US
Seems that just about every bank has got a hiring freeze on.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph ran a story saying Citi, JPMorgan, ABN AMRO and Soc Gen have all put a stop to hiring for the time being. Our own enquiries suggest the freeze is a lot more widespread than that.
In addition to the banks mentioned by The Telegraph, headhunters say everywhere from Credit Suisse, to Merrill Lynch, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns have stopped recruiting for the moment. Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, is rumoured to have had a freeze on hiring since June, albeit only for fixed income.
It’s bad news for anyone who’s in the process of applying for a new role, but didn’t managed to get in before the frost struck. Lots of candidates have gone through to final round interviews, only to have offers rescinded until hiring resumes in January – assuming it does.
“Deutsche Bank announced a global hiring freeze last Friday,” complains one recruiter. “They’d paid for someone to fly over for an interview and we had to cancel the flight.”
It’s also bad news for headhunters, who are now faced with scores of uncompleted mandates. With most candidates unlikely to resign until bonuses have been paid in February and March and then unable to move until notice periods have elapsed in June, headhunters face a wait of up to 10 months before they can collect full fees on a search.
However, some say the freeze isn’t absolute. “Hiring is still going through for special cases,” says Zaheer Ibrahim, a consultant at Kennedy Associates. “It’s a bit of a weird one,” says another recruiter. “They’ve officially got hiring freezes, but if they need a replacement hire or there’s an urgent position they will still recruit people.”
The best thing about this is that hopefully many Headhunters and Recruitment Consultants will be out of a job. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch!
Did Paul have difficulty getting a job and now blaming someone else. Poor little lamb
Erm.. So could you Paul…
ATTENTION HEADHUNTERS: DO NOT HELP PAUL HAYWOOD FIND A JOB.
A very misleading article. As a headhunter I currently see no evidence of hiring freezes. I am sure I am not an exception. It is also strange that a buisness like EFC should perpetrate such articles without foundation when a VERY large part of their revenues are based on Advertising revenues – Get yourselves a Mar/Com pro.
As for Mr Haywood, try not to be bitter. Its a 2 bn a year industry which the vast majority of people who use Headhunters of Agencies benefit considerably from, professionally and financially.
Recruitment will always be necessary and when I put that director specialist in front of 10 managers. I will still get 5 requests. Banks need people to make money, and banks need even better poeple to make even more money!
Paul, i take it you have been treated badly by recruiters. Recruiters dont want to deal with weak candidates… dont bother calling in again paul. Im in a indefinate meeting!
HH’s will always make money from the market, if they know what they are doing. firstly we are entrenched with people like pauls senior management.Instead of being reactive we positively assist with the reduction of headcount, with the replacement of more able and profitable people. judging by Pauls bitter comments i imagine he would be one of the people on the list of replacements – afterall attitude is a key compnenent of star performers in any business – and his sucks….
so we hope the crdit crunh has two fold effect – one; it will weed out poor consultants in our field and secondly will shake the tree of all the overpaid, moaning, underperforming bankers like paul. I am not alone in our industry when i say – bring on the correction !!!
Paul – having worked in recruitment for a number of years I am particularly skilled at weeding out the wheat from the chaff. With that comes the ability to read between the lines when individuals send me their details. Based on your comment above and the fact that you have put you work in FX and Money Markets, I can confidently state that I look forward to changing up some pounds into Euros with you the next time I go on holiday – which bureau de change do you work in????
I am a head of an FX and Money Markets trading desk and am disappointed in Paul’s comment here. Obviously there are good and bad points about recruiters but to sum a comment like that shows ignorance on his behalf. Perhaps we should look at our own industry in terms of any investment banker, it is about making money, which is exactly what recruiters are there to do and if it means to be “money grabbers” in order to get me the best guys on my team – then so be it.
I hear Morrissons are recruiting Paul.
I believe Paul can already be found behind the fish counter.
Don’t worry Paul, I will do my best to remember your details once the p45 looms
could not agree more. Any hope of recruiting competent, knowledgeable, professional people???
Unlikely
It would be interesting to hear comments about what is ACTUALLY happening in the market. Anyone out there working for a bank who’s had their hiring ambitions cut back by management in the last month or two?
Wouldn’t call it a freeze, more of a chill. Hiring at this point of the year would compress the bonus pool and in the current climate senior management are avoiding any more commitment. There has been a lot of hiring this year and there are many people sitting on big guarantees.
Can I not post a comment under anyones name on this board?
Thus, why is everyone, from headhunters to Head of Trading desks lambasting “Paul Haywood”. They guy probably doesn’t exist, or maybe he does but he didnt write the comment on this page and his worst enemy at work did……no?
Paul is probably right on target with his comment given the amount of pathetic responses from headhunters on this site…
Paul is right.
looks like that one back fired Paul……..?
Lets face it, headhunters are failed bankers or wannabe bankers who couldnt get in. Your job is basically a form of HR and how many people wanted to do that as a child?
Not sure how much money you guys make but I guess that unless you are the few at the top of the firm none of you are anywhere near taking home the that Paul and his colleagues are making.
Your comments just show how immature you lot are.
Yes there are hiring freezes out there. No it is not pandemic. Yes there will unquestionably be a recruiting downturn which will likely last throughout the next four or five quarters. Yes some headhunting companies will go the wall because they deserve to or because they have business model that is only sustainable in a boom or because they have no idea how to operate in a downturn.
Frankly I find the withering fire directed at Paul to reflect as badly on the search industry as his acerbic comments do on him. All of us in the unregulated and low entry level search industry know that our professional and respectful approach to our clients and candidates is often undermined by characters with whom Paul has probably had the misfortune of meeting. If we don’t want to hear comments like Paul’s then we need to clean up our own act and have a centralised authority to whom complaints can be made and action taken.
Hmmm. Insightful. I work with a lot of very good Headhunters and certainly prefer their company over dinner than any whinging financier that lives in an illusionary cossetted world.
Remember a lot of the very best ones are independent because they can be. and are not following the herd to the next sign-on bonus.
I never heard of any child that aspired to sit all day on a trading floor in front of a screen like a pavlovian monkey Bud, but the view from my office down lake Geneva is pretty reasonable.
Anyway who’s to say Paul is realy making . The people who are aren’t reading this, and certinly not commenting on it.
Mint source a worry to sheep? How about gardening leave? Baaahh….
You are a walking cliche Bud Fox, do you wear red braces and have a picture of Gordon Gekko on your screen? How many people wanted to be an investment banker as a child? No shame in working in HR or recruitment, grow up.
Lighten up folks!
We’re still busy, having an amazing year, well on target to double our turnover from last year’s figures.
Suffering a bit from the credit crunch though, a lot of our clients are credit hedge funds and therefore recruitment’s being frozen. One person’s loss is another persons gain however, especially in the volatile HF space.
Agreed Shaun, self-regulation is the best way to upgrade our standards. Though I feel a Centralised Authority will only exacerbate a ‘back alley’ of recruiters whom neither wish to subscribe nor conform to high standards (much as there are now!). Better, I feel, would be a standardised contract that encompassed the best aspects of search and selection procedure binding both client and consultancy to best practice and best outcome… After all, we are all at the mercy of the markets and all looking to manage volatility and market abuse. A shakeout has been overdue and hopefully any rotten apples will fall. My own experience is that retainers are still around and banks will still make some pretty healthy profits, however they will use this opportunity to manage bonus expectations and cut costs where they may not have done before.
Tarnishing all headhunters with the same brush is about as arbitrary as taking Mr Bud Fox to be representative of the in-dividuals in his field: such generalisation smacks of an immensely immature approach. Incidentally, I am a headhunter, having declined an offer in the derivatives space with a Top Tier institution for this more short-term lucrative option- given my plan is to return to complete my PhD in Electric Propulsion systems before undertaking further research. A ‘wannabe banker’? I’d rather not, thank you.