Experienced Associate Reaching Out to CPI: Ghosted – Anyone Else Have This Experience?
Has anyone else had trouble getting a response from CPI? Over the past few months, I’ve reached out to multiple people there, but haven’t heard back. I spoke with someone about a role a year ago, but the process was delayed, and I haven’t had any contact since.
For context, I’m an Associate at a leading energy fund (think EnCap/NGP/Kayne Anderson) and was in an industry-focused IB role before this. CPI represents some large, reputable funds, so I’m keen to get in touch with them.
Any recommendations on how to approach this? Appreciate any insights!
Based on previous WSO threads, here are some recommendations for your situation:
Persistence and Follow-Up:
Leverage Your Network:
Alternative Headhunters:
Refine Your Outreach:
Engage on Multiple Platforms:
Seek Feedback:
By following these steps, you can increase your chances of getting a response from CPI or finding alternative pathways to your desired opportunities.
Sources: Q&A: Strategy consulting Associate Partner offering career advice, My Path - MBA Banking Associate to PE, My on-cycle experience / guide, Cold Call Email Mistake Made - Sharing Response (Advice) Received, PE Senior Associate - What next?
You’re the second person who relayed this issue with CPI. I have the same exp with amity
Same here. Never have gotten a response back from them in months.
Hated working with CPI when I was recruiting for PE, same experience.
I think I must have a 15% hit rate with CPI in terms of getting a response. I get they’re the best in the game, but still very frustrating when you’re getting like 90+% rate everywhere else
Have you gotten any inbounds from them recently?
They've been pretty terrible this year for me...not sure if it's because the market is flooded with candidates but they've been unresponsive across the board
Have they even shown you any opportunities? I’ve only gotten one recently
At the associate level? Not recruiting for the associate level
I’m not sure why people are taking this personal. They are a business currently operating with a large pool of candidates to choose from and a select # of seats to place them in. They get paid based on placements, which means the higher perceived likelihood you are to receive an offer, the more likely they are to place you. They’re also focused on retaining their top relationships, which means unless your resume is gold plated AND you’ve been vetted to the point where they know you won’t embarrass them in an interview process, good luck on hearing back. Everyone and their brother is probably reaching out to CPI right now begging to either get placed out of banking or for lateral opps or because they’re simply unemployed, and they have maybe ~100 recruiters. Lets do the math people.
Yes, it's not new that headhunters are very prestige oriented and probably much more so in today's market...but the problem is that they gatekeep these opportunities on their perception of candidate quality (aka having the cookie cutter background), which is not an accurate indicator of being a good candidate for the role. Additionally, doesn't negate the fact that it's very frustrating as a candidate to not be aware of any open roles that might be a good fit when most reputable PE firms rely on these headhunters like CPI to hire versus just using an open platform like LinkedIn...
You act like it’s their discretion in terms of the profile of candidate they are tasked to go find. I promise you, the partners at H&F, TPG, KKR, etc. aren’t saying “go find me the stud that’s grinding at Kayne Anderson” They want the 4.0 at name your BB or EB top group. Thus, HHs go out and find that profile and only that profile so they can keep their mandate. Nothing more and nothing less.
CPI has always been unprofessional to deal with in my experience.
Do these HH blacklist someone? Like if you reCh out to them many times. And missed a zoom call that was scheduled inadvertently??
Hypothetically if you're a PE associate about to hit 2 years of tenure at a known MM firm and CPI placed you at that said firm, can you reach back out to CPI or is there an issue? Really appreciate if someone can provide some advice as I have read conflicting guidance on this site. Assume that the person has a return offer and isn't being forced out by the firm. Thanks again.
I feel like it should be perfectly in bounds to resume discussion with CPI once it's close to 2 years.
You would need you firm to okay it
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