Why are most recruiters trash?

Re feedback I sympathise. I always think perspective; the average recruiter where I’m from isn’t an A* kid that goes to lengths to do the job like IB trains you to do, doesn’t have ethics of gold, and isn’t incentivised to provide feedback to those unchosen.

Perhaps If I’m having an awful day I’d call their manager?

Also don't understand why firms pay that much for recruiters versus using LinkedIn / publicly posting, especially cause recruiters rarely do any special filtering on candidates

Makes even less sense for large PE firms that have internal HR / talent people

Shocked that they still can make a living with today's technology / AI

Supply and demand. Tons of highly qualified candidates, very few seats

Most recruiters have not worked in the industry they’re recruiting for (especially IB/PE/HF) and low barriers to entry = bad recruiters. This is why many take the spray and pray approach in terms of candidates at the volume recruitment firms and don’t really care because landing one person on a high salary even at entry level in finance is a nice payout for them based on a % of first year comp.

It’s harsh, but from my personal experience. These guys get bombarded and also approach a lot of people. They only need 1 good candidate to get hired so will run with the best horse when they identify him/her. Think plenty of people realise when they are the best horse, the HH is engaging very actively with them. Their interests are not your interests just like how companies entertain most banks but will almost end up with the same advisors over and over again.