PE Headhunter Recruiting

I would appreciate if you could share your knowledge about how headhunters recruit IB analysts for PE jobs.

Do headhunters forward resumes to their clients on a rolling basis or is there a particular time, such as a few weeks before the PE interviews are expected to begin, when headhunters begin forwarding resumes to their clients?

What role does an analyst’s transaction exposure play in the headhunter’s decision to forward an analyst’s resume to a client? With just a few months into their job some analysts have had limited transaction exposure but by the end of two years some of these analysts who have had limited transaction exposure in the initial months might end up with the most extensive exposure.

Is there a tradeoff between meeting headhunters early (September) with a resume that is weak on transaction exposure versus meeting them later on (mid-November) with a resume that is a little stronger on transaction exposure?

Most IB analysts do the work that is farmed out to them and often they are not driving the transaction or playing a significant role. Does this mean that analysts have to overstate their experience on their resumes for PE recruiting instead of describing their supporting role. Don't PE professionals expect that analysts with six months of experience probably have had a supporting role in the transactions they have worked on or do they expect otherwise.

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