How many rejections are you "allowed" for each headhunter?

For example, let's say you interviewed with 3 PE funds CPI gave you an interview for, and got rejected all 3 times. At what point will you ruin your reputation with that headhunter and no longer get opportunities from them?

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With zero evidence, I'd suspect it depends where a candidate is dismissed. if you're failing at the initial screening phases or model test (i.e., pre-superday), I'd think 1-2 dings and a headhunter will stop recommending you. If you're failing to get offers after superdays, you probably have some more lenience since these can be moreso a crapshoot and your early interviews implied you're a sufficiently qualified candidate.

I'd say it also generally comes down to the feedback shared with the headhunter regarding your reason for being cut (poor cultural fit, weak experience, lack of technical skills, poor soft skills, etc.) versus there strictly being a better candidate or someone else with more directly relevant experience who grabbed the slot(s).

 

A little bid of a hot take —

I think it depends on how egregiously bad you are. I think it is a bit underrated how you do have a bit of wiggle room here.

E.g— if you’re a Rutgers brother and you fail at H&F so badly that H&F yells at cpi and says how dare you do this to us, that would be one thing. It would be another thing if you get cut without feedback (early or late) in a process and the interviewers give no feedback / still say nice stuff, and you stay in contact with the headhunter / are polite to the headhunter over longer periods of time

 

yeah like I got rejected from 2 MFs from a single Headhunter and they're still sending me more MF/UMM opps... wondering how should I navigate this because I'm worried I'll only have 1 more shot with them 

 

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