Best Headhunters For Jobs In Investment Banking & Finance

​Most people embark on their journey to wealth with nothing significant in their bank account. I’m one of them.
 
This is why “Earn More” is one of my key principles towards building wealth.
 
Back when I was 21 m earn more strategy was to get the best paid job possible and two years later when I had more skill and value I sought to earn more by finding an even better paid job.
 
Anyhow, if your only strategy for getting better paid jobs is looking for them yourself then you’re doing the wrong thing.
 
In my last job my best bonus was 6-figures, yes, forget a 6-figure salary, my bonus was 6-figures and I wouldn’t have found that job if it wasn’t for a headhunter.
 
All you have to do is call a headhunter up and say, “Hi, I’m {name} and I work at {institution}, I’m kinda a big deal around here but I’m definitely worth more than these guys are paying me – can you hook me up?”
 
Just kidding, it’s not quite that simple.
 
Firstly, you need to be fully aware of the headhunter’s mindset and what motivates them.
 
You can have 5 headhunters running around looking for jobs for you if you follow my strategy.
 
Headhunters are free for you to use, they get paid by whichever company ultimately hires you.
 
A headhunter’s main goal is to place people in jobs as quickly as possible: they only get paid if they find the recruiting company a suitable person for the required role.
 
If a headhunter has 100 job seekers on their books, for example, they’ll look after the people that they think will be most attractive to an employer first and of those, they’ll focus on those that are going to be paid mad dollar because they get paid more.
 
So, when you call, you need to make yourself look SUPER attractive – oh, and by the way, when you really are a BIG deal – headhunters will be calling you.

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THE CALL

First, state your name and where you work.
 
Then say a bit about the experience you’ve had. For example, “I’ve worked on two of my {institutions} top 10 deals and I’m looking for a bigger challenge. I’m already the go-to person here and I think moving firms will help me grow.”
 
If the transactions you’ve worked on have been well covered by major news outlets like The FT or The Wall Street Journal, drop that piece of intel into the conversation too.
 
If you have any impressive stats, e.g. what your sales are like or how big the transactions you’ve been involved with are, mention that too.
 
If your boss is well known in the industry, drop that in too. For example, “I work for John Ingermason-Scwartz who one Deal Maker of The Year in the Annual Banker awards. I’ve grown so much under his mentorship. There really isn’t a better person to learn from in the industry and I know several institutions are looking to grow their deal teams so I’m interested in the opportunities you have on your books.
 
Flattering the headhunter doesn’t hurt either, e.g. “I know {Big Cheese Recruiters} are the biggest and the best in this game so I called you first.”
 
Keep two provisos in mind:

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​1. If you are a newbie headhunters are not interested in you.
 
Many industries, notably investment banks, only hire experienced people in this way;
 
For entry level positions most companies expect you to apply directly through their website usually through a formal graduate, internship or apprenticeship scheme that run.
 
2. At the moment, it's an employer's market.
 
There are many highly skilled individuals currently unemployed so in some cases employers will find it more cost efficient not to fill positions through third party recruiters. That said, I recommend using both avenues – direct approaches via the company website or connections you have inside the business and indirect approaches via headhunting firms.
 
EXAMPLE
 
Usually, an employer will list a job on their website then after a week or so hire a recruitment agent to help them fill that role.
 
This is what life is like in an employer’s market: my friend was chatting to a headhunter about the availability of jobs and he said he was having to go to firms and ask them to help them fill positions when in good economy they come to him.
 
The headhunter said one noteworthy time, after seeing a job posted on a hedge fund's website, he approached the hedge fund to see if they needed help filling the role.
 
The response: “We put that job up four days ago and have so far already received 600 applications”.
 
That, my friend, is how competitive it can be to get a job but don’t despair, there are plenty of jobs out there and the below are Girl Banker®'s pick of recruitment agencies. I am not being paid to promote any of the below.
 
These recruiters specialize in the finance and investment banking industry. If you’re in another industry you’ll have to look around a bit more.

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Top Headhunters United Kingdom (especially ​London)

Top Headhunters The Americas (especially New York)

The above are my personal favourites but there are other headhunters out there. If you're in the US, the above three are a great start, as the process goes on you may discover more. For the UK, here are a few more firms.

OTHER HEADHUNTERS

Top 10 headhunters for banking and finance in London

1. Sheffield Haworth 11.8%. 
2. The Omerta Group 8.7%. 
3. Hogarth Davies Lloyd 8.3%. 
4. Execuzen 8.0%.
5. Principal Search 7.7%. 
6. Sainty Hird & Partners 5.1%. 
7. Hammond Partners 4.6%. 
8. J.D. Haspel 4.2%. 
9. Hutton Consulting 3.4%. 
10. Leathwaite 3.2%.   

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Source Executive Grapevine (2015)

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