If recruiting is done through headhunters, does networking still help?
O
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(Chimp, 13
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on 10/19/11 at 4:15pm
I go to a school with alumni at almost every major PE firm.
Going to be joining a BB after graduation as a first year banking analyst. Interested in PE after banking. Does it make sense to network with alumni the same way I did for banking positions or does it not matter because the headhunters are now the gatekeepers?
There are alumni at the big search firms too. Should I network with them?
Thanks for your help!





bump any info on the
bump
any info on the importance of networking for pe recruiting would be greatly appreciated.
Yes, you definitely should.
Yes, you definitely should. The headhunters are just one way to get in the door. Alums at different funds may be part of the recruiting process (so you can circumvent an HH directly). At the end of the day, it's the fund that's making the decision whether to hire you or not. The more people you can get to vouch for you, the better.
Definitely a good idea to go
Definitely a good idea to go the networking route. I'm at the end of a process right now that started with me reaching out to network about 7 months ago. My contact told me then that they'll be raising a fund soon, and will be looking to bring in an Analyst once they hit a certain hurdle in the raise.
At this point, they're talking to my references, and haven't even advertised the position (hopefully they never have to)!
Absolutely. More than half of
Absolutely. More than half of my firm's hires are through referrals, not through headhunters.
As usual, HerSerendipity
As usual, HerSerendipity speaks the truth! I'll go so far to say that we prefer referrals over headhunters.
CompBanker
The more people in your
The more people in your corner the better. At some point, many of the candidates look the same, especially at the junior level. Sometimes the difference is just someone saying "that dude seems pretty cool".