Most candidates who reach out to me ask the same questions.

Why isn't anyone calling me back? How do I stand out? Why is this taking so long?

After nearly 19 years as a headhunter specialising in Cybersecurity, Enterprise Software, and AI across DACH and the Nordics, I can tell you: these are valid questions — but they are the wrong starting point.

Before we talk about tactics, we need to talk about qualities. Because the candidates landing the roles you want are not just doing different things. In many cases, they are different. And the gap is smaller than you think.

The Story of Henrik

Henrik came to me after six months on the market. Seven years in enterprise cybersecurity sales. Good numbers. A solid network. A respectable LinkedIn profile.

He had sent out over 150 applications. He had been to four interviews. No offer.

I asked him one question: "Describe your next role to me in three sentences."

He thought for a moment, then said: "I'm pretty open, really. Cybersecurity would be ideal, but I'd consider cloud or enterprise software. As long as it's a senior role with some upside."

I told him directly: that is not a strategy. That is a wishlist without direction. And it was the reason he had been stuck for six months.

What Henrik was missing had nothing to do with his CV. It had everything to do with four specific qualities — qualities I have observed consistently in candidates who move fast and those who don't.

The Research Behind It

Brian Tracy spent over 20 years studying what separates high performers from everyone else. He consulted with more than 200 corporations and advised leaders of billion-dollar companies. His core conclusion: success is not random. It is predictable.

He identified a set of specific qualities — all learnable, none innate — that explained nearly every pattern he had seen across thousands of careers.

I applied that lens to my own work. To 19 years of search assignments in Cybersecurity, Enterprise Software, and AI. What follows are the four qualities that I see play out, again and again, in the candidates who get hired fast.

Quality 1: Clarity — "Open to Anything" Is Not a Strategy

The most common thing I hear when I ask a candidate what they are looking for is some version of: "I'm pretty flexible."

It sounds reasonable. It feels safe. But it is the single biggest reason candidates stay stuck.

When you don't know exactly what you want, you can't communicate it — not to a headhunter, not in an interview, not in a direct message to a hiring manager. You apply for roles that don't quite fit. You have conversations without momentum. And eventually, you take whatever comes along, rather than choosing what you actually want.

The candidates I place quickly can tell me in 30 seconds: the exact title, the company profile, the sector, the geography, the compensation range. That clarity makes every decision easier — who to approach, what to say, which roles to pursue, and which to ignore.

As Tracy once wrote: if you don't have clear specific goals, you are doomed to work for people who do.

The action: Write down your next role — specifically. Not a wishlist. A real target. Then build your entire search around it.

Quality 2: Concentration — The 20% That Produces 80% of the Results

Prudential Insurance Company once analysed thousands of sales professionals working the same product, in the same market, under the same conditions. The top 20% were generating 80% of the revenue. The top 4% were earning 32 times the average of the bottom 80%.

The differentiator was not talent. It was an early decision to focus on the right activities.

The job search equivalent of mass-applying to 150 roles is the activity trap. It feels like work. It looks like effort. But it produces almost nothing.

The 20% of activities that produce 80% of results in a senior job search are: targeted, direct outreach to decision-makers at companies you have deliberately chosen. Not 150 companies. Ten to fifteen — done properly.

I have seen candidates go from over a hundred applications and zero interviews, to five targeted conversations and three genuine offers. The shift was not more effort. It was sharper concentration.

The action: Ask yourself every day — what is the single activity in my job search today that will make the biggest difference? Then do exactly that, before anything else.

Quality 3: Relationship Intelligence — The Quality Nobody Talks About

The Carnegie Institute of Technology once studied 10,000 people who had lost their jobs.

95% of them had been let go not because of incompetence. But because they were unable to get along with other people.

95%.

That number deserves a moment.

In a recruitment context, hiring managers don't just choose the best CV. They choose the person they trust. And trust is built — or lost — in ways that have nothing to do with your track record.

How you communicate with a recruiter during a process. Whether you send a brief note after an interview. Whether you give as well as take in your professional relationships. Whether you treat people with the same care at every stage, regardless of how the conversation is going.

In DACH and the Nordics, the senior IT sales market is small. Everyone knows everyone. A hiring manager in Munich speaks to a colleague in Stockholm. What you leave behind, stays.

People hire people they like and trust. That is not unfair. It is human. And it is entirely within your control.

The action: Audit your professional relationships. Who have you helped recently — with no personal agenda attached? That investment compounds over years, and it is felt.

Quality 4: Courage — The One Quality That Explains Most Career Plateaus

This is the quality almost no one discusses openly.

Most senior careers don't plateau because of a lack of talent. They plateau because of fear. The fear of applying for the bigger role and being rejected. The fear of reaching out directly to a hiring manager and appearing pushy. The fear of naming a number in a negotiation. The fear of being genuinely seen — and told you are not enough.

That fear keeps you safe. It keeps you comfortable. And it keeps you exactly where you are.

A question I sometimes ask candidates: Are you actively pursuing career growth — or are you just managing the anxiety of not having it?

Both can look the same from the outside. But they are fundamentally different.

I have watched candidates land roles they genuinely believed were beyond their reach — not because they suddenly became more qualified, but because they made a decision to act despite the fear. No headhunter can make that decision for you.

The action: Identify the one move you have been avoiding because it scares you. Then make it this week. That decision alone puts you ahead of the majority of candidates you are competing with.

What Happened to Henrik

After our conversation, Henrik did three things.

He narrowed his search to cybersecurity sales in the DACH region. Clear, specific, no more "open to anything."

He stopped the 150-application approach and built a list of twelve target companies with direct outreach to decision-makers.

And he applied for a role he had convinced himself was one level above him. He applied anyway.

Three months later: two offers. He chose the bigger role.

The market had not changed. He had.

The Compound Effect

These four qualities — Clarity, Concentration, Relationship Intelligence, and Courage — are not personality traits you either have or don't. They are habits. Learnable, trainable, and available to you right now.

Most people who read this will nod and change nothing. Because knowing and doing are completely different things.

If you take one quality from this article — the one where you can honestly say: that's where I have the most room to grow — and apply it this week, you have already separated yourself from most of the field.

The compound effect does not start with a dramatic overhaul. It starts with one decision, made today, and repeated.

About Jan Nordh

Jan Nordh is a headhunter with nearly 19 years of experience placing senior IT sales professionals in Cybersecurity, Enterprise Software, and AI across DACH and the Nordics. His specialisations include Account Director, Enterprise Account Executive, and VP Sales roles at the senior level.

Listen to the full podcast episode on the Nordh Executive Search Podcast — available on all major platforms.
Previous episode: [Executive Presence — Why the Better Candidate Doesn't Always Get the Role]

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Published by Nordh Executive Search | nordh.de