Recruitment of a Senior Sales Trader, Equity, Large Securities Firm

The Head of Sales Trading of this bank had been working with our recruiter for a while and trusted him. That's why he asked him to go after a specific individual to replace him as he took up other responsibilities. The candidate already knew the recruiter socially and trusted him as well, so getting the talks going was easy enough.

Simultaneously, he was courted by another firm, arguably one with a better name. These talks proceeded speedily and the candidate reached a verbal agreement with the rival firm before talks with our client had wound down. It was at this time that the headhunter had to use his trust credit with the candidate to persuade him to at least finalize the talks with our client before making the final decision. In several long conversations he also outlined the advantages of our client. Among them were the better reputation of the top traders and a relatively free reign the candidate would have. The rival firm's more hierarchical and well-staffed organization was sure to restrain him more.

This, together with further trust-building meetings with the bank led the candidate to reconsider and accept the offer from our client. He showed up at the bank to sign the offer letter on a day when his main contact had suddenly fallen ill. Another senior person was supposed to hand him the offer letter. Such finishing touches are very important in the recruiting process as they show the candidate that he is important to the firm and will join a welcoming team. Instead, he was greeted by an indifferent HR person. This angered the candidate so much that he rang our recruiter to call off the deal. Our man asked him to stay put and urgently contacted the sick head of the team at home.

Hearing about the candidate's emotional response, it was the client's turn to become angry and threaten to withdraw the offer. The headhunter spent 90 minutes of calling back and forth to repair the damage. In the end it was the fact that both parties trusted him that helped to smooth over the waves and return to a rational decision. After joining, the candidate told our man: "If you hadn't been around, the whole thing would have ended in a bad mistake." The client, too, thanked him. "This guy was one of the best hires we've recently made," he said.

A Team Moves Over Drinks:
Recruitment of a team of ERP consultants, Big-5 consulting firm