Rachel - Attempted recruitment

Rachel

Attempted recruitment

26th-Nov-2007 11:42 pm

Last week I got an email from an "executive search firm" trying to interest me in working in quant finance. I was somewhat surprised and amused, as they contacted me on the address linked from my online CV, but I've never looked at it before and thought "wow, I should be a Quant". In particular I have no PhD which I thought was the big thing for Quants. (

wisemanharris, I still haven't done anything with your kind CV-improvement suggestions, but it's on my to-do list. As I'm not looking to move jobs, it's not high priority.)

I replied as follows:

On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 14:30 +0000, [elided] wrote:
> I'm contacting you from [elided] an executive search firm in London specializing in making placements in quantitative finance.

Thank you for your email. I suspect I am not going to be able to help you though.

I currently have an enjoyable, well-paid and secure job at the University of Cambridge. I am working a 25-hour week on graduated return from maternity leave, and when I do return to full-time hours the office culture is very much against routine overtime and supportive of a work-life balance.

I would require a significant pay rise to make it worthwhile losing my job security, 6 weeks annual leave and final salary pension. While I am happy to work a normal 40-hour week for the right job and salary, I am not going to commute outside Cambridge and I will leave work in time to collect my son from childcare by 5pm every day. These last two points are non-negotiable, and I am not interested in working somewhere where they would be considered awkward or a barrier to career progression.

As a result, I am clearly not suited to your client [elided] due to their location outside Cambridge.

> Similar entry-level and more experienced positions are open at a number of other Hedge Funds based in London and Cambridge and also in a number of top-tier banks.

Given my requirements for a change of job outlined above, I leave it to you to decide whether I am suited to any Cambridge-based positions, or whether further discussion would just be a waste of time for both of us.

> If you would be interested in such opportunities, please forward me your CV, drop me an e-mail or call me on [elided].

I assume you have already read my CV online at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~rmc28/rachel-cv.html as you contacted me on the email address linked from it.

Best wishes,

Rachel Coleman Finch

I don't expect to hear back.

Tags:work

Comments

27th-Nov-2007 12:15 am (UTC)

techiebabe

At least you were honest, and if you DO hear, it will be the ideal job for you!

Or at least one hopes so.

I'm glad your current job is both enjoyable and well-paid; many people never achieve that.

FWIW I get calls every month or so from recruiters who plainly haven't read my CV in the last 5 years and who want to offer me a job - it's annoying, but there seems to be little I can do. I guess you get bothered regularly as well?

27th-Nov-2007 12:24 am (UTC)

rmc28

No actually, this is my first "headhunting" experience. I'm finding it quite novel.

I know I am very lucky with my job, and writing out for someone else just why I'm unlikely to be what they want has really made it clear. I think I also wanted to convey that there are Other Things Than Money that make a job worth having.

Something I didn't put in the email is that I really don't think that hedge funds are a great motivator for getting me out of bed in the morning. In my current job, I help (at several steps removed) the increase of the sum of human knowledge. Hard to beat that.

27th-Nov-2007 01:16 am (UTC)

techiebabe

Yes, I can see how that would be rewarding.

Lucky you! Glad you like your job so much. Many people would be jealous.

27th-Nov-2007 09:20 am (UTC)

ewx

I recently received a badly formatted and mis-spelled email from a recruiter advertising a position that is almost certainly with my current employer, for less than they're paying me now. (Though it doesn't seem to be on our website, which is a little odd.)

27th-Nov-2007 10:29 am (UTC)

crazyscot

Non-advertised vacancies happens all the time. I queried with management once - upon finding a job board post which was obviously them - and was told that it was bad for PR (the investor-relations kind) to have too many advertised open vacancies at once.

Edited at 2007-11-27 10:29 am (UTC)

27th-Nov-2007 07:07 am (UTC)

uitlander

This is a fairly normal recruitment weasel approach. The vast majority rarely bother actually reading the CV, instead they find your contact details, pester you (usually by phone) and ask you to 'sell' yourself to them as to why you're ideal for a position they've told you nothing about. The only real surprise here is that you haven't encountered one of these weasels before. They have absolutely no interest in you, your secure job, or your work life balance - the only thing they are interested in is the 20-30% commission they will get of your first year's headline salary.

I had a similar rodent call me yesterday, trying to get me to give up a permanent job for a 6 week poorly paid contract in Manchester. As usual he got told to go away and annoy someone else.

27th-Nov-2007 08:35 am (UTC)

bellinghman

Myself, I usually avoid replying to spammers. You are far politer than I would have been.

27th-Nov-2007 10:28 am (UTC)

rmc28

It's my first time ...

If this was happening every week I expect I would get less polite.

27th-Nov-2007 05:20 pm (UTC)

piqueen

I get called about twice a week. You do get less polite. This afternoon I had quite a weird coversation.

*RING RING*
Him - Hello, it's [name] from a small firm of specialist recruiters. I don't think we've spoken before, but I have an exciting amazing job for you at a very senior level, they want an actuarial student [at this point he has lost me because I'm hoping to qualify soon and don't want any more student jobs)..
Me - who is it
Him - xyz
Me - i'm not interested in working for xyz (as I'm saying this a colleague starts mouthing at me that I should find out which recruitment company xyz use.
Him - why don't you want to work there
Me - I might have changed my mind, who are you and how do I contact you?

Bet he thought I was mad!

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