Most effective way to interact with headhunters?

[numi]

For those of you that have experience dealing with leading headhunters at relatively junior stages of your career, what have you found to be the most effective way to portray yourself when meeting with a headhunter? Would you say it was more important to exude unconditional confidence? Or is it more important to strike a balance between being confident about what you know, while also recognizing what you don't know and your commitment to learning those things (assuming that you're asked about a topic where you really have little practical expertise)? For the sake of this argument, assume that the headhunter has had some prior experience in the industry such as investment banking.

This is a very general question so feel free to interpret however you wish, using whatever examples you may feel relevant. I'm just trying to get a sense of what kind of mentality and personality you try to convey in a meeting with headhunters, and what you have found most effective.

 

[Saks]

Be confident and stern. If you want to make a change, albeit a slight one, be very firm about key words/ roles that you do not want. For instance, I know two cases of folks who were in quant analysis post-transaction and kept getting calls for risk management, when the candidates were focused on transaction based roles -- and they said "absolutely no risk, not even the word in the job description."

In my personal experience I have found that a good portion of headhunters will keep calling you for exactly what your resume says, and if you are stern, you might not get a few callbacks from that portion, but others, convinced by your confidence/humility/knowledge of the business (cultures, etc) will walk through walls for you (because they are sure that someone of your caliber will ace an interview siutation).

But honestly, in all interviews I convey these sentiments, but I am more stern with headhunters. No need in wasting time (but again, no need to be snippy/arrogant about it).

 

[numi]

Thanks for your reply, Saks. As for your comment about humility, can you elaborate? Obviously one reason for this post is so I can help better understand how I can best approach things -- I'd really like to better understand what type of balance between confidence and humility is advisable, or whether unconditional confidence (a.k.a. "I'm a baller and I can do anything") is a better way to go. Obviously everyone has their limitations -- but to what extent do you acknowledge them, if at all?

Take this hypothetical example -- say I wanted to get into investment banking, and the interviewer asks me about my M& A modeling skills. However, I don't actually build M&A models on a day-to-day basis (because I'm in research). Given my interview experience and my own personality, I would answer the question by saying that even though I don't build M&A models every day on the research side and don't claim to be an expert, I've made a proactive effort to seek out M&A templates, attend firm-sponsored training sessions on merger modeling, and learn how to build models from scratch on my own initiative. In fact, if you were to give me a couple of 10-K's and a set of assumptions, I'd be happy to sit down and build an M&A model for you right now just so you know I want this job and I can get it done. (I'm sure you know that many firms will actually ask you to do a modeling test in the later stages of an interview)

Would you take a similar or different approach, and why?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 10:14PM by numi.

 

[Saks]

In fact, if you
> were to give me a couple of 10-K's and a set of
> assumptions, I'd be happy to sit down and build an
> M&A model for you right now just so you know I
> want this job and I can get it done.

> I've made a proactive effort to seek out M&A
> templates, attend firm-sponsored training sessions
> on merger modeling, and learn how to build models
> from scratch on my own initiative. (I'm sure you
> know that many firms will actually ask you to do a
> modeling test in the later stages of an
> interview)
>
That's what I would say, in that order. Call me old school (or whatever you want, really) but one of my pet peeves is when people start the pitch telling me what they can't do. I always go for positive answer first, qualify second.

I might even just turn the whole second part into: "Like the model I modified to understand the ramifications of the Alcan / Alcoa deal. I didnt like some of the assumptions, and then I tweaked X, YZ to show A B C". I did this via .... ^^what you said...

Thing is, I have never found headhunters to get that specific with me. You don't have a very nontraditional background, so they dont' ask a lot of questions. Obviously they will ask "do you have modeling experience" and a lot of times a "yes" will suffice.

Its like on these boards, you can tell who has tangible experience in their field based on th e words they use, emphasis, etc. My advice is (worth what you paid for it) to never act like something you are not. But always be confident (if you can't be confident to take a bet on yourself, why would you expect anyone else to?).

 

[numi]

Hi Saks, thanks for the feedback. Just to expand on my thoughts a bit...I consider myself an earnest person and am very confident in the skills I have. For example, I know I can present my knowledge of an industry or a stock that I cover in an interview both succinctly and persuasively. Thankfully, I get a lot of practice with this since I talk to our internal sales force and hedge fund clients regularly.

What creates a more interesting situation is when I'm asked about a skill or area of knowledge where I'm not as developed. I've seen some people that seem confident as though they can do anything and really go out to sell themselves. For me, I feel good about selling the skills that I have, but if it's something that I don't know, I'll recognize that fact and indicate to them that I have/will make every best effort to improve in that area. I don't know if this is to be interpreted as lack of confidence or just honesty, but hopefully it's the latter -- I just feel like people who overpromise set themselves up to underdeliver if they're ever called out on what they claim to know.

Thanks again for your feedback, which I always appreciate. (by the way, in my "hypothetical situation" described earlier, the interviewer was a former GS banker, which partially explains why I was a bit reserved about unleashing my bravado or being unjustifiably confident.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 11:31PM by numi.

 

[bchadwick]

Hi Numi, my experience isn't necessarily applicable to you, but I do think that most headhunters have a niche area and type of position they cater to. For me as a career-changer that means that most are not very useful to me because they can't see how to fit me into their pigeonholes. If you are in a clear pigeonhole and valuable, you are likely to get a good response, otherwise it could be a problem. Some are better than others at trying to see where the fit might be, but none of them want to spend much effort figuring it out.

One headhunter sat me down and told me, "look, you have to tell the headhunter what kind of job you want and what companies you want to be looking for that position at. Then I can tell you if I can help you, or maybe refer you to someone who can if it's outside my niche." That was a tough eye-opener for me at the time, but very very helpful.

So 1) target the kind of job and maybe a list of companies that you want, then 2) tell the headhunter that these are what you're looking for and can he/she help, and 3) ask what things you can do with your resume or a bio brief that can make things easier for them to do what you want.

My sense is that you do need to be pretty confident about the skills you bring. You can hint that you are brushing up on some areas, or that you're studying independently to build up an extra skill that isn't on your resume, but basically, you are raw material for their business of turning over bodies, so you want to sell yourself as good raw material.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 01:31AM by bchadwick.

 

[Loxley]

Hi Numi

My experience is UK side so may be culturally a bit different ...

I've found the best way to start off on a good footing with headhunters is to be referred by someone they already rate/have placed, so really pump any of your friends/peers etc for their headhunter contacts. Here the UK anyone you ask will not mind reffering you on because kick-backs are common (i.e. if the headhunter palces someone I refer they usually offer to expense a meal/eveningout/hotel stay). I got a really good one when I turned down an offer at a small house and referred my friend because teh friend previously woprked for one of the headhunter's key clients - so the headhunter would have been conflicted if he'd approached my friend.

I slightly disagree with Saks in some cases. If for any reason I'm dealing with a headhunter I don't know I always offer up impediments to me being placed at the position - and then if the HH is interested we can discuss counter arguments

*** Just gotta step into a mtg now, will hopefully expand anotehr time.

Whatever - good luck