When 62 Days Is Success
Majhi Group's average close time is 41 days against an industry median of 65-90 days. But the 41-day average obscures an important reality: some searches have genuinely narrow candidate pools that require more sourcing time, and closing them in 62 days is a success, not a failure.
The hardest search we have run involved a role at the intersection of financial services domain expertise, product leadership, and regulatory technology experience. The brief was narrow but accurate — the CEO had a precise sense of what they needed, and the precision was correct. The pool was small. Finding the right person required more time.
Search Characteristics
What Made This Search Hard
Genuinely narrow intersection
The role required a specific combination of experiences that rarely appear together in a single candidate. We mapped the candidate pool systematically before beginning outreach and identified approximately 50-60 people globally who could plausibly meet the brief. This is not a large pool. It meant every outreach needed to be high-quality — there wasn't room for spray-and-pray sourcing.
High passivity rate in the pool
In niche functional areas, candidates are often deeply embedded in their current roles and not receptive to initial outreach. We made contact with 34 of the approximately 50-60 identified candidates. 9 were immediately interested, 14 were curious but not yet engaged, and 11 were definitively not interested. Moving the "curious but not yet engaged" segment required multiple conversations and a compelling framing of the opportunity.
The finalist decision took longer
The finalist candidate was a genuine first choice — the brief was met, the assessment was strong, the CEO connection was clear. But the candidate had unvested equity at their current company with a significant cliff in four months. The decision logic required them to weigh the expected value of waiting four months against the expected value of the new opportunity. We supported that decision process rather than rushing it.
What This Search Demonstrates
Speed is not the primary metric in executive search. Accuracy is. The right person in the role in 62 days is vastly preferable to the wrong person in 41. The Majhi Group framework prioritizes getting the placement right — which, in most searches, also produces faster results because the sourcing is targeted and the brief is accurate.
The Search Firm's Honesty Test
A search firm that promises every search closes in 30 days is making a promise they cannot keep for roles with narrow briefs. The honest conversation before engagement is: how many people actually meet this brief, and how long does it typically take to find and close the right one? Calibrated expectations produce better partnerships than optimistic ones.
See: Startup Hiring Benchmarks 2026 | How Long Does Executive Search Take? | Majhi Search Framework
"41 days. A $275K search. Two firms failed in 60+ days. That's not luck -- that's a different system."
-- Majhi Group placement record. Read the full process anatomy