PSA: Nightmare HH Experience
Hey all - this situation happened around 2 years ago now, so I finally feel comfortable sharing my horror story of an experience with this headhunter back in 2021. This is meant to serve as a PSA to everyone going through headhunters for post-banking roles, just to truly show how little these people care about you, your time, and where you end up.
The headhunter is Glocap - not one of the "big names" for PE, but they are prominent in the venture / growth world and have plenty of marquee clients in that space.
To set the scene: on-cycle recruiting had kicked off a couple weeks prior, meaning that VC recruiting was just catching up. I was dead-set on VC & Growth, coming from a top banking group, so I had done initial convos with all major HHs including Glocap. These processes tend to be more drawn out (over 1-2 weeks), unlike the overnight MF PE processes.
Glocap reached out to me about a top-tier, blue-chip VC Associate role and I immediately jumped at the opportunity and was entered into the process. This is one of the few VCs that hires more on the "on-cycle timeline" (1-2 years ahead), so I figured it would be a great opportunity to get recruiting wrapped up ASAP.
I prep like crazy, crush every single interview and the case study, and receive feedback that I'd be a perfect fit for the role, everyone thinks I'm a great cultural fit, etc. In the meantime, the HH is also hyping me up and giving me calls after every interview to say how much this firm loves me.
Having now spoken to pretty much everyone in the specific office I was recruiting for, I had one call remaining before the offer stage - a final round with one of the GPs of the fund. The HH called me when this call was scheduled to wish me good luck and to basically say "you've got this in the bag my guy, go get 'em". Received the Zoom invite for the next day (this was still peak covid), and was stoked.
Next day rolls around, I log onto the call and the GP doesn't join. After 10 minutes, I email the HH... no response. An hour elapses... I follow up, still no response. I email some of the junior people at the firm directly... no response. Super bizarre but I'm still hoping maybe there was a scheduling issue or something unexpected that came up.
The next day, I follow up yet again with the HH over email and text, looping in her boss, and they continue to ghost me. I email 2-3 other people at the firm to update them on what's happening and get radio silence as well. At this point it's Friday afternoon and I don't want this to drag into the weekend so I call the HH's cell directly... and she picks up! Great! Here's how the interaction went:
Glocap: "Hello?"
Me: "Hey [Brittany or Ashley or Tricia or something idk], how's your Friday going?"
Glocap: "Can't complain, sorry who am I speaking with?"
Me: "This is [My Name]"
Glocap: HANGS UP
Easily the most blatantly unprofessional and disrespectful thing I've ever seen from a recruiter ... hell even my worst banking MDs were more professional and had the guts to yell at me to my face.
I'm not oblivious to what almost definitely happened here - the VC gave an offer to someone before my final round interview, the HH forgot to cancel the call, and I was out of the running for the job. That's all fine - it sure as shit wouldn't have been my first time being cut from a process. But for a company whose role is literally to serve as an intermediary between investment firms and candidates to intentionally ghost and hang up on potential candidates is abhorrent. Professional considerations aside, this simply isn't how you should treat people. When you're in the line of business of recruiting, odds are most people you speak with will be rejected from processes... so if you're unprepared to deal with that outcome, then maybe you're in the wrong industry.
Rant aside - current analysts, I'm not telling you to avoid Glocap altogether (they cover plenty of good names and the gatekeeping nature of this industry is an unfortunate reality). Just be warned that HHs - every single last one of them - are not your friend, they are not supporting your journey, and they couldn't give a flying fuck what happens to you. The second you lose your ability to make money for them by being rejected from a role, they stop caring about you and will treat you like pure garbage.
Thanks for sharing. Bumping for visibility.
Brutal. Bumping here. Screw those people
Bump
Bumping for visibility, sorry to say that this is all too common with most headhunters.
Bump. That's a complete joke.
What I don't get is why recruiters prefer to open and ignore dozens of emails / calls / texts rather than simply say "sorry bro role went to someone else" . Makes me want to get a job offer then still apply with them, have them set up and interview and just ghost it and get them in shit
My favorite part is how much they shit themselves when you tell them you're not interested in a client that they pushed you into a "super informal, informational interview" with. Even if you told them up front you aren't interested and then they pushed you into it.
The NYC recruiting & residential brokerage industries are so shit it makes me want to start my own practice in one of these two areas and just not be a complete douche because I'm certain I could do better.
better yet, create fake profiles and perfect resumes to cat fish them into arranging interviews!
Bump
Brutal but unfortunately all too common. Had similar experiences with Glocap along with Pinpoint and Shelby Jennings. Avoid these firms at all costs if you can. Some reputable names include SG Partners, Winston Roark, Bellcast Partners and CPI
SG Partners very recently ghosted me on a role after I met a group head.
Have been ghosted by SG as well
Bellcast was super unprofessional with me. Clearly lacked knowledge of my current firm which meant they didn’t understand PE landscape.
They didn’t give me the time of day, only 5 minutes and said you have a good job you should stay. Why would I reach out to hear that from you?
Ended up getting job with one of their clients by going direct. Got top ranking and plugged into recruiting. I was asked what I thought about Bellcast. Obviously unloaded and encouraged rest of decision making committee to cut ties which we did. I’ll make the same case again if we ever revisit and I’m planning to be at this firm for a long time.
Crazy how they can’t see that gatekeeping both ways. It’s a very small industry and plenty of HHs. It’s really not very hard to find candidates.
All we can do is make the bad ones lose clients once we get in. Maybe they’ll learn over time that personal interactions matter. Amazing from a staffing business at the end of the day.
Edit: Only firm I actually like is Amity.
Amity is great - I actually referred a lot of my peers to Amity.
Agree with selby jennings, got called for a position, agreed to interview. Said he would confirm a date and then stopped answering
SG was tied into a lawsuit for discrimination - avoid them. I know the details and they're guilty. They don't respect your confidentiality and will leverage it to make a buck or get a new client.
Most of the head hunter firms are filled with communications grads with no real skills (clearly not professionalism) and have absolutely no clue on what these jobs actually entail / the rigor of a process. It's absolutely ridiculous that we have to rely on these clowns in the first place.
This^
This was so accurate, mostly ex sorority girls who did some bullshit major like communications yea.
One time I asked a HH to explain a PE funds strategy at a high level so I could understand the opportunity better, and she said she had no clue and barely knew anything about finance lmfao…
Communications grads who don't know how to communicate. Clear bottom of the barrel
Truly brutal and good warning for people to understand it was not your fault as the candidate. Truly a lot of these situations are to blame the GP in question as well since clearly they are giving the instructions just ghost the person, person A accepted pretend person B does not exist. Has happened to me in the past and can say headhunters who ghost more often than not have clients who totally ghost you as well.
Had same exact experience with Selby Jennings all of these headhunter firms are filled with idiots
I was interviewing with Polaris while leaving my 3rd year at Citi. I had an amazing conversation with Bob Metcalfe and was told I was in. They had me come back for one more interview with other partners, and one person literally refused to engage. He was doing email for the entire conversation. His nephew got the job. I went to Boston from NY 6 times for that process. Sometimes there is no solution.
One thing to never forget is at the end of the day the head hunters work for the company, not for you. You're just a product for them to sell.
Most of these firms are terrible to work with for that exact reason.
hope glocap goes bankrupt
Bump. So unprofessional.
I have encountered many recruiters in my career and unfortunately this type of behavior is pretty normal for most. Granted, what happened to you is on the more severe end of what I have seen.
As others have alluded to, most recruiters have zero industry experience and very little professional etiquette. They are recently out of college and generally do not have the best pedigrees. It is a volume game for them. I can't count the number of times a recruiter has reached out to me saying I would be a great fit, I respond, and then nothing. That being said, in some cases they are a necessary evil that you have to learn to navigate. In other, more rare cases, I have come across recruiters with actual industry experience, who can speak intelligently to the job posting, and are very good at their job. Unfortunately these are the exception, as most recruiters can barely handle explaining a role to you beyond 5 bullet points from the job posting. Or they flat out lie to you about a role hoping you are dumb enough not to ask the same question to the hiring firm. Take everything they tell you with a giant grain of salt.
If you do come across a good recruiter/HH, be sure to stay in touch with them, they are few and far between.
Generally agree but most of the junior recruiters at the major firms I've interacted with do come from good schools who maybe just want a chill job. I guess it would make it worse though when their candidate conduct / etiquette is bad though.
This is unfortunate but as others have said, incredibly common and not unique to Glocap. I have had this experience with most of the major HHs over the years.
Headhunting juniors is a rough career and most of these people are entry-level grads from random schools and majors who leave within a year or two. Not excusing their behavior at all but so it goes with 26 year old HHs with next to no training
bumping for visibility. Sorry that happened to you.
Sucks. Sorry to hear it, but not surprised.
The only time headhunters have added value for me is when they were really small shops. It happened twice, and both were midlevel situations where they got familiar with some of my strengths that didn’t necessarily pop out on a resume and pushed me into processes where a simple resume review would pass me over.
The rest of the time, headhunters in my experience just try to collect a fee for adding no value . . they want the perfect candidate (often too good of a candidate) who would find & land the job without their help, and try to latch on to that person and get the fee.
Have had both good and bad experiences with HH's. Some I have personally enjoyed conversations with (and seem like they care): SG Partners (Chetana, Erin, Stephanie to name a few), Bellcast (almost everyone here is chill), CarterPierce (a select few but generally good convos with these girls), CPI (they placed me and I had a ton of opps shown when I went through my first HF/PE recruiting rodeo as an IB analyst... haven't really heard from them as of recent, wonder if they forgot I exist or I'm just not on their radar anymore given role/seniority). For some reason GoldCoast never reaches out as well as GloCap (glad after reading OP's post).
overall, I view these HH's just as commoditized as they see us. Its all a numbers game and no one gives a flying fuck about your career. Pick up that machete and create your own path thru this elitist jungle...
Pinpoint had got to be the worst of them all. Unprofessional, dude in charge is a complete ass (you know if you know), spam non-stop with complete dog shit roles that they never follow up on. And now after getting my buyside role I cannot for the love of god get them to stop emailing me with their 3rd tier city opportunities that they claim to be a “leading” firm.
Realize this comment is adding 0 value but since everyone is shitting on them I gotta vent.
I've asked pinpoint to block me from their spam so many times and there's always another email address they spam me from...I feel this.
Maybe before your time but may have seen the meme.
It was so bad that there was a FinMeme about one employee their. Don’t want to publicly dox them for just doing their job. GB initials. I think they either moved on or just changed their email name because everyone was roasting them.
I also tell them to stop emailing me every time I get an email and then block the sender. Good to let the employees there know they should GTFO out of there.
Unreal story. That HH was an asshole of the highest order.
What a pondscum recruiter!
This is kind of like the description I hear from others about Shelbee Jennings: just all-talk, fake listings, fake descriptions. They never place anyone aside from maybe 1 kid every 2-3 years into a random 10 person group in Jersey City
Agreed, Shelbie is actually known for doing these bait and switch / rugpull tactics.
I hear they also apply on your behalf to random job postings?!
I heard Shelbey recruiting group isn't an actual recruiting team. Supposedly, they just call you to collect your information like your salary, then sell it to third parties
Completely unprofessional and dogshit recruiting group.
You should absolutely go with actual more established, reputable recruiters to begin with! Some recruiting agencies only place folk into desperate groups that nobody wants to join (example: some noname boutique with no analysts or associates left because everyone quit)
Go with a high quality, established recruiter that can actually place people into the types of roles they want. If your recruiting firm or recruiter can't even tell you straight up the last time they placed a person or the firm they went to, just look elsewhere. But, you could probably also brush up on some areas of your recruiting pitch / your interview responses. It can take many rejections and interviews before landing your next role.
Keep on trucking on my guy
Don't look backwards or dwell in the past, only look forward!
I had an almost identical scenario happen with a Morgan Stanley recruiter. I was 8 rounds in and logged in for my final interview (according to recruiter), and got no showed and ghosted.
It was so unprofessional, and gut wrenching. I told myself I would try to avoid any Morgan Stanley opps indefinitely if possible.
Neither Morgan Stanley nor the recruiter returned calls or emails.
I assume you mean the last interviewer blew off your zoom call? That is pretty rough.
Russell Tobin pulled this shot on me a few years ago. Fuck them!!
Who was your recruiter? Shiv Roy?!!
Some firm pulled this bogus on me also.
Made me go through 2 super days, then had me wait for 3-4 weeks over Christmas break thinking I had the offer, then completely ghosted me.
I looked on LinkedIn a month later and they gave it to some guy who didn’t even spell “analyst” correctly on his LinkedIn profile!!
What takes my sleep in the nights is thinking why would anyone work as a HH and shame their family's name. At such point OnlyFans is a more noble job than being a hh
Great post, appreciate all the slander on HHs. It's a well earned reputation.
I had a similar, albeit lite version of this experience earlier this year with a recruiter from a staffing firm called Robertson & Co in Toronto. They place a decent amount of AN1s and AN2s at MM PE firms across Canada. Classic ghosting situation despite the fact that the PE associates I interviewed with were obviously happy to see me proceed through the interview process. All signs pointed toward an offer but of course after a couple of weeks, any follow up efforts from my end went unanswered. I guess going from a Server (am I allowed to say waitress anymore?) ----> Barista ----> Robertson & Co is the chosen career path for modern day PE gatekeepers.
Sorry, that sucks. While we're putting headhunters on blast, I've had some bad experiences with SG and Ratio. I think SG is fine if you're in contact with more senior people, but they had some very incompetent associates in the past (one told me I had a superday when I didn't lmaooo and then tried to schedule me for a first round interview with that same shop, which I'd already done). I met with someone senior at Ratio about a role and she basically dinged me/my candidacy to my face, which was pretty bizarre given that I was perfectly qualified
Shelby Jennings is pure garbage. Never give them any info or a second of your time. They’ll lie their ass off and claim they have a role with a top HF for you and etc. and then ask you to fill out info and provide any other interviews for roles you have recently had and who the PM is. Once they have your info and any info on roles you interviewed for they disappear, presumably they try to reach out to those other firms etc. total trash people at these firms
100% agree. Don't ever engage with Selby Jennings or Pinpoint.
Finally something I can opine on. All high-finance HH are mind-numbingly bad and unprofessional. Most will lie to your face saying that they will send your resume or just completely ghost you from the process. CPI and Ratio were the worst but unfortunately have good roles.
Like everyone else, I had a terrible experience with a recruiter. I made it to the last round of interviews with one firm. After the interview, the firm informed me that it would be a week or two before I heard anything and that the recruiter would be in touch. After two weeks of radio silence, I followed up with the recruiter via email and got ghosted. I obviously knew I didn’t get the job after being ghosted but how hard is it to email and inform me that the company went a different direction. It sucks because they have really good clients that I potentially want to work for and there’s nothing I can do about it. I despise recruiters although there are some really good ones out there that are professional and care to keep you informed but hard to find.
Your username is fantastic btw
Not going to drop names as I'm technically still in-process.
But I had a headhunter reach out earlier this summer (week 0). Took headhunter call (week 1), took call with VP at starter fund (week 3), took call with Managing Partner / Co-Founder at starter fund (week 4). Both went incredibly well (VP and MP took 50% more time than the allotted interview slot to shoot the shit/ask questions). There were also other things that went well that I won't get into given this is technically still an ongoing process.
Headhunter said I moved onto a case study round and said they will send case study to me week 5 if alright with me. I say sure, then get blown up by current firm MD so ask for the case study to be pushed into week 6. Headhunter says sure no problem and sends me case study during week 6. It has a 72 hour time limit and I finish/submit it within 48 hours (after sharing with mentors who said it was definitely top-bucket material). I follow up with headhunter who confirms receipt (week 7) and says that other candidates have not finished it yet so to sit tight for feedback.
It's now middle of week 10, I've followed up weekly - headhunter didn't respond to my latest email or two...pretty unprofessional imo...I basically burned an entire weekend on this case to create top bucket material, and they just ghost me??? The job is for a position that I literally currently do / have done 60-70 hours per week for the last 2 years, is in a geography that is closer to family (as an employee I'm less likely to leave the firm), and is a LMM PE firm on their starter fund hiring for an asso role - can they really afford to just burn candidates like this?
I'm happy at my current firm and have only taken a small handful of interviews opportunistically. The latest one before this was shown to me by a different headhunter, I opted out of the process as I deemed the firm not a fit for me and my personal goals. When opting out over the phone to the headhunter, she told me I was this firm's top candidate - only mentioning as I seem to come off in interviews pretty well I guess
I mean I just had PinPoint Partners call me, a Senior PE Associate and a large-cap PE firm, and pitch me a role with "one of the top five banks in NYC" for Mizuhos corporate lending team.
Maybe she meant top 5 by number of Japanese people?
Just came here to rage comment a bit about GloCap.
What others are saying about this being the norm in the industry is somewhat correct but somewhat wrong. Maybe this is the case for some of the smaller, less established HHs, but I have never had CPI/HSP/Ratio/etc. pull this shit that's posted here.
To be clear, I've been ghosted in a thousand processes (emailed, but no response) from almost all of the recruiters. But I have never been stood up during scheduled time / calls or hung up on by any of the above HHs I just listed except for GloCap.
GloCap is far and away the worst recruiter experience I've had. It might be against the rules for naming names, but Kathleen Cunningham specifically has sent me and my colleagues numerous opportunities, only to be ghosted or stood up during the call itself. She is the absolute worst.
@OP, I'm sorry you have to go through what you did. Ghosting is very common in this process, but being stood up (followed by ghosting) and being hung up on is particularly unprofessional.
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