Confidentiality

As a senior executive, you may be concerned about the confidentiality of your career information, and do not wish to publicize that you are considering other opportunities and wish to remain visible to the search community. BlueSteps provides you with a confidential link to the retained executive search community, and ensures that no other entities can view your information.

Only search firms that are part of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) can review the information that you enter in your Executive Profile. Corporations and contingency recruiters, or search firms that have not passed the strict entry criteria for AESC membership, may not access your information.

Retained executive search consulting only creates contractual obligations between the search firm and client (hiring organization). However, executive search consultants inevitably build professional and ethical relationships with candidates, many of whom they may remain in contact with over a period of years.

Members of the AESC subscribe to a code of ethics that states that these relationships should be characterized by honesty, objectivity, accuracy and respect for confidentiality. Strict adherence to this code is a requirement for all AESC members, who must also abide by all data privacy laws applicable within their country.

As a potential candidate, you may be interested in the Candidate's Bill of Rights, which sets out the standards by which an AESC search firm must interact with you.

Guidelines for working with executive search consultants are also provided in the AESC publication Executive Search and your career.