How much can a headhunter help you?
After a good year of banging my head against the wall and cold-emailing/cold-calling firms to try to break into trading, I lucked out and got a friend to connect me with a direct link with a recruiter, with whom I will be speaking next week.
I'll be frank about my own quals:
- Don't know a hardcore programming language, but strong in MATLAB
- Have a STEM PhD from a HYP and a math undergrad degree from a target
- Just over 30yo, fresh out of academia, doing a consulting job that is kind of a continuation of the kind of shit i did as an academic
I can understand why I got a lot of doors slammed in my face because with all the experienced quants floating around in the labor pool, firms can hold out for a guy with real experience.
Does anyone know how good these large headhunters are in terms of getting you in the door? That's ALL I want right now, I just want a toehold. I do not give two shits about the prestige of the firm, etc. I just want IN on desk trading, quant work, etc.