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One aspect of advice when dealing with headhunters, recruiters, and agencies is to understand that they work for the client, not for the candidate. They are either supporting the clients' HR group, are working on commission or any other combination of them. Now, this is not a deterrent or anything (in fact, without candidates like you they wouldn't make any money at all), but something to keep in mind.
Otherwise: - be prepared, research the client group, their philosophy and leaders (bio) - ask the head hunter to give any background info, the feedback from previous interviews and who you are going to meet (incl. character profile, who they met, etc). - ask meaningful questions and act professional at all times. Get back to their emails, requests and offer the time slots they need - Etiquette should be slightly different in cases where a high-profile agency is not only forwarding you, but where they are presenting you as a worthy candidate (in order to look better than candidates from other agencies or the internal resource pool) - Try to understand the mentality of the headhunter as well. They are connected in the world of finance and have multiple clients in many countries and locations. It is essential to keep them interested for follow-up opportunities. A long time ago a client rejected me but fed back to the head hunter that I was a great candidate - the same headhunter placed me in a more senior role 2 months down the line in another bank!
About 80% of my jobs in my life were via head hunters and I would be nowhere right now without their help.
Good luck!
edit: There are also downsides when you are applying via external recruitment agencies who are not directly affiliated with the end client: the cost of hiring you. In some cases, even though the cost is clearly outlined to the client firm, the decision is made against the candidate due to cost reasons. You might be able to observe this problem when you advance through the interview process and then suddenly the head hunter tries to gauge your compensation level in combination with the clients' budget. In many cases, the recruitment fees might surpass this budget limit and they might try to lowball you.
Fantastic advice +1
This helps a lot, thanks for taking the time out to reply!
Would you recommend being specific in the area of finance that I'm interested in or would a more broad approach work? My experience/CV could, in theory, point to any of the three industries I mentioned in my post but I'm not sure that being so specific at this early stage in my career is helpful.
As for the client groups they cover.. I have a vague idea based on others who have been contacted before in my network (IIRC some megafunds, top AMs and EBs) but I am not completely up to date. I was hoping I could use this call to flesh some of that information out.
I believe these headhunters are the "gatekeepers" (or first sift) to most of their clients not sure how much that changes the calculus.
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