CFAPrepster414
New member
- Jun 18, 2026
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I have been interviewing a fair amount over the past month. Before I began, I tried hitting up my peers (not at my own company, clearly) in finance for insight re recruiters/headhunters. I thought we might do a thread where we share our good and bad experiences on specific groups.
Napier/Atlantis Partners - I was approached by this group and I would NOT work with them unless you understand and are totally comfortable with their business practices. They use their search candidates as a part of their new business/revenue scheme. Basically they advertise a great job that may or may not actually exist; you respond to it; they speak with you over the phone about "similar opportunities" but of course want face time; you meet face to face and they give you a spiel with one disguised tidbit of information - tell us where else you HAVE and WILL interview so we can contact them about you and ask what they thought about our candidate. If they liked you, great - if not, we have others we can offer them, and we'll keep working for you. I would never do business with a group like this because 1. it's a poor reflection on you if you were recommended by another recruiter 2. chances are the company will disregard your resume entirely (I know my current company, a multinational consultancy, certainly does).
Soloman Edwards - You may find an individual very helpful here (I did) but they are still the sort of recruiter that may try and push you into a job category you don't want (ie "But why not accounting if you have SOX experience?") and they are purely commission-based (as far as I know), so they want to PLACE YOU, PLACE YOU, PLACE YOU. They also seem to value the turnover rule... if you've not been snatched up in 3 weeks, you're out of their candidate pool.
Michael Page International - Maybe I just know a great group of guys over there, but I think this agency is at the top of their game. They operate under total transparency and all of their consultants are salaried - meaning six or seven people will work to find you jobs at the same time. They work with top names and they are very accountable. They also will cater exactly to what you want and will not sell you on anything you don't - at least in my experience. And they are great about focusing on payscale and selling you to the client - ie I am making more than other people in my age bracket and they never advised on a paycut, but rather got me into higher level interviews.
NY Network Group - Pretty average. Very young and cool staff but also the sort of place that makes you wonder how these kids could understand a word out of your mouth about the kind of job you've had. They have a decent amount of leads but not much else.
Glocap - I know that people highly recommend this site, but I think it is a black hole, personally. The only time that I think this site would work is if you have a traditional Ivy League to Big 4 to HF or IB experience. If you are untraditional but marketable, in my experience, it's not a great site. Also, a word of caution - it's EXTREMELY easy to hack those accounts.
Doostang - I think it's a good tool and they do have a lot of job listings on there. It is invite only (if you don't already have an invite, shoot me a mail... [email protected]) and it's an interesting community... ie You can have an open dialogue with a job poster or someone who does staffing for a great company, or speak with successful entrepreneurs, or network (albeit online), etc. Their forums are also pretty good, but you have to be able to stomach the occasional testosterone 'whip 'em out and measure 'em' battle on the boards... sometimes folks get a little uppity with offering advice to newbies (now, why does that remind me of another forum...?)
Anyway, please do share your experiences so others can benefit. I think a good rule of thumb is to be weary of recruiters and to hear their policies right off the bat - before you give them face time.
Bon chance!
Napier/Atlantis Partners - I was approached by this group and I would NOT work with them unless you understand and are totally comfortable with their business practices. They use their search candidates as a part of their new business/revenue scheme. Basically they advertise a great job that may or may not actually exist; you respond to it; they speak with you over the phone about "similar opportunities" but of course want face time; you meet face to face and they give you a spiel with one disguised tidbit of information - tell us where else you HAVE and WILL interview so we can contact them about you and ask what they thought about our candidate. If they liked you, great - if not, we have others we can offer them, and we'll keep working for you. I would never do business with a group like this because 1. it's a poor reflection on you if you were recommended by another recruiter 2. chances are the company will disregard your resume entirely (I know my current company, a multinational consultancy, certainly does).
Soloman Edwards - You may find an individual very helpful here (I did) but they are still the sort of recruiter that may try and push you into a job category you don't want (ie "But why not accounting if you have SOX experience?") and they are purely commission-based (as far as I know), so they want to PLACE YOU, PLACE YOU, PLACE YOU. They also seem to value the turnover rule... if you've not been snatched up in 3 weeks, you're out of their candidate pool.
Michael Page International - Maybe I just know a great group of guys over there, but I think this agency is at the top of their game. They operate under total transparency and all of their consultants are salaried - meaning six or seven people will work to find you jobs at the same time. They work with top names and they are very accountable. They also will cater exactly to what you want and will not sell you on anything you don't - at least in my experience. And they are great about focusing on payscale and selling you to the client - ie I am making more than other people in my age bracket and they never advised on a paycut, but rather got me into higher level interviews.
NY Network Group - Pretty average. Very young and cool staff but also the sort of place that makes you wonder how these kids could understand a word out of your mouth about the kind of job you've had. They have a decent amount of leads but not much else.
Glocap - I know that people highly recommend this site, but I think it is a black hole, personally. The only time that I think this site would work is if you have a traditional Ivy League to Big 4 to HF or IB experience. If you are untraditional but marketable, in my experience, it's not a great site. Also, a word of caution - it's EXTREMELY easy to hack those accounts.
Doostang - I think it's a good tool and they do have a lot of job listings on there. It is invite only (if you don't already have an invite, shoot me a mail... [email protected]) and it's an interesting community... ie You can have an open dialogue with a job poster or someone who does staffing for a great company, or speak with successful entrepreneurs, or network (albeit online), etc. Their forums are also pretty good, but you have to be able to stomach the occasional testosterone 'whip 'em out and measure 'em' battle on the boards... sometimes folks get a little uppity with offering advice to newbies (now, why does that remind me of another forum...?)
Anyway, please do share your experiences so others can benefit. I think a good rule of thumb is to be weary of recruiters and to hear their policies right off the bat - before you give them face time.
Bon chance!