As the title goes, I will be joining McKinsey soon, but have already been receiving quite a number of messages from head recruiters / headhunters from the venture capital, private equity, technology and corporate space to my LinkedIn inbox, since listing it on my profile. So far I've only been ignoring them, simply because I have no idea on how to reply and wouldn't want to jeopardize the offers.
A few of them seem to be great opportunities (think B Capital, Sequoia, Blackstone) which I'll be interested in, given my finance and technology background.
Given that I haven't yet started at McKinsey but will be interested in keeping these options open for some time in the near future, what would be a good way to respond to these invitations for calls / interviews? Also, how many years before a jump makes sense?
Can anyone share some similar experiences here?
I hate you
Weird flex but ok
Normal for Mck, Bain et al. Had 10+ recruiters reaching out before starting the job. Just say you're interested further down the line but timing is not right. Don't waste their time but also don't leave them unanswered, easy enough
I don't think it hurts to have a few phone conversations with recruiters in industries you're really interested in. As long as you frame the conversation as, "I'm really new and just looking to gather information at this point" you should be okay. Most headhunters I talked with when I was less than a year into the job were happy to make the connection and tell me more about their industry and the respective recruiting process.
For something like PE in particular, there is a very strict recruiting process, and a set of stringent tests that need to be passed in interviews. Headhunters can walk you through all of this so that you're not caught off guard when the recruiting season comes around. Furthermore, PE recruiters are the gatekeepers to the industry. The better the relationships you have with them, the more likely they will be to send opportunities your way.
This is all food for thought. You definitely don't have to speak with recruiters, but as long as you don't sound like an idiot, you could learn a bit from these conversations with minimal downside. If you don't want to talk with them, make sure to respond and tell them that you're not interested now, but may be in the future.