Since making the pivot from finance to recruiting, I’ve learned a great amount. I learned that job referrals aren’t as worthy as some may think. I’ve learned that follow-up emails don’t really mean shit. I’ve also learned that LinkedIn “influencers” have done an excellent job of convincing people to believe in complete bullshit.
Agency Recruiters
Ooof – if I could have a TED talk someday, it’d more than likely be about how much I despise agency recruiters. In fact, I’ve vowed to never work with any agency recruiters.
When I was making the switch from Bloomberg, I dealt with two agency recruiters. One wasted my time by scheduling multiple calls with me and eventually ghosting me. The other told me that my salary request was too high (spoiler alert: I got the salary I was seeking). The second one just wanted to close a req and have me give in to a lower salary. Fuck that!
Based on my experience, agency recruiters don’t really give a fuck about you. They just want to close reqs.
If one of those people reaches out to you on LinkedIn, I encourage you to do the following:
- Do not get on a phone/Zoom call with them until you get more information.
- Be sure to ask what the salary range for the position is. You do this to not waste YOUR time. This allows you to see whether this job can even afford you. If they don’t provide it or refuse to provide it, fuck ‘em.
By doing these things, you’re going to save a lot of time and a lot of headaches. Don’t waste your time getting on calls with these people if it’s going to lead nowhere.
Breaking into Recruiting
Oh man – I sometimes ask myself, “What the fuck were you thinking?” when I think back to the number of interviews I did for a Coordinator role.
For those who don’t know, a Recruiting Coordinator role is essentially a stepping stone to a career in corporate recruiting. People will often work as a Coordinator for 1-2 years before becoming a Recruiter.
What does a Recruiting Coordinator do? It depends on the firm you’re at. You could be doing a handful of things or just focused on a couple of things. When I was at RBC, I dealt with putting together interview schedules, onboarding/offboarding interns, engaging with candidates, preparing pitch decks for the D&I council, and a bunch of admin stuff. When I was at Bloomberg, I was only focused on scheduling interviews – no joke.
Now, I will be the first to say that you do NOT need to be Albert Einstein to do this job. Anyone can be trained within a week or two to do the job. This isn’t meant to insult Coordinators, but it’s the reality. It’s an entry-level role after all.
Knowing this, you may be wondering how many interviews it takes to be a Recruiting Coordinator. Let’s take a look at the companies I interviewed with for an RC role:
- Non-BB Investment Bank: 7 interviews
- RBC Capital Markets: 7 interviews
- Bloomberg: 2 interviews
- Non-FAANG Tech Company: 4 interviews
Bloomberg – I love you for a reason! These guys had it right!
Non-BB and RBC, kick rocks. An RC role should not take more than 4 interviews. It is ridiculous how many firms do the exact same thing. Whatever the hiring managers for Non-BB and RBC were smoking, please send that my way!
Final Thoughts
Recruiting is a career many may be interested to get into, which is why I don’t understand why firms want to act like gatekeepers. We’re not curing cancer – we’re just getting companies to hire people.
