Greetings all. Perhaps a lame question, but the situation is new to me so I thought I’d ask for some advice. I was contacted via email today by a ‘search boutique’ concerning an opportunity I might be interested in (they didn’t say what it was) and they are interested in opening a dialog. I’ve been keeping an eye on the job market for a while, so I’m interested in what they have to say but I’m not sure about the etiquette of talking to these people, since I don’t know if these things are legitimate or if they’re just trying to expand their contact database. Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom they’d like to share?Cheers,DD

Fair question I think. No harm in talking to them. Most decent ones will give you more details over the phone and then you can decide whether you're interested. If you're interested send them a CV and meet with them to discuss further. If you're still interested then let them represent you for the role. Simples.If they're pushing to submit you for a role and won't tell you who it is then that would be suspicious, but for first contact it's reasonable.Incidentally if they're a search boutique then they won't be so easy to find out much about. If you google them and they have a loads of ads posted for roles in your area then they're not really a search boutique and either being misleading or pretentious.

Many thanks for your response. Their website doesn’t look dodgy and isn’t full of adverts – most of the information is about the firm and well presented…for management speak ;)I’ll email them back – I guess there’s not harm in it. Thanks again!