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Watermark Search has surveyed Interim Executives for more than a decade to gain insights into what makes them successful.
Each year our Annual Interim Executive Survey report reveals our latest findings about why people choose Interim as a career path, the roles they’re most interested in and the key drivers of their success.
For our 2022 report we’ve created profiles of two typical interim executives – our Interim Executive avatars of 2022 – Erika and Ian.
Please click here to download Watermark's 2022 Annual Interim Executive Survey.
Interim avatars 2022: Erika and Ian
The interim avatars of 2022 actively pursue interim assignments as their career choice.
The variety of assignments, the breadth of sectors they work across, and the flexibility they gain through contracting have cemented this way of working as their Plan A. As our 2022 Annual Interim Executive Survey reported, the pandemic has inspired them to adopt portfolio working.
As life-long learners, curious, well read, digitally literate and networked, Erika and Ian ensure their knowledge is relevant by staying informed of market trends, and proactively developing new skills through short courses, professional and industry development.
They find promoting their uniqueness increasingly challenging in today’s market where degrees of separation are few, so they actively nurture a healthy network to give them a competitive advantage in securing a pipeline of work.
Over the last decade they have consistently been valued for their superior stakeholder skills. During the pandemic the importance of their relational skills has amplified, as they have increasingly led teams and solved problems in a remote and hybrid working environment.
Above all, their clients claim Erika and Ian bring a depth and breadth of experience to their work, and are sought for their objective and calm counsel, can-do attitude and speed of impact.
Our female Interim Executive avatar: Erika
In the last 12 months, Erika has typically been looking for an assignment less than one month and is paid a daily rate of $1300-$1500.
She is 50-59 years old.
Erika is engaged as an interim CEO for 20% of her assignments and as an interim General Manager for two in three assignments.
She has been kept busiest in the Healthcare, Government and Not-for-profit sectors, and relative to Ian, busier in Financial Services.
You will find Erika working on business transformation (predominantly cultural change) and often within the Human Resources and Legal departments.
Our male Interim Executive avatar: Ian
Ian’s age spans the 50-59 and 60+ brackets equally. Ian is paid more than $1500 per day in 25% of his assignments and $2000+ per day in a further 20% of assignments.
He is engaged as the interim CEO for one in three of his assignments and fills other C-suite roles for two in three assignments.
Like Erika, he has been kept busy in the Healthcare, Government and Not-for-profit sectors.
Relative to Erika, he is busier in Manufacturing, FMCG and Technology Services. Functionally, Ian is supporting Finance, IT and Supply Chain in the organisations he works with.
Accessing real talent
Our 2022 avatars represent a synthesis of our research into the Interim Executive cohort we represent. Of course, if your organisation would like to access real talent for Interim roles we are ready to help and happy to answer any questions.
We look forward to sharing our expertise with you.
Alex Brown, Associate Partner, Watermark Search