Headhunters reach out strategy consulting

Question

Hello. For people working / that recently left consulting in London (MBB & Strategy consultancies / Big4 strategy arms), could you let me know if headhunters reach out to you unsollicited with opportunities? How often, and when did it start (e.g. after how many months?). Thinking of people who joined after uni at entry level (e.g. Business Analyst / Associate, etc). Particularly interested in strategy and private equity roles but happy to hear any experiences.

Do recruiters tend to blanket target only MBB or do they include tier 2 firms as well? Do these tend to be blasts (e.g. everyone with X position at X firm) or do they read through profiles and then decide based on overall profile (e.g. university, previous experiences, project experience listed in the profile...).

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi there,

As you might expect, the answer varies quite a bit. For me, in particular, I'm headhunted about twice a month by headhunters/recruiters who value one of two things (or both): MBB brand and data/business analytics background.

About half of them are specifically looking for ex-MBB (i.e. won't accept tier 2s).

The amount of headhunting goes up based on 1) My toggle for looking for work status and 2) My location (i.e. far fewer when based on Melbourne than when based in NYC).

Furthermore, you're absolutely able to reach out to headhunters yourself. When looking to leave BCG, I directly reached out to a few placement agencies. They weren't amazing (I ended up following a former colleague to a strategy analytics company they had been in for a year), but they were useful and laid out some great Plan Bs for me.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Hello!

For me when I left, muuuuuuch more useful than headhunters or HR companies in general were the talks with partners.

There are tons of ex-consultants or even clients eager to hire BAs or Associates, and the parters are the ones who will put you in contact.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 3

Yes, they do. Pretty much since I started at Bain. Typically once every 1-2 weeks, with a bit of a dip during COVID. For transparency: I'm not based in London, but I know it is similar there as well.

W.r.t to the type of opportunities, it is a mixed bag. Some are very general and clearly targeting general MBB profiles, some clearly based on pre-Consulting background.

Answer 4

Based on my experience in London, headhunters will start reaching out especially after a year of consulting tenure. Numbers really vary where some months I have had 20+. Generally, they segment by MBB, MBB+ and tier 2 where for competitive roles, they usually don't bother going beyond MBB especially as each of the firms have grown over the past years.

There's quite a long list but the ones I've found most relevant to your interest areas would be Walker Hamill, Barton Partnership, Dartmouth Partners, Kea Consultants (PE only) who have good coverage of both PE and Strategy.

Answer 5

Hi,

It really depends on the market demand as in the end Head Hunter work for their client. Me personally always spend an hour of my weekend to answer Head Hunter messages. I think this is a good practice that allow me to build good relationship with may of them. Although I never have the needs to reach out to the for opportunities, however, it enable me to help people in my network to get jobs.

Whether they target MBB/Tier 2/Big 4 again really depends on client request / budget so no strict pattern there.

Best,
Iman

Answer 6

For me, it started after about a year into joining. They usually will guess your work email addresses and set up intro chats.