I received an offer recently that I couldn’t refuse – an invitation from “legal search consultants.”
Headhunters!
They were having a convention and asked if I wanted to drop by, and, you know, say hi.
Vague images flitted through my mind – guys in suits dancing in a conga line wearing hats with silly horns.
I don’t often get invited to shindigs. I’m a therapist. Mostly, I visit my office, my dog and whoever’s sitting in the other chair. Or I sit at my desk and write columns. Ask me to a party? Hell yeah, I’m down. I’m all over it like a tall dog in a cheap suit. You looking to turn it out? Count me in.
I never say no to headhunters, conga lines and hats with silly horns.
So I went. And it was fun.
Here’s the newsflash about headhunters – they’re good peeps.
At very least, they’re more fun than lawyers. In fact, many of them were lawyers, but had to get out because they were too fun.
They can also teach you stuff you need to know – not just pointers on beer pong and naked Twister.
Behold three key lessons acquired whilst getting down with my bad self in the company of legal search consultant party animals…
FIRST: They aren’t the enemy.
I’m not sure why you thought they were the enemy. Except I used to.
As a snotty-nosed first-year at Sullivan & Cromwell, I received weekly phone calls from headhunters and I knew exactly what to do. The routine is simple – you hang up. You announce, in a snooty voice, that you aren’t interested. Then you slam down the receiver. It’s like slamming the door on a door-to-door salesman. It’s his just and inevitable fate, because he’s a little person and you’re at a top NYC law firm.
Then – in your second or third year – it dawns on you your ultimate career destiny might not lie with Sullivan & Cromwell – and the headhunter you slammed the phone on could have been your ticket out. He’s also a former second or third year – or fourth or fifth year – from a top firm. He got out – and is currently doing a whole lot better than you are.
That’s why he’s calling you, you idiot.
You hung up on him and it was fun. But now you’re stuck in hell and it’s looking like that might be your fate in life – that or unemployment. Take your pick.
The toughest-skinned headhunter takes umbrage at being treated him like a vacuum cleaner salesman. Even vacuum cleaner salesmen find it irksome.
But hey – aren’t headhunters sleazebags in it for the money?
And you’re not?
Sure – some headhunters are better than others. Some are more honest and scrupulous. I spoke to plenty of them at this convention cum erotic dance party. A few looked me in the eye and admitted they weren’t all the same. A surprising number turned serious and swore they would never place a candidate in a position they felt was “a bad fit” – even if it meant picking up a fee worth over twenty grand.
Do I believe them? Yes.
A good headhunter knows burning candidates – and clients – doesn’t make long-term sense. An unhappy candidate won’t last the six months or so required to earn a fee. If the candidate storms off in a huff, it burns bridges with the client – and damages the headhunter’s reputation. That makes it impossible to get more placements.
Additionally, all headhunters aren’t evil. Remember – they’re no longer lawyers, they only work for them.
No one bad-mouths real estate agents – or hardly anyone. But given the choice between a real estate agent and a headhunter, I’d take the headhunter any day. A real estate agent is more likely to rip you off, because he can get away with it and move onto another clueless homebuyer.
Stop bashing headhunters.
If you were a big-shot partner looking for a job, you’d already know that. You’d also have made the logical leap that these folks are out there to help you. That’s the only way they earn a living. They’re not out to waste anyone’s time.
SECOND point: They really, really hate it when you aren’t serious about exclusivity.
Why do headhunters “cold call” nasty little associates at law firms? To make money.
It works. They might call on a day the Kool-Aid’s wearing off. The day the partner smirks and yet again hands you an assignment on Friday afternoon due Monday morning. The day he hands back your brief covered in red ink and says he “expected better” even though you only put in his changes. The day you haven’t billed an hour in two months but everyone else looks busy.
On that day, you could use a supportive voice on the other end of the line, offering steady insider advice. You could use a means of escape.
At that point, you’re going to break down and send this headhunter – the one who happened to call – your resume, and agree to let him submit it to a few law firms or other places to try to get you a job.
Stop right there – at that moment in time – and think.
After you give him that permission, you shall be represented exclusively by that guy, at least for those jobs. That might not be a bad thing. But a week later, when a really nice lady headhunter you like even better calls, and you break down in tears with her and she says exactly what you need to hear and you realize she’s the best headhunter in the whole wide world…well, you’ve already gone with the other guy. It is a fait accompli.
Maybe you forgot you ever told the first guy he could send in your resume. Maybe you weren’t listening closely when he asked. Or you didn’t think he meant all twelve firms. Or you thought you could change your mind and go with the nice lady.
You can’t. It will be a major drag for the nice lady when she re-submits your resume to the firms and finds out you – more or less – lied to her, and made her look like an idiot by re-submitting a candidate already represented by her colleague.
Don’t do it. Stop, use common sense, and have lunch with a few headhunters before you decide on the one you want to use. That’s all they’re asking.
FINALLY : They don’t have any jobs for you unless you’re at the top of the market.
You already know this – you just haven’t stopped and thought it out and acknowledged it to yourself. So let’s do it. It is rather ironic – now that you realize headhunters are your friends, you won’t be meeting any any time soon.
They only want to meet you if they think they can place you. According to the consensus I was hearing from the party people singing “Dayyyyyyy-O!” and bending before the limbo pole at the convention – at this juncture in our nation’s history, there are no legal jobs out there for anyone but the upper-upper-crust.
One guy told me in serious, hushed tones: “Look, if you’re Joe Schmo, there’s no work. If you’re top of your class at Harvard or Yale, there’s work. That’s what the firms want.”
Another put it differently: “Either you got the resume or you’re S.O.L.”
(“S.O.L.” is a technical headhunting term.)
Sorry, guys. Headhunters are looking for two things. First, partners with at least a few hundred grand in portable business. (Duh.) Second, brilliant associates from top schools with superb credentials in specialized areas sought after in specialized regions of the country.
I overheard dudes from the Bay Area parleying with New England prepsters about relocating labor specialists. I listened in while gals from Houston put out the buzz to fellas from Chicago for senior oil and gas in-house types willing to travel.
Headhunters aren’t clowns you hang up on. They’re pro’s earning more than you, doing a serious job.
Trust me on one final point: Unlike your lawyer buddies – they know how to party.
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This piece is part of a series of columns presented by The People’s Therapist in cooperation with AboveTheLaw.com. My thanks to ATL for their help with the creation of this series.
If you enjoy these columns, please check out The People’s Therapist’s new book, Way Worse Than Being a Dentist: The Lawyer’s Quest for Meaning
I can also heartily recommend my first book, Life is a Brief Opportunity for Joy
(Both books are also available on bn.com and the Apple iBookstore.)
Our recruiters read this post on Above the Law and we wanted to tell you that while we weren’t at that particular party, what you wrote rings true. We really like that your perspective includes a sense of humor! We have placed many of your friends to companies and law firms and it is remarkable when we meet younger associates who “get it”. Many don’t realize until it becomes more difficult for them to make a change for many reasons. Great piece! Now we have to buy the book! After all, life is too short not to enjoy the conga lines and silly hats.
Will, I agree with most of what you write but you couldn’t be more wrong about headhunters. Early in my career I tried working with some and here are some examples of the resulting misfortune:
– I got submitted to a job I had expressly instructed someone not to submit me to, telling them they did not have my permission to send my resume there, and found out about it only when the firm called for an interview! Who knows where else I was submitted against my will and instructions.
– I was submitted for an opening that did not exist (notwithstanding the recruiter’s express statements to the contrary) with no followup on the recruiter’s part despite my repeated requests and his false reassurances and then had the recruiter try and claim exclusive representation for an opening that materialized at the same firm a very long period later. Beware – if you can’t confirm the opening and the recruiter’s relationship with the firm other than through the recruiter, distrust is warranted.
– I was sent to interview for a gig where the hiring partner let me know after the fact that it had been down to me and another candidate who did not come in through a recruiter and that this had motivated their choice of the other candidate. Recruiters will all tell you this is not a material amount of money for a firm but if you are competing with someone who doesn’t have that extra commission attached (and in this economy, if the employer don’t have an exclusive agreement with the recruiter, you are), this *IS* a factor.
– I got sent on an interview for a gig I was well qualified for but doing something I’d expressly told the recruiter I had no interest in doing, resulting in a huge waste of time for all involved.
And this was not just one recruiter bad who did these things. Candidates are a commodity to headhunters and that’s all – remember that kids, they will lie straight to your face to try to get you in the door somewhere.
Will, car salesmen know that you are more likely to develop a relationship and come back if you have a better experience too, but that doesn’t stop them from lying to make the sale does it?
A possible $50,000 commission today is a lot more important to a headhunter than maintaining a relationship with someone they’re likely not to see again tomorrow. Trust me, I learned the hard way.
ProTip to all the headhunters out there: Stop calling harried young associates in the middle of the day when they likely have 9 projects overdue and 2 partners waiting to ream them out. We hang up on you because you call at terrible times. Many or most of us provide cell numbers on the firm’s website, try calling when we’re at home dreading another day at our office.
Like anything else, I’m sure the quality of headhunters varies considerably. A good one is worth their weight in gold.
Here’s an interview I did with a friend who left BigLaw to become a headhunter, giving her “insider perspective” on what firms are looking for: http://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/09/what-are-law-firms-looking-for-get-the-inside-scoop-from-a-legal-recruiter/. Her advice: confidence, paired with humility.
As somebody who’s moved a few times with the help of recruiters, and who has recruited a few laterals via recruiters, let me throw in one piece of advice.
The RIGHT recruiter is a valuable asset. The wrong recruiter can wreck your reputation.
Do your due diligence – does the guy who’s calling you have a good reputation with the firms, or is he viewed as an idiot.
You don’t want to be associated with the former.
Ah but there’s the rub – how do you do this diligence as an associate? A third year trying to move is not likely to know a lot of partners at various firms he can call to ask. Who would know and be willing to discuss it? I mean, sure, you can get references from the recruiter, but they’re not likely to be the ones who’ve had issues – seems unlikely you’ll be able to find the right information sources easily, esp. without disclosing the fact that you’re job hunting more widely than would make most people comfortable. Seems like someone should start a recruiter review web site…
One of my fellow associates once had his resume forwarded by a recruiter/headhunter to the main office of the firm for which he was working and trying to get out of.
That did not go over well with the partners, and so he was disassociated.
This is the only example of reverse recruiting of which I am aware.
Yo, that\’s what\’s up turtuhflly.
Agreed that recruiters can be helpful. That said, I’ve had some bad experiences with them. Any recruiter that lies to a receptionist about who they are to be put through to you cannot be trusted. Odds are they will also lie about who they’re submitting your resume to, whether their listings are exclusive, and everything else. (And a note to recruiters, we’ll remember if you do it. I might call you back, or pick up the phone, but I will never give you business, either to rep me, or if you rep a candidate.)
We do prefer candidates that come in directly, or referred through a friend. Is it a disqualifier if you come through a recruiter? Of course not. But other things being equal, it’s a ding.
In my experience, senior partners do not come in through recruiters. They come in through personal contacts. If you’re looking for a gig, try your personal connections first, or restrict your (trustworthy) recruiter to certain firms where you don’t have an alternative in.
As a former recruiter for a very well-regarded recruiting firm, I can tell you that the job is very difficult. Yes, you can make a lot of money if it’s a good year and you get good candidates. But, the recession has DEEPLY affected the nature of that industry. Whereas in 2007 you could place a middle of the road candidate somewhere, today’s market allows only for Top 5 candidates with law review credentials and a truly specialized niche to be placed. Those candidates are few and far between. I found the most difficult part of the job to be the lack of steady income. There is no paycheck every 2 weeks. There is a large check (hopefully) once every 2 months or so. Then there are estimated tax payments, additional self-employment taxes (no employer to pay the 7.65%) and there’s the utter LONELINESS of working in that industry often from home. As much as BigLaw offices are horrific in every respect, there’s something to be said for being around other human beings on a day-to-day basis. Just my two cents.
I’m generally not a fan of working from home or not being surrounded by other people. But I can tell you that doesn’t apply in the Biglaw context. When I work from home for long stretches (as opposed to going into my toxic office), I am so much happier. The moral of the story? I’d rather be lonely than surrounded by lawyers.
I wish I got one call from a headhunter. LOL