The two points in your career at which it makes sense to leave banking and become a headhunter

Another banker has moved into recruitment. Search firm Kinsey Allen announced this week that it has hired Sebastian Piggott. Piggot, who's worked at RBS, Natwest and Yamaichi International, will specialise in unearthing fixed income bankers. He most recently spent a year at Anglo Suisse Capital.

As we have noted before, it is not totally unusual for people to leave banking and join headhunting. After all, good headhunters can be very well remunerated.

However, if you are thinking of leaving banking and joining headhunting, you are advised to choose your moment carefully.

"There are two stages in your career when you can make a move," advises Alastair Johnston, chief executive of recruitment firm Allemby Hunt, and a former senior relationship banker at Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche. Rabobank and Commerzbank. "You either need to go very early in your career when you realise that banking isn't for you. Or you need to go later in your career when you've developed a network and have some experience."

The head of a search firm with a propensity for hiring bankers concurs with this view.

"People will often move into headhunting when there's no downside to leaving banking," she says. "We've hired a few people who were let go from analyst programmes or who decided they didn't enjoy the industry."

The right move for the wrong reason

Johnstone cautions against bankers moving into headhunting simply because there's nothing else to do: "It should be a positive, proactive thought process," he says. "You have to want to do it. It shouldn't be a negative move."

Bruce Lock, managing director of Kinsey Allen, points to the non-monetary rewards to be had from moving into headhunting: "Those who succeed in making the transfer seem to enjoy having a different or wider perspective on the sector they cover."