GUEST ARTICLE: “CityBoy" author Geraint Anderson on headhunters

I remember getting a call from Fred Bayr ten years ago trying to sell me a fake job and  get my managers name. I’ve got no problems with head hunters now but when I wrote ‘Cityboy’ in 2008 at the end of my 12 year stockbroking career I was a different person.
Those of you in the City now may feel exactly as I did then. Whilst in the thick of it I wrote...

I’ve always felt head hunters make traffic wardens, estate agents and even Manchester United supporters seem relatively acceptable human beings. They are essentially parasites living in the bloated stomach of capitalism. I know they are just doing a job but it is the way they do it that offends my sensibilities. Just like football agents who have a self-interest in promoting as many transfers as possible, head hunters will tell you whatever lies are required to encourage you to switch banks. If I had ten grand for every time a head hunter told me that my bank was falling apart and that all my colleagues were constantly calling him up desperate to move shop I’d be almost as rich as I actually am. You may think that estate agents getting two percent of the value of your house just for finding a buyer is a complete piss-take but head hunters often receive around thirty percent of a new recruit’s first year’s compensation. When you’re dealing with City types, who are sometimes earning seven figure salaries, that can be a disgustingly huge amount for essentially doing bugger all. I’ve also noticed that these spongers often ring up to get your details just so they can pretend to be involved in a specific job placement even if they have diddly squat to do with it. If you then do switch banks independently the head hunter who has got your details can sometimes try and get some blood money by claiming involvement. The sooner they realise they have no value and become street sweepers, the sooner the world will be a better, safer place.

I’m obviously a much calmer person now but are head hunters any more ethical? Will the nature of their job ever allow them to be?

Geraint Anderson is a former stockbroker and author of The Sunday Times Bestseller: CityBoy – Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile which can be bought here.

Find out more about his charity work at http://www.cityboy.biz/