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Procedural question on quantish job application

Posted: September 17th, 2018, 10:36 am
by CommodityQuant
I'm working with a recruiter who has been very successful at getting interview opportunities for me.
Unlike some recruiters, they have helped with CV formatting, application letters and other issues rather than just
sending everything unchanged and unlooked at.

I made an application with this recruiter to an IB.
In response, I got an email from the IB asking me to
apply for a position which is closely related to the job I
already applied for, but is clearly a different position,
and has a different job id number.

I would love to get the recruiter's help with the application -- after all that is
what I pay recruiters to do (admittedly they only get the payment if I'm hired).

Should I do this, or is the bank aiming to cut the recruiter out, and would informing the
recruiter sabotage my application?

Thanks for your thoughts.

CommodityQuant

Re: Procedural question on quantish job application

Posted: September 17th, 2018, 3:05 pm
by Hansi
Use the recruiter. Bank hiring managers usually have no benefit from short circuiting the process.

Re: Procedural question on quantish job application

Posted: September 17th, 2018, 11:55 pm
by bearish
I'm confused by the question. What do you mean with "that is what I pay recruiters to do"? If you actually have an arrangement with a recruiter where you, as a candidate, pay the recruiter if/when you are hired through him, then please disregard everything else I'm saying, because you live in a world with which I am not familiar. If, on the other hand, you live in my world, then the recruiter is normally supposed to have a pre-existing contract in place with the hiring firm, specifying things like what is their fee rate, what comp that rate applies to (e.g., base salary or first year total comp), and (notably) what is the arrangement if the firm hires a candidate to a different position than the one they were referred to. If this is the case, then as Hansi suggests, the firm is almost certainly on the hook for paying for your referral anyway, and you have little to lose by consulting the recruiter. And you have to ask yourself, if the hiring manager is trying to screw the recruiter out of what seems to be an earned fee, is this somebody you really want to work for?

Re: Procedural question on quantish job application

Posted: September 18th, 2018, 9:15 pm
by CommodityQuant
I'm confused by the question. What do you mean with "that is what I pay recruiters to do"? If you actually have an arrangement with a recruiter where you, as a candidate, pay the recruiter if/when you are hired through him, then please disregard everything else I'm saying, because you live in a world with which I am not familiar. If, on the other hand, you live in my world, then the recruiter is normally supposed to have a pre-existing contract in place with the hiring firm, specifying things like what is their fee rate, what comp that rate applies to (e.g., base salary or first year total comp), and (notably) what is the arrangement if the firm hires a candidate to a different position than the one they were referred to. If this is the case, then as Hansi suggests, the firm is almost certainly on the hook for paying for your referral anyway, and you have little to lose by consulting the recruiter. And you have to ask yourself, if the hiring manager is trying to screw the recruiter out of what seems to be an earned fee, is this somebody you really want to work for?
I have done what hansi and bearish suggest.  Sorry about my confusing wording.  My relationship with the banks and with the recruiter is the standard one.
Suppose the recruiter gets 25% of my salary for the first year.  I think of it as the bank paying 133% of my salary to myself, and me passing on the 33/133
salary to the recruiter, although of course no such transaction takes place.  You're right that it doesn't make sense, though.

Re: Procedural question on quantish job application

Posted: September 19th, 2018, 10:30 am
by bearish
OK - cool. The net cash flows are indeed the same, but I think the healthiest way to view the recruiters is as working for the hiring firms rather than for the candidates. Contractual obligations aside, just consider where they are more likely to get repeat business.