Going into a headhunter meeting, should I know the location, size, industry, and type of strategy (growth equity, buyout, distressed) I'm interested in or just a general strategy and industry preference?
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You should know what you want to do, and where / why you want to do it.
This is important, primarily to give the headhunter confidence that you will accept any position that they put you forward for. They don't want candidates with un-specific preferences, because that indicates they are (1) unprepared, and (2) more likely to flake out on an offer. As such, your story should be compelling and clearly spell out what you're looking for in specific terms.
As an example. not having a location preference is a red flag for a lot of headhunters. What if they find you the right industry / strategy, but you ultimately reject the offer because you hate cold weather, or don't want to go to the West Coast? If you don't care about location, you should have very good reasons why you're willing to move to find a job with a firm focussed on a particular industry or strategy.
Echo the above, but will add a little more nuance.
I'd be quite specific, but make sure you don't come off as entitled/arrogant. You want to show that you've put a lot of thought into this career move, and being specific with your wants will give the HH more confidence that you've prepared and are willing to accept on the spot.
I gave the following level of specificity to HHs: - Priority is to be in City X because of A, but also open to city Y because of B [Definitely wouldn't give more than 2 cities] - Looking exclusively at buyout funds, not interested in VC / Corp dev because of X,Y - Looking at funds that are UMM / MF because of strong brand, experience working with larger companies at current job, etc. [Don't say you'd like LMM or MF cause that's fairly different. Only use 2 adjacent buckets in the LMM/MM/UMM/MF scale] - Interested in X industry group(or to be a generalist) because of X,Y - In particular, I've spoken to Jane Smith at firm X who's an alumni of my school/firm, and very impressed by the firm's emphasis on Y [Use your judgement as to whether you should be this specific. Will depend on the HH firm and clients they represent}
Hope this helps, good luck!
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