How to contact headhunters and what to include in your resume?

Hi everyone, a few questions I would appreciate help answering:

1) Given that you are not contacted by headhunters, how do you contact headhunters that do not publicly post a resume drop email address? InMail or cold emails similar to reaching out to PE shops?

2) I am a senior in college and would like to contact them now instead of in the fall when I start FT, because I have lots of free time now and that would be convenient for me. Is this advisable or non-advisable? My logic is that I can contact them now using my student status to spin the informational interview as a chance to learn, and then get in touch again in the fall when I would like to recruit.

3) If it is advisable, should I include a line-item on my resume for my future FT job?

Thank you.

10 Comments
 

If headhunters aren't reaching out to you, then, unfortunately, your best bet is to essentially reach out to headhunters (either through their sites or through individual job postings) with your resume and high level career talking points and goals ready to send out.

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If you're not getting any inbound love, you're going to have to call them. Ask around and find out the names of some headhunting firms that specialize in the area you want to get into (IB, PE, Corp Dev, whatever). Then you'll just have to call/email and introduce yourself. You'll probably get some that will ignore you, but you'll get a few bites.

Don't worry about feeling awkward - remember that you're helping them by making the introduction - they get paid for placing candidates, so they won't be bothered to meet you if you're good. Don't be shy, it's a business introduction - you're able to help each other.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

Another tip - it really helps if you drop a name in your inital correspondance. For example:

Hello - blah blah blah, I received your name from my friend Johnny Rocket, who you worked with during his search for a position in PE. He told me you were very helpful to him, so I wanted to reach out and start a dialog with Headhunters 'R Us.

Take it from there, I found emails that mentioned a former relationship got a lot higher response rate.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

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