Candidates abusing recruiters

8 May 2008

2 minute read

With jobs harder to come by, bankers are behaving badly towards recruiters and headhunters, who are suddenly unable to slot them into comfortable new positions.

"We're starting to get a lot of angry emails," says one structured credit headhunter. "Bankers are approaching us and questioning why we can't place them in hedge funds or commodities businesses. They're venting their spleens, but there just aren't the jobs."

"Candidates are more rude and obnoxious," confirms the head of a derivatives recruitment firm. "We get a lot of emails saying 'You guys are no good at what you do'."

"Candidates have become used to getting what they wanted over the past few years," agrees Adam Buck at recruiters Selby Jennings. "They were able to say, 'I want to work in a macro hedge fund with x million under management,' and we were able to deliver for them. That's no longer always possible and people need to understand that the market has changed."

Frustration might also have something to do with the fact that recruiters are no longer doing their best to accommodate everyone.

Zaheer Ibrahim at search firm Kennedy Associates says it just isn't viable to spend time on borderline candidates any more: "The CVs we see are walking money. We'll go for the triple and double As, but we can't waste our time with people who won't generate money for us in this kind of market."

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

Ka
Karik
9 July 2011
A rolling stone is worth two in the bush, thanks to this artlice.
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aR
a Real Headhunter
16 July 2010
Dear all, I would like to comment on the piece by the GTO Graduate student. You need to scope the market and use your instinct on which head hunters to deal with. You seem naive and even the worst recruiters will pick up and that and take liberties. You should deal with a real, credible Headhunter who has the biggest and best clients in the market you want to be involved in. Also, graduates can be just as annoying, you spend year after year in school, sorry....... "university" and when you graduate you expect Headhunters to pander to your every need. The truth is, as a graduate, the fee agencies will receive from placing you doesnt even pay the overheads for one Headhunter, so why do you expect that you would be top of the list.
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YH
Y HH?
19 March 2009
Word of advice candidates, if we don't know you, you're not in our system, you won't take our researchers calls and you act arrogant - you have less likelyhood to get any help when you need it.
In a market flooded with candidates, unfortunatly we really do pull the strings and won't even put forward uncooperative candidates. If you have a bad attitude with us, do you think we want to sit you in front of our clients and have that reflect badly on us?
And as for "making up jobs to get CVs", don't you think in this market we have more than enough CVs?
Its not that we dont want to find you a job, we do, but our obligation is to our clients (they pay our bills) and if non of them need you, what can we do?
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le
levado656
13 March 2009
I've had variable experiences. The basic agencies are the ones to avoid, as they have no real expertise and tend to focus on the bottom end of the market, filling back office or assistant-type positions. These are the ones who'll blast Email your CV to all and sundry. Even then, some agencies don't seem to know the business, and you have to explain what an equity analyst does, for instance. It is pretty obvious who are the real professionals. The worst thing is all the hype you read about the jobs they advertise: all their clients are invariably "top tier" banks, and I even saw a ridiculous comment stating "only top-ranked analysts need apply"! Head-hunting is all about selling a product to firms hiring, and persuading them they need the candidate in the first place.
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Ji
JimmyT
3 December 2008
Head-hunters are worse than estate-agents because they hold the one thing which is critical to your reputation - your CV.
I've made the mistake in the past of trusting these trolls, and I found out recently that one punk was still emailing my CV around from 3 years ago.
My advice is insist on meeting them (they buy the coffee), and don't tell them a thing unless they're prepared to meet. In this kind of market, they may well be inundated, but you can explain your CV over the phone (without specifics). Time to play hardball and weed out the incompetence that's filled the city with dross for the past 5 years
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