A guide to dealing with headhunters for Quant interviews
How the headhunting recruitment process works
How the headhunter recruiting process goes
In general, you will apply for a quant role either through the company’s website or via a headhunter (also known as a recruitment consultant or recruiter). Some prominent headhunting firms include Selby Jennings, Radley James, and McGregor Boyall.
Headhunters search for candidates on LinkedIn. They either reach out directly to candidates or post job listings. Sometimes they include the company name in their introductory message or job posting, but most often they will only reveal the company name once you have a call with them.
After the initial introduction, you will have a 10-minute call with them where they will try to sell the role and inquire about your experiences to determine if your CV is worth putting forward to the client company. Sometimes the headhunter will want to send your CV to multiple roles, and other times it may only be for one specific role.
Once your CV has been sent to the client company, you will need to wait for feedback. If the company is interested, you will receive an invitation to interview; otherwise, you may never hear from the headhunter again. Usually, you will be invited to an interview within a week. If you haven’t heard back in two weeks, it’s safe to assume you won’t get an interview, although sometimes it is worth following up.
If you are invited for an interview, the headhunter may provide you with tips and insights on what questions have been asked in the past. They might give you resources to help you prepare, along with introductions to your interviewers and their backgrounds. These tips can be very useful and help you focus your interview preparation.
If you pass all the stages and receive an offer, the headhunter will be involved in the salary negotiations. Headhunters typically take a percentage of your salary as commission, so their incentives should align with yours. However, they may prefer you to accept a lower offer rather than risk you turning it down, as they won’t get paid for their efforts otherwise. Therefore, make sure to negotiate your offer well.
Some general advice relating to recruiters:
Don't feel bad if a headhunter ghosts you. They may ghost you if you don’t get invited to an interview or fail your interview. It’s a numbers game for them to hit their recruitment targets.
Don't be rude to recruiters. It can be frustrating if they ghost you, but you should still be respectful. You don’t want to damage your reputation. The industry is small, and people talk to each other.
My interview rate is much higher when applying through a recruiter compared to applying through a company website, as the candidates have already been filtered down significantly.
Interview Guide
I’m compiling a guide for Quantitative Finance interviews. It will include:
Valuable tips on securing interviews efficiently and avoiding the time-consuming process of applications
A detailed overview of the interview process, including best practices and strategies for success.
A comprehensive interview preparation roadmap
Technical practice questions including: Probability & Statistics, Finance & Derivatives, Python, Algorithms, Linear Algebra, and more.
Insightful questions to ask your interviewer to show your interest.
Proven ways to excel in HR interviews.
My real-life interview experiences + questions that were asked.
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