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A Lesson in Finding Good People

My Hypothesis:

The best candidates for the business development position aren't considering marketing communication agencies in their employment searches.

My Argument: 

At any given time I'm working with two or three agencies to help place business development personnel. (I don't recruit - only vet. And no recruiting on this site, please!) It's tough to find good people right now and, unless the US economy tanks like so many are predicting, it's just going to get tougher, for reasons I'll discuss in an upcoming newsletter.

In working with a couple of highly specialized firms recently I became aware of a pattern. Both firms began by advertising their vacant business development positions in the usual locations: Monster, HotJobs, Craig's List, AdAge, etc.  Both yielded the usual dearth of good candidates. 

Eventually each firm posted the job to industry specific job boards within the verticals they served. We immediately saw a jump in the quality of the candidates who applied. This leads me to conclude that perhaps the best candidates out there (for business development, account services, and possibly other agency positions) aren't actively looking for employment with marketing communication agencies. In fact, when I reflect back on previous experiences I'm almost certain this is the case.

Here's how the principal of one of these two firms responded to my observation.

"Yes. We hadn’t really fished in this area before. We were always looking for agency people. My guess is that there are LOTS of experienced [industry] people who would crawl over themselves to get the kind of job we’re offering. It allows them to leverage their background, get out of the trenches, sell a good product, focus on the sexy side of marketing, etc. Many of them want OUT of the corporate environment or field marketing/sales roller coaster."  

My Questions:

1. Am I correct in deducing that the best people are usually not actively pursuing agencies in their career search?

2. If so, why is this the case?