden Handcuffs: Reading a Candidate's Unvested Equity From a Proxy Filing
How to read a passive candidate's unvested equity, their real golden handcuffs, from their employer's own proxy filing before you build the pitch to move them.
Bret van Putten5 minWinning mandates
How to Win the Second Executive Search Mandate
A first mandate is won on evidence. A second one is won on staying visibly close to a client's market in between. What that actually takes.
Mathijs Bronsdijk5 minPlatform & the work
The Public Signals That Predict an Executive Search Mandate
The public filings that predict an executive search mandate before a client calls: SEC 8-K exec changes, Form D raises, WARN notices, and how to watch for them free.
Bret van Putten6 minPlatform & the work
What's Actually in a Market Map (and What the Alternatives Cost)
What a Market Map actually includes, module by module, and what the real alternatives cost: an analyst hire, a data subscription, a staffed research firm.
Mathijs Bronsdijk5 minMarket mapping
Talent Mapping for Executive Search: How to Build the Candidate Map
The pages ranking for "talent mapping" are HR-tech and contingency-recruiting content. Here's how retained search actually tracks moves and names candidates.
Bret van Putten7 minMarket mapping
A Market Map Example: A Real CFO Search, Sourced End to End
A worked market map for a hypothetical CFO search, scoped in rings, sized against BLS wage data, benchmarked against two real public companies' SEC-filed CFO pay.
Mathijs Bronsdijk7 minWinning mandates
The Executive Search Process, What It Actually Costs
The guides ranking for this query list ten generic steps. None says what research actually produces, what a search costs, or what sets the timeline.
Bret van Putten5 minMarket mapping
Talent Mapping vs Market Mapping: What's the Difference?
Executive search's own glossaries disagree, and HR means something else again. The distinction that actually matters when you are running a search.
Mathijs Bronsdijk5 minComp & market intelligence
Executive Compensation Benchmarking, the Free-Data Method
The public sources (SEC filings, BLS wage data, one real industry survey) that build a defensible comp band before you pay for a subscription.
Bret van Putten8 minWinning mandates
How to Win an Executive Search Mandate
Qualifying, a custom deck, a clear process, table stakes every rival firm already runs. What wins a mandate is evidence they cannot get elsewhere.
Mathijs Bronsdijk7 minMarket mapping
How to Build a Market Map for an Executive Search
A practical, source-first method for mapping a market before a search, the companies, the comp, and the pool, so you walk into the pitch as the expert.
Mathijs Bronsdijk7 minAI in executive search
How Executive Search Firms Are Actually Using AI in 2026
Real survey data on how retained search firms use AI, where it breaks down, and what a properly sourced market map looks like instead.
Bret van Putten6 minNo articles match that search.
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