My experiences with AM headhunters/recruiters
I don't have a lot of job hunting experiences. But for some reason my limited experiences with headhunters were hardly positive. I guess the lessons that I learned are 1) headhunters offer little added value to better prepare you for interviews, 2) don't trust them too much. The information that you give them may work against you later.
Here is what happened to me. One of them did nothing other than passing my resume to the hiring manager. I went through the rest of the processes all by myself. He occasionally texted me like "did you talk to xx" or "how did the interview go?"
Another one was better. He always gave me a call before each round of interview. But every time the focus was to get information about me such as current compensation, my desired salary, etc. He showed little interest offering basic information such as who would be the interviewers and what questions they might ask. I always tried to be professional and courteous. But he ghosted me after a few rounds of interview. After waiting for a couple of months I learned from somewhere else that I was not selected.
I have been wondering whether most headhunters in this industry view their relationship with candidates as a transactional one. Or maybe they don't really care because there are very few job openings for LO AM. What were your experiences with headhunters? Do you think you get a better chance working with them than applying jobs on your own?
Hey peter_wall, I'm here to break the silence...any of these links help you?:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
I'm a mid-career buyside quant PM and I've had a wide range of experience with headhunters. Here's my advice:
- Never give a recruiter your cv until there's a specific job at a specific company that they bring to you and you'd like to apply or you run the risk they will spam your cv - even possibly to your current employer
- Always remember that the recruiter works for the hiring firm, not you, and anything you say regarding compensation history, etc will be shared - regardless of what they say
- They may ask for details about your interview process. Be careful with this information since they may pass this to other candidates they have in the process.
- Despite the risks above, engage with recruiters because they do find interesting roles you otherwise wouldn't have found and can get your cv past the HR filter
There are some recruiting shops that just post attractive sounding job descriptions on LinkedIn or direct message you to get your cv and then just spam your cv to hiring firms. The way recruiter commissions work at many firms is that the first recruiter to submit your cv to a firm gets the commission if you join within the next 6-12 months so they want to claim your cv. You hear from these types of recruiters the most because they're the most aggressive with reaching out.
There are definitely better recruiters that see opportunities that you might not. Large asset managers don't post all of their open positions on their website for whatever reason so unless you have a very good network in the industry, it's still useful to talk to recruiters. And there are a few recruiters who are actually very good and have relationships in the industry and can place you with a team that might not be looking for something new actively, but they tend to focus on more senior roles because they generate more revenue. There should really be some kind of glassdoor for recruiters to help us weed out the less scrupulous ones.
Hi jtwist, I thought I had replied your post. Just wanted to say thank you for the advice. They are very helpful. Really appreciate it!
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