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Candidates abusing recruiters

8 May 2008

Sarah Butcher

With jobs harder to come by, bankers are behaving badly towards recruiters and headhunters, who are suddenly unable to slot them into comfortable new positions.

“We’re starting to get a lot of angry emails,” says one structured credit headhunter. “Bankers are approaching us and questioning why we can’t place them in hedge funds or commodities businesses. They’re venting their spleens, but there just aren’t the jobs.”

“Candidates are more rude and obnoxious,” confirms the head of a derivatives recruitment firm. “We get a lot of emails saying ‘You guys are no good at what you do’.”

“Candidates have become used to getting what they wanted over the past few years,” agrees Adam Buck at recruiters Selby Jennings. “They were able to say, ‘I want to work in a macro hedge fund with £x million under management,’ and we were able to deliver for them. That’s no longer always possible and people need to understand that the market has changed.”

Frustration might also have something to do with the fact that recruiters are no longer doing their best to accommodate everyone.

Zaheer Ibrahim at search firm Kennedy Associates says it just isn’t viable to spend time on borderline candidates any more: “The CVs we see are walking money. We’ll go for the triple and double As, but we can’t waste our time with people who won’t generate money for us in this kind of market.”

Comments (100)

It actually saddens me when I see such negativity about the recruitment industry (especially in finance). I would never let anyone who works for my firm do anything listed above and they would certainly be in line for dismissal should they do this and hide it from me.

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Comments (100)

  • one solution, one word: expatriate

    Gio 08 May 2008

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  • ....they say they have plenty of jobs but most of them are just fake jobs! everybody knows it...they just contact you to get ur CV that s all

    seb 08 May 2008

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  • seb, what do you mean by fake jobs?

    graduate 08 May 2008

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  • gto graduae student:
    An hh firm is either mandated for a search by a bank or sprays the market blindly with whatever CVs they are able to collect, sometimes focussing the spray by automatically searching the CV for key words (never a good indication of there being a good match between job and candidate based on this).  If it;s the first case - cool - go talk to the HH - they will have a job specification (ask for it before sending any CV).  If it's the second case - which always happens no matter market conditions, but more so now there are few mandated searches out there,with HH firms becoming increasingly desperate, then BEWARE. You don't want your personal details with 20 banks when they are not interested - for a number of reasons (eg may not look at you again, may make you look desperate etc etc)  An HH may also want your CV for info collecting at a place you work at.  Another no-no

    anon 08 May 2008

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  • Unfortunately 'anon, Derivatives' and 'seb' are correct, agencies adopt exactly this approach. Those headhunters who work exclusively on a retained basis are far more effective.

    Charles 08 May 2008

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  • Beware of those agencies which advertise a whole string of jobs in one go - CV collectors extraordinaire. Also beware of recruiters who collect gossip and trade it. Stick to those who have years of experience, who once worked in the banking space and who don't wear pointy shoes.

    Quentin Crisp 08 May 2008

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  • All the recruitment firms I have met are totally useless, using unethical methods... They abuse you, you should abuse them!

    associate 08 May 2008

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  • I mean that many jobs they advertise do not exist!!! **** (DELETED BY MODERATOR) is the worst ever...they call you just to update their records. They dont know what they are talking about, I remember i had to explain them what was written in the job description they had on their websites! honestly they really think we are stupid...that s the only agencies advertising tons of credit jobs and we all know that banks are getting rid of thousands of people

    seb 08 May 2008

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  • "-Candidates abusing recruiters" : Well it is about time ! HH got away far too aften with their work practices.  They don't deserve much recognition whatever the market conditions. HR are huge cost centers for any firms and filled with poorly qualified people, and the HH industry, with its Low basic/high commission structures and practices make its employees more greedy salesmen than any sort of consultant/specialist and can only obviously attract or retain young agressive workers. London's Finance HH usually lack dramatically of :
    - previous experience as practicians in the field they are recruiting or claiming to be specilists,
    - technical skills and maturity,
    - Culture, passion, and knowledge of the financial industry and financial markets as well as detailed features of various positions within various divisions.
    Consequently such people are indeed not able to match properly cvs and jobs or undestanding the meaning  of what they are doing. Unsurprisingly : their approach to select candidates is biased by usual clichés. Should they be bright individuals possessing real analytical and sales skills, they would do something different wouldn't they ?

    donald duck 08 May 2008

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  • Agree with "donald duck". HH are incredibly inept and notorious time wasters. Furthermore, their lack of maturity and professionalism is a serious concern.

    Jason 08 May 2008

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