Brian Jennings - Avoid this Recruiter!
I received this unprovoked, unsolicited, very rude email from a recruiter named Brian Jennings at Thurmond & Co. this morning. This guy requested to connect with me on LinkedIn, not the other way around. I haven't even spoken to him once, much less asked for his help. Was very surprised to see this email. I'll definitely be actively avoiding him from now on given his attitude. Message text copied below:
Good morning,
Reached out to you a few times to set up a call to discuss a search but don’t believe I ever received a reply. Know you’re busy but have to tell you it’s hard for me to want to help people when they contact me when they think they’re going to lose their seat or simply want to make a change when they haven’t extended the courtesy of a reply earlier to one of my queries. I usually work with people way up the food chain rather than lower level searches for this very reason but am doing so as a favor for one of my clients. That being said, folks like your boss, your boss’s boss and on up know the importance of getting back with people such as myself. Not upset, just giving you the benefit of my experience. Good luck
Brian
Brian Jennings | Senior Managing Director Investment Banking Recruiter | Thurmond & Company, Inc
Office: 828-277-6984 | Cell: 828-243-6470
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That "search etiquette" subject line really got me
Dude was negging you.
He probably has you confused for some one else, or he's been working with MDs for so long he's forgotten entry level analysts and associates don't have time to reply.
My general rule of thumb: if it's not a well-known recruiter, don't reply. Outside of the ten or so that are regularly discussed on WSO, most are just sharks and not worth the time.
"Sorry Brian, but after careful consideration and discussions with many qualified candidates, I've decided to go with another headhunter..."
You're lucky! I can't even get a recruiter to email me back. Sounds like I should send him an email :)
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This guy is a joke, he's reached out to me in the past...apparently he only works with "elite boutiques" and is trying to break into bulge bracket recruiting.
Can confirm this guy is a joke. He sent the same exact email to me, word for word.
I wonder what his angle is if he gets a bite? Does he continue with an aggressive approach or go apologetic and wheedling for your resume?
Someone should forward this thread to his boss [email protected], feel like he'd be interested in seeing how his firm is being presented to junior bankers.
This is the infamous recruiter, Brian Jennings. Apologize if my email came across with mal intent. We are all busy and I do my best to respond to every query that comes across my desk and expect the same in return. If that's wrong, then I'm wrong. Wish all of you the best of luck.
Dude doesn't even know how to apologize without coming across as rude
There's a difference between expecting courtesy and giving an unwarranted, condescending lesson on "the importance of getting back with people such as Yourself" to a grown man.
Good that he admitted his mistake and learned .... this is the age of drones...how he is dealing his clients today should not be the same (how he was dealing a decade ago). Anyways, at work (and life), we all change with time -- we stop doing what we used to do and adapt to new changes. No hard feelings !
However, I don't agree with this line on his Linkedin post ...... "In the beginning, I sincerely believed I was doing these young men and women a favor but..."
No one is doing any favor to anyone -- it's pure BUSINESS.
really nice discussion. good to be here.
I'm going to continue to sound like a broken record as i've mentioned this many times over: A headhunter review section would be fucking aces! Something anonymous (I don't wana slag a HH off and he work out who i am, which would be easy) and separate from the company data base. The good ones should get rewarded, and the trash squeezed out of the market.
It's a horrible business model having one agent "advising" both sides of the transaction, the weaker party (us) should do what is within our power to furnish ourselves with as much leverage, information and power as we can.
And Patrick, I'd carve it out of WSO, make it across industries (start with finance, consulting etc.) then sell it to Glassdoor.
I'm the best recruiter, ask anyone i'm amazing. I can recruit the hell out of people. I'm awesome. People come up to me and say WOW what a recruiter, can you teach me to recruit? I'm just amazing. WOW.
I work in Sales with my primary target being Investment Bankers. There are sales theories that promote behavior like this when you can't get a response from a client, however, never to the extent that he has done here.
As a general tip, Recruiters are among the most aggressive people in the sales ecosystem. Most of them don't give a shit about the prospect and some not even about the client. These guys run off number of jobs placed. Try and stick with firms/people that have a good rep or you have a referral from.
this.
there is a school of thought that I believe, where basically you drive someone to a decision, but NEVER, like this guy did, do you insult somebody "I usually work higher up the food chain..."
I had no idea investment banks recruited from a firm in the blue ridge mountains.
The guy looks like a professional fisherman on his LinkedIn picture
Hey look he wrote a blog post about this thread https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/good-intentions-gone-bad-brian-jennings?…
This is kind of a weird post. He seems apologetic but at the end warns against others giving the "masses the benefit of your experience". Thanks for educating us plebeians.
Agreed, that last sentence pretty much nullified everything else before it. Unbelievable.
I think he might be one of those people who can't not sound condescending. He's definitely among those Gen-X'ers that think all millennials have an overt sense of entitlement and treats them as such.
EDIT: take a look at the comment at the bottom of the article...
In case Mr Jennings is reading this thread (and I suspect you are), I just wanted to pass this along, as I've had thoughts about giving the masses the benefit of my experience.
If you're going to try to crack sales out of millennial kids, learn how they think. Don't try to "Ward Cleaver" them. In any case, Ward Cleaver was never as condescending as you come across in your writings. Your stuff reads more like Eddie Haskell.
Don't run off to your friends on LinkedIn all butt-hurt when these millennials teach you a lesson about working out your target market before trying to teach them "search etiquette". That just compounds your error and draws more negative attention to your screw up.
Surely this is Sales 101 type stuff?
I am not a millennial, I am a >40 year old Gen-X and yet I still get this.
Also, many Gen-Xers don't like condescending, overly-aggressive sales tactics either. I don't know if anyone does.
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