If you are a senior executive with a proven record, more often than not you get a call from an executive recruitment firm with a great opportunity available. It could be a start-up that is looking for professional management team to take it to next level or an established public company that hit a roadblock and they need someone with an outside view to correct the things. Either way, the challenge for you as a candidate is to assess the opportunity and see if it is a good fit for you.
There are lot of factors one might have to consider. I normally look for three factors as a preliminary check: products, customers, and management. Coming from software industry, my observations and analysis are based on my experiences in this industry.
