Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting heads

[simont]

I was phoned at work by a headhunter today, who said he'd heard I was a good software developer and who tried (unsuccessfully) to interest me in jobs in financial services IT.

I would have considered this a one-off oddity and ignored it, if it hadn't been for the fact that I had a very similar call from a different headhunter ten days ago (and at the time I did consider it a one-off oddity and ignored it).

So I wonder who's just got hold of my details, and why they think joining the financial services sector is a natural career move for someone whose day job is facilitating embedded software development and whose extracurricular interests revolve around giving things away to people for free.

Don't suppose anyone else has been getting similar calls recently? If it were widespread, I think I'd be less disturbed than if I were being targeted specifically.

Comments

[tackline.livejournal.com]

Have you perhaps any disgruntled former colleagues that have moved into financial services? Or perhaps there's an advert which uses a geeky acronym for something in financial services.

[rmc28]

I got emailed by a financial services headhunter shortly before Christmas.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I get them periodically all year round, and have had a lot of approaches from that sector now that I'm actually in the market for a job.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I gather the pimps are a bit desperate at the moment...

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's been an upsurge in activity from the mediocre ones: this takes the form of a trawl through their databases... In other words, a crude keyword-matching search from out-of-date CVs to misread job specs, followed by amateurish calls from idiots who've read neither of them, understand nothing and are frantically skim-reading them now that someone's answered the phone.


The reson for the sudden flurry of trawls is that they are running out of both candidates and vacancies and are trying to drum up work. Crap recruiters get weeded out when the labour market turns down.


The good agents - and I'll recommend them if you want to move into finance - are fairly quiet. At least, as far as my phone's concerned: they have more candidates than places at the moment, as loss-making banks are shedding staff, and suitable employers are getting a lot of calls. Which is good, because my boss is at long last getting good candidates to interview.

[pvaneynd]

I got called for a Lisp job at a .uk bank shortly before Xmas.

[huggyrei.livejournal.com]

I've had a few calls lately. Six months ago I was acually looking; now,I have absolutely no interest in moving, since I like it where I am, it pays well, offers good training and prospects, I like the people, and anyway I'd rather at least be more stable until I've qualified.