The terms "personnel consulting", "headhunting" and "executive search" are often used incorrectly and synonymously. At their core, they all basically describe the same thing: The search and selection of qualified and often very specialized candidate profiles on behalf of companies for a specific position to be filled by an external personnel consultancy, headhunter or executive search firm.

With the aim of keeping recruitment costs as low as possible, the search for suitable candidates is usually carried out through passive channels, such as job advertisements. Due to the continuously increasing demand for skilled workers and decreasing response rates, this method is often mocked as the "post and pray" method.

If the recruitment channel via job advertisements remains unsuccessful or the recruiting company does not want to openly communicate its need for candidates on the market, recruitment is usually always carried out by a personnel consultancy, via headhunting or executive search.

In contrast to ad-supported personnel searches, personnel consultancies, headhunting and executive search companies conduct targeted and active searches for companies. In what is known as direct search, the best employees are actively contacted directly for vacant positions (by telephone, e-mail, and rarely also by letter) in order to motivate and qualify them for a change of company.

This is what makes the use of external personnel service providers so attractive for many companies: by specifically poaching the best employees, often from competing companies, direct influence is exerted on the quality and recruitment of the right employees, and the effort involved in applicant management is thus outsourced to the service provider.