Executive Search Entrepreneur

Executive Search Entrepreneur

Executive Search as a self-employed professional - the partner programme from Extendis

We are looking for entrepreneurs. Not CVs.

I became self-employed at 29. Everyone thought it was too early. I never regretted it for a second. Today I know: there is no right time or right age for this step. There are people who take it - and people who just talk about it.

What you will do with us

You will win your own clients, manage your own mandates and fill key positions from specialists to executive management. You decide on your clients, your time, your market. No reporting to people who don’t understand your business. Executive Search is one of the few professions where your judgement is the product. No software that becomes outdated in two years. No margin dictated by someone else. Your network, your intuition for people, your standing.

Who this suits

We have no ideal CV. What works with us looks very different:

• The experienced aged 55 and over. Thirty years in an industry, a network with genuine relationships, and the ability to recognise in a conversation who carries weight and who just talks. The job market treats this as obsolete. In Executive Search, it is capital - an address book like yours cannot be bought.

• Coaches, trainers and consultants with their own company. You already sit at the table with managing directors. You hear where the problems are before there is a job advertisement. You can read people - that is the real craft in this profession. So far, someone else comes and fills the position. You keep your existing business.

• The young who want to dare. At thirty, no one has a finished network. But energy, hunger and thirty years to build one. Those who start early have at forty what others have at sixty.

• Former elite athletes. You know daily work without applause. You know what a defeat feels like and that training still happens the next morning. That is exactly this profession: many rejections, then a deal that carries everything.

What everyone must bring

Like people. Want to sell rather than wait. And pick up the phone when it’s uncomfortable.

That’s the whole list.

You don’t start from zero

A brand with which you present professionally from day one. A top modern recruiting platform with AI-supported matching and multiposting. Back office support as well as all marketing tools. Office facilities at Bleicherweg 10 in Zurich and in Zug, very flexible workplace (can also be abroad). And most importantly: a group that meets every week. Discuss mandates, share clients, learn from each other. Start-up support personally from the owners. Self-employed. But not alone.

What comes out of it

With around CHF 200,000 fee revenue per year, about CHF 164,000 remains with you, before your own operating costs. At 300,000 it’s around 270,000, at 400,000 around 370,000. Your payment to Extendis is capped - beyond a certain point every additional franc belongs to you.

And honestly at the end

This is not a model for everyone. You bear entrepreneurial risk, and it takes time until the first fee comes in. We tell you in the first conversation whether your calculation works - not after six months. That is the same standard with which we manage every search mandate. For that, the result belongs to you. And we are a team that implements rather than plans.

The next step

No CV. No form. Write us a few sentences about who you are and why this appeals to you. First conversations are confidential, non-binding and without time pressure.

We are looking for entrepreneurs. Not CVs.

Marc Thurner · Bruno Zanella

Extendis AG · Executive and Professional Search

Bleicherweg 10 · 8002 Zurich & Zug / Neuheim