The six-month search trap.
What happens to your market value at month four - and the recalibration that resets it.
Months one through three of a senior search are paid for by your last role's narrative. Months four through six are paid for by your story about why you are still looking.
If that story is not deliberately constructed, the market constructs it for you - and the construction is rarely flattering.
The recalibration is not more applications. It is a hard reset on positioning: new target list, new one-line answer, new proof points, and a willingness to walk away from the roles that were never going to convert anyway.
Most leaders we work with at month four close in another eight to ten weeks once the reset is real. The ones who keep grinding the old strategy are still searching at month nine.