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With or without recruiters

With or Without Recruiter?

  • Total voters
    8

Kenneth Joo

Joined
11/29/15
Messages
3
Points
11
I live in LA and have MFE degree, but I have only brokerage experience. I am currently looking for quant positions.

Some recruiters (small recruiting firms) contacted me with some quant positions which I have already applied for. Should I find my job with recruiters or not? What is pros and cons?
 
It may really depend on your location but for the German market the answer is definitely without. First of all many "headhunters" are just CV-pickers and they even publish fake job-ads (they need a big CV database to attract customers). Second, the candidates that come via recruiters are more expensive for employers.
On the other hand if a headhunter is really good, s/he may be very helpful.
So my advice: try to get as much info about the recruiter as possible. If you are sure that s/he is good, work with him/her but if not, don't!
 
I can only speak about my experiences in the New York IT market so YMMV.

If a headhunter has a direct relationship with the hiring manager, they are sometimes able to put your resume directly in front of the hiring manager so it doesn't get lost in the HR online application black hole. However, it is pretty difficult to tell whether the headhunter actually does have such relationships or are playing a confidence game with you unless you or a colleague has worked with them in the past. Furthermore, they can sometimes give you some information on what they've seen on hiring trends in your market.

Despite the cons of going through a headhunter, a few have been able to get me interviews that I don't think I would have been able to obtain through my own efforts or network. For this reason alone, I would recommend using a headhunter.
 
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