Have you come across these unfeasibly good candidates?
If something appears too good to be true, it often is. Hence, if you receive an email from a recruitment firm offering you a selection of seemingly impeccable candidates, scepticism may well be advisable.
It's come to our attention that one City recruiter has been soliciting clients with a list of candidates equal to any hiring manager's wilder fantasies.
They include individuals with "double firsts from Oxford," "10 blues in four sports," first class degrees in economics from top universities, internships at Goldman Sachs, experience at Greenhill, and prizes for outstanding academic achievement.
It's quite possible that these people exist, and if they do, it's bad news for the mass of very good, but not totally outstanding people in the market.
Equally, however, questions have been raised as to the reality of some of those described.
Although in this case, the candidates may well be real, recruiters say it's not unheard of for nefarious members of their profession to concoct fantasy CVs in order to attract hiring managers' attention. "You put together three perfect CVs, send them off, and when banks say they're interested, you tell them those people have gone, but you can send them some alternatives," says one.
The head of HR at one North American bank in the City compares emails promoting unfeasibly good candidates to emails which sell flights for 50p: "You have to wonder whether there's a catch. Some of these people are so incredibly good it seems strange that they're looking for work and not earning 1m somewhere."
