The usual framing is that executive search is for senior roles and contingency is for everything else. That is roughly true in practice and wrong in principle, and the distinction matters when you are deciding which to use.
The actual difference
Contingency works the active market. People who are looking, applying, and visible. The agency finds the best available candidates among those currently in motion.
Search works the whole market. It identifies who is doing the job well, wherever they are, and approaches them. Most of those people are not looking.
Seniority correlates with this because senior people are less likely to be actively job-hunting. But the principle is about the market, not the title.
When search is the right choice
The right person is probably not looking. If the people who could do this job are employed, well-paid, and content, nobody is going to apply.
The pool is genuinely small. When there are perhaps forty people in your market who could do the role, you need to know who they all are rather than who among them is browsing.
Confidentiality matters. Replacing an incumbent who does not know, or moving into a new market quietly. A contingency search advertised across several agencies is not confidential.
The cost of getting it wrong is severe. A bad hire at leadership level affects a whole team and takes a year to correct. Thoroughness is worth paying for.
You need the market mapped. A proper search produces intelligence about who exists, what they earn, and who is movable — valuable beyond the single hire.
When contingency is the right choice
There is a real active market. For many roles plenty of good people are looking, and paying for a full search is paying for work that is not needed.
You want to move quickly. Contingency starts producing candidates within days. A search takes weeks before the first conversation.
You are comfortable with several agencies. Breadth through multiple sources, with no cost unless one lands.
The role is replaceable if it does not work out. Not every hire carries leadership-level consequences.
What a real search involves
The reason search costs more is that the work is different:
Market mapping. Identifying the organisations where this capability exists and the people in those roles. Produces a long list of people, most of whom have never applied for anything.
Approach. Contacting people who are not looking, which requires credibility and a reason for them to take the call.
Assessment. In-depth conversations against the specific requirements, usually several stages before anyone reaches the client.
Referencing. Detailed, and often including informal market intelligence alongside formal references.
Managing the close. Senior moves involve counter-offers, notice periods, and family considerations. A significant part of the value is keeping the process alive through that.
If an agency is charging search fees and doing contingency work — running a database query and sending CVs — you are paying for something you are not getting. Ask what the market mapping produced.
The middle ground
Container or engaged search sits between: a smaller up-front payment with the balance on placement. You get prioritised attention and genuine search work without a full retainer.
Useful for roles that are harder than contingency can handle but do not justify full executive search. Increasingly common for senior individual contributors and mid-level management.
Questions to ask
Will you show me the long list? A real search produces one. Seeing it tells you whether the market was genuinely mapped.
How many people did you approach who were not looking? The answer separates search from sourcing.
What is the guarantee period? Executive search typically carries longer cover than contingency, which reflects the stakes.
Who runs the search? The person who wins the business is frequently not the person doing the work.
Where to start
Ask yourself honestly whether the person you want is likely to be reading job adverts. If the answer is no, contingency will not reach them regardless of how many agencies you brief.
Sizanid runs both. If you are unsure which your role needs, [tell us about it](/find-talent) and we will say which we think applies — including when contingency will do and search would be over-buying.
