If you decide to contact retained executive search firms to let them know of your availability, here is what you should expect:

• If you initiate the contact with a retained executive search firm, your expectations should not be too high. If the firm does not currently have an assignment for which you are a good candidate, there just isn’t much to talk about. Constantly calling the search consultant about progress on your search may very well have a negative effect.
• Once the search consultant does begin talking to you about a specific assignment, he may be unwilling to reveal the name of the company. That’s ok, and it is usually at the insistence of the client that the company name is kept confidential. Once the candidate pool has been narrowed down, you will be told the name of the company.
• After you have begun the interviewing process, you should expect regular updates from the search consultant. Unfortunately, some firms are not as diligent in keeping candidates updated about the process as they should be. If you experience this with a search firm, you will need to find the right compromise between making a pest out of yourself and requiring reasonable updates.
• If you are the chosen candidate, do not be surprised if the offer is actually presented to you by the search consultant instead of the Company. This is not uncommon, and since most offers involve some amount of negotiation, it is actually better that you are able to use the search consultant as an intermediary rather than having to negotiate directly with your future employer.