A group of headhunters just messed up their own job moves

A story is doing the rounds in London about a group of headhunters who - allegedly - seriously messed up their own attempts to move into new jobs.

We're not naming any names and the story may be apocryphal, but it's a salutatory reminder of how even the professionals can end up mismanaging the sensitive process of moving from one company to another.

The situation is said to have unfolded as follows... A senior headhunter (whom we shall call 'James') at one leading City headhunting firm had a disagreement with his boss and left for a rival. Upon arrival at the new firm, James set about informing his new boss about all the wonderful people he'd worked with at Company A. Hearing this, the boss of Company B decided he'd like to poach those people to work for him too. He duly interviewed James's able colleagues at Company A and made notes on their strengths and weaknesses, where they were in the interview process, and how much he'd like to pay them.

James's boss then sent his notes to James. Except, he made a mistake: when he emailed James, he accidentally used James's email address at Company A - messages to which were being forwarded to James's previous boss. In this way, the boss of Company A found himself in receipt of a full list of all his staff who were thinking of leaving for a rival.

Oops.

Contact: SButcher@eFinancialCareers.com

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