Do bankers make good headhunters anyway?

So, Johnny Cameron has quit Odgers Berndtson out of concern for the wellbeing of his putative employer.

The press release which yesterday announced his resignation 'with immediate effect,' included a quote from Cameron saying that he joined Odgers because he thought he could make a contribution, but that, "if there is any risk at all that I could in any way damage the firm, particularly having regard to its very strong franchise in the financial and public sectors, it is clearly best that I step aside."

As we suggested previously, Cameron might not have been a very good banker, but thanks to his network, he could have been a good headhunter.

He wouldn't have been the first former banker to make a career in executive search. Although plenty in the industry have risen up from the likes of Robert Walters and Badenoch & Clark, there are also several who've been in banking.

Korn/Ferry's Anthony Faukner was once a managing director at Credit Suisse. Adrian Ezra, chief executive of Execuzen, was previously a director at Credit Suisse. And Jason Mort, founder and managing director of the Omerta Group, was formerly incarnated as a proprietary bond trader (according to his website).

"Ex-bankers do tend to make good headhunters," says one who's gone down that route. "The process [of headhunting] is relatively simple, and their connections make all the difference,"

However, others disagree. If ex-bankers fail as headhunters, it's because they think it's going to be easy, and are arrogant according to two others who've done it. "Most bankers tend to assume they'll be calling their mates, but it doesn't work like that," says one. "Bankers make good headhunters - if they can leave their egos at the door," says Ezra.

With his latest act of contrition, Cameron appears to have left his ego at the end of the drive. Given that the damage to Odgers has already been done, it's unfortunate, therefore, that he won't get to put his allegedly large network to use.