Recruiting for buyside
I’m a new junior in equity research at a BB. I was told that headhunters start reaching out “as soon as you start” your ER job but haven’t heard anything yet. I was wondering how long it takes for HH to contact new ER analysts, what can I do to make myself more visible to them (the ones I reached out to didn’t respond), and when I should start recruiting for the buyside (is it a months long process or a couple weeks, etc). Any other tips?
Don't know about others, Mercury emailed me the moment I set up my equity research work email.
So they messaged you mostly via email or on LinkedIn?
Both.
Same but is mercury even a real HH?
My experience was definitely not that. The vast majority of connections I made were through networking on my end. I hear that people in IB get their PE gig very early on, but that is definitely not the case in ER. I would also recommend to not start recruiting too early (maybe have at least 1.5 years on the job) because you will run into a lot of situations where you will be rejected purely on the basis of "not enough experience" and it will be more difficult to get another interview with that firm the next time around.
This is just my personal experience.
You should have at least one year of experience before talking to headhunters for buyside opportunities. Unless you’ve been following stock market and your specific sector for a long time or is an industry expert before starting this role you likely have no idea what you’re talking about and cannot think critically about a stock.
Took about 3 months to get LinkedIn DMs, started accelerating significantly around 6 months in.
Always ask if it’s a retained search or not, and look up the firm.
Hey sorry, what’s a retained search?
The HH is “retained” (paid a fixed fee to find someone) by the firm, as opposed to being paid a variable fee (half or full 1st year salary) for finding the person.
Non-retained searches can be a free for all and invite shady practices since it is a volume game for the HH. Not always, but worth keeping in the back of your mind.
Hitting my two year mark at an MM with a quality research product and have been getting some traction, but mostly pod shops. Anyone get traction with more longer-term oriented funds or AMs?
Also, since I’m getting some buyside traction through HH, is there really a big difference in the types of opportunities at an MM vs BB? Perhaps, the answer is LT-oriented HFs or AMs?
Most inbounds from HH is low quality - MM mostly and some subscale single manager. You prob won't get any AM inbounds from recruiters - long only firms don't need to work that hard to fill the role, always more applicants than openings.
It's not about MM vs. BB. It's about what your analyst's customer base is: BB analysts can be known for catering to pod shops (in fact many do). MM analysts can be known as an industry expert who doesn't differentiate on near-term channel checks.
Your best bet is is going outbound (networking).
Based on following this forum daily, I wouldn't fantasize about most Tiger Cubs and other LT-oriented larger HFs, they are exclusively looking at candidates with elite PE experience. There are exceptions, but don't count on it.
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