If an employee of my IB hires someone for a position that I referred then for, I get a bonus payment. I know some other IBs do the same.
Note: This is not for SA and grad hires. There are separate programs and hundreds of hungry applicants for those. This is for jobs needing lateral hires only. So don't IM me about this, wannabee monkeys.
How can you use this to your advantage if you're looking to lateral into an IB?
If you see a position advertised by an IB (or are just fishing), use networks or even LinkedIn to contact someone at the IB who works in that team or in a related team. That person will then be incentivised to help you get the job because he/she gets an incentive payment if you do.
There's a few factors to take into account...
You'll need to be a realistic contender. So, if you don't have the skills for the role, you're not a good bet for your new friend. If you're not suitable, you could damage their internal credibility if they refer you (although usually that's relatively low risk for analyst positions). You'll need them to believe that you've got a chance at getting the role.
You'll need the person you contact to have some internal network leverage to get inside information. As an outsider to the organisation, this makes things difficult, as you don't know how well they know the team you're going for. Unless your cold e-mail recipient is in the team you've targeted, the recipient may not be aware there is a job on offer (even if it's listed). For those non-team targets, it's easier if there is a job advertised that you can refer them to.
I was cold e-mailed via LinkedIn recently by someone looking at an advertised role at my IB (he may even be reading this post - if so, don't tell anyone who I am IRL!). Fortunately, I work pretty closely with the team he's looking to get into and I've chatted with him to get his background, then chatted with the staffer to get an idea of what they are after and pre-sell the candidate, then spoken to the candidate about what the team is looking for.
I don't know this guy. However, I do know that I'll get a referral bonus if he gets the job. I'm doing everything I can to make sure that happens.
Cold e-mail format would be something like:
[name][some friendly message, one line, does not include a question mark, doesn't call for a response]
I noticed [firm name's] [team name] team is looking for a [role].
[hyperlink to ad
Do you think you could refer me to the staffer in that team so that I can speak with them about the role?
Thanks
[you]
I'd use this approach as the recipient can either just give you the staffer name or, if they see the $$$ of referral bonus, they can interject themselves into the process like I have and give you inside information.
This initial e-mail doesn't ask the recipient for a phone call, for a catch up over coffee, for intel on the position, for an informational interview. It only starts with asking for a low effort response from the recipient, so the recipient can escalate (as I have). That's my preferred approach. On the other hand, I'm reluctant to be pushy and I'm not the best networker.
Best of luck.
Good advice.
This is good advice. If you use linkedin, you may have to upgrade to contact via "inmail". About $30/mo to send 3 "inmails" and $60/mo to send 10.
I have done this often with both people I know (i've reached out to them regarding openings) or cold emails/contacts. Basically free and easy money
That's really not the purpose of the referral bonus and its not meaningful enough to truly motivate someone to push you into the process if they wouldn't have otherwise (i.e., without the referral bonus).
And I would definitely caution against implying to someone that you could be their means to a $5-10k referral bonus, since first off its insulting to suggest that they'd be motivated to help you only because of the money and second its even more insulting/shady to imply that they would compromise their credibility and integrity.
Lastly, if you're a compelling enough candidate at face value, getting them to submit your resume is of negligible impact. Maybe in 2008-2009 this would have been a different story, when you had dozens of qualified and available candidates willing to give their left nut for a job and few of them would even get an interview.
You'll get a lot more mileage trying to appeal to someone's emotions by playing the hungry underdog card than you will be trying to appeal to their greed. Lets face it, while $5-10k isn't a stick in the eye, its barely enough to simply get someone to forward a resume to HR and then forget about it. Far more beneficial is it to actually connect with someone on a personal level and get them to champion your case inside the city walls.
I would have to disagree with you on this one. In my experience, sometimes candidates that are perfectly qualified for tend to get lost through the cracks of job boards / websites. I feel this is partially due to the fact that HR handles recruiting, and when you have hundreds, if not thousands, of applications, they all pretty much start looking alike. HR knows what good candidates are to an extent, however, they are not involved in our department and really only have a bird's eye view of what goes on. Networking and having an "in" is always the best strategy.
I have to confess that in my past, a candidate reached out through LinkedIn and asked about a open position at my old firm. After looking at his profile & requesting his resume, I immediately thought of the referral bonus. We also went to the same business school, so I had other reasons to vouch for him too I guess. I had a good relationship with the CIO, and after passing his resume along and saying a few nice words about the candidate, my boss loved him. We interviewed, gave an offer, he accepted, and I received a bonus. Nothing too shady about that IMO.
With respect, I disagree on a few points.
At the analyst/recruiting level, you are threatening your credibility and integrity if you advocate for the candidate, but not if you're just solely putting someone's name into the process. The latter is giving the recruiting team option value and they are free to screen out the candidate.
If this was at VP/director level, I would agree that a referrer should take more care.
I agree with you that a candidate implying they can be a ticket to a bonus is not a good approach. My thread title implies that the applicant should exploit by suggesting this, which is not what I mean. Instead, I should have explained that cold calling can get you a lucky lead in as it triggers this incentive. That said, the e-mail format I suggested doesn't refer to the bonus.
I agree the benefit of getting the person to submit the resume is negligible at best. However, the bonus incentive can be enough to tip the scales and get a phone call or face to face informational interview with the referrer, which can position you better for the interview. This is what I've offered to do for the guy who contacted me and I don't see it as sacrificing my integrity.
The information and tips I'll give him are non-confidential information that can be gathered from the public domain (although it would take a lot of work). The information helps him present the right aspects of his background/experience that the recruiting team is looking for. Even with those tips, he's still presenting himself and the recruiting team is evaluating what he can bring to the team.
Is $5-10k pre-tax enough to influence me? It's enough to motivate me to respond to a cold e-mail and offer an informational interview to help the candidate prepare, whereas I'd otherwise probably just refer the candidate to the standard process.
At the end of the day, unless someone is literally ushering your candidacy into the process, its very little value add. The referral is a valuable one when someone goes to bat for you, not when a cold e-mail is forwarded on to some incompetent ditz in HR.
Working at an investment bank (even a lesser known one), you probably get 10-20 cold emails a year. Every so often you'll reply, other times you'll fwd it along to HR with an FYI note, but most times you'll just hit delete or mean to get back to them and forget.
I'm not so much debating the idea of a the value of a (real) referral. I just don't see someone taking an active interest in a stranger they otherwise don't connect with on account of a low probability carrot hanging in front of them.
If we accept as fact that (1) almost everyone at a BB gets these cold emails; (2) most BB have referral bonuses, and (3) people prefer $5-10k to $0k,
How many of you pass along and champion for these cold emails because of the added motivation from possibly landing a $5k referral bonus? And of those few that have, how many of you have actually collected such a bonus?
I get the suggestion and advice. I just don't necessarily agree with the logic.
People giving OP grief please reread this portion of his post. A head hunter would get 30% of the guy's starting salary for doing this exact same thing.
Also you have to be really fucking rich for $10k to not be motivating enough to forward an e-mail. FYI I will forward any e-mail to any address for $1 or a funny picture.
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