Are these places worthwhile for obtaining a job? I just got a cold call from one and wonder if its worth meeting with him. Does anyone’s place of employment on here utilize employment agencies? Has anyone successfully found a job with one?
I’ve never found a job through one. All my jobs have been through networking. I get cold calls all the time from insurance companies wanting me to join them as a “financial advisor”. If they read ANYTHING past my name and phone # on my resume, they’d quickly figure out I’m not exactly in that market. I had one ask me the other day, “So, you are a Certified Financial Accountant”? I kinda regret putting the resume on Monster sometimes.
Yes worthwhile - use them, but don’t let them use you (e.g. don’t let them send your resume where you don’t want it to go and DON’T tell them where your interviewing b/c they’ll send other candidates there). I got my current HF job through a recruiter (which doesn’t post on the job boards) and have gotten a fair share of interviews with great companies through recruiters.
My last three jobs were via recruiters. They’re similar to real estate agents – can be very useful if managed properly. In general it’s worth meeting almost anyone in the industry for a cup of coffee, even if just to get your head thinking about your career rather than the daily grind for an hour. Networking with a recruiter, even a bad one, is 5x more likely to lead to a new position than most other ‘networking’ events your various affinity groups will sponsor.
XSellSide Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve never found a job through one. All my jobs > have been through networking. I get cold calls all > the time from insurance companies wanting me to > join them as a “financial advisor”. If they read > ANYTHING past my name and phone # on my resume, > they’d quickly figure out I’m not exactly in that > market. > > I had one ask me the other day, “So, you are a > Certified Financial Accountant”? > > I kinda regret putting the resume on Monster > sometimes. one asked me whether i wanted to be an “inventory banker”
One time, a recruiter (one acting on contingency rather than retainer) cold-called me and asked me if I was interested in an “exciting hedge fund opportunity.” I thought maybe it’d be worth my time, so I decided to chat it up a bit and walk them through my background. I noticed they were quite interested in where I worked, so I assumed the person had talked to other people at my company and knew exactly about the nature of the work I was doing. But as I was walking them through my experience in equity research covering a pretty technical field, they were like, “Oh, research? So does that mean you work in a lab? I thought your company was an investment bank…” That pretty much spelled the end of our conversation. NEXT!!! (note: OK, so I’m sure not every employment agency is this bad, because some people probably know the difference between equity research and clinical research. But whatever, that still gave me my entertainment for the day.)
I had one ask me “What’s a Series 7 License?” I visited several after graduating college. Now since I have experience, I don’t know how much more helpthey will be. Better tahn nothing I guess.
Yeah. I’m not trying to knock all headhunters that work on a contingency basis, either. There is one in particular that I worked with, through which I got leads to some large hedge funds (on the level of SAC, Citadel, etc.) as well as ER opportunities at other investment banks. It’s true that some of these hedge funds had been doing a ton of hiring last year, but still… It really all depends who you work with, and you can gauge the quality of your headhunter through the leads they have as well as how knowledgeable they seem about your current role and the jobs they’re trying to fill. (BTW, feel free to e-mail me if you’d like the name of the firm I was talking about)
Numi, I wouldn’t mind hearing who the firm is. khejna1983@msn.com I had two more cold calls form Emp Agencies I have never heard of.
They’re pretty shit as far as my experiences go. I don’t think I’ll ever bother again unless I’m extremely desperate.
Woah sounds like you guys took the cfa without planning the step behind the test.
KJH Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I had one ask me “What’s a Series 7 License?” > > I visited several after graduating college. Now > since I have experience, I don’t know how much > more helpthey will be. Better tahn nothing I > guess. Lolol that’s priceless- they can be good but if you don’t want to take the time to meet them tell them to email you a job description of the position they’re considering you for first. I had one get me an interview at a boutique fund of funds- I beasted the interview too, I should’ve gotten the position. The recruiter was def a woman who ran a recruiting business out of her house- very shady and awkward- I never met her face to face but she would call me at like 8pm with her kids crying in the background.