Shortly after receiving an introductory email (see Step 5) and completing registration (see Step 3), you will have a ~30-minute interview with a team member from the respective headhunter firm. These initial meetings should not be overlooked and should be treated as a critical step of the process. As highlighted in Step 3, headhunters are the gatekeepers of the process, and can very well decide whether or not you get interviews.

These interviews are an opportunity for you to sell and tell your story... if you want to make the switch from your current sector to a different sector / investment strategy, articulate that! While you don't need to know the exact firm or firm size you'd like to work for (who does, specially considering you just started your 1st job), a mistake would be to walk in and say you'd like to recruit for both hedge funds and private equity. These are completely different styles of investing and thinking, and might show the headhunter that you haven't really put time into considering next steps.

Prior to the headhunter interviews, take a look at their website, as for the most part, they will disclose the client list online. Other times, they might send you the list ahead of the actual 30-minute interview. If they have not provided a client list ahead of the interview and the website doesn’t disclose such information, know that it is completely ok to ask headhunters during the initial meetings who they represent. A main goal of the interview, besides making a great first impression, is walking out knowing the exact private equity firms they represent. Due to client list sharing sensitivity / everchanging representation of firms cycle-to-cycle, I will not go into detail about which headhunters represents which private equity firms. 

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Use your best judgement, but I'd again, err on the side of caution -- whether held virtually or in-person, dress business professional to these headhunter meetings and always send thank you emails for their time after the interview!

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The questions asked will mostly be behavioral -- while I have heard that headhunters might ask you to do a Paper LBO (see Step 4), my headhunter interviews were all behavioral and focused on my deal experience... maybe this was because we all had a year to prepare and gain experience prior to the process kicking off -- I could definitely see headhunters using the Paper LBO approach for investment banking analysts just starting their two-year programs that have not yet been a part of any transactions.

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I am listing some of the interview questions I received across headhunters as a part of my on-cycle recruiting process below -- keep in mind that these are questions I received after having one year of banking experience prior to my on-cycle experience. While most are specific to this construct, hopefully this gives you a flavor of what they are looking for -- aside from a Paper LBO (see Step 4), these interviews will almost entirely consist of headhunters learning about your story and aspirations:

1.) The standard tell me about yourself / walk me through your resume

2.) How has the past year of banking been for you? What has deal flow been like and what have you done to take advantage of it?

3.) Walk me through XYZ deal on your resume. What was your role / what did you specifically do? (see Step 7 for guidance)

4.) Why do you want to do private equity? Do you have any preference to geography / strategy / fund size?

5.) Why are you interested in sector / generalist private equity? (Will ask if you come from a more niche sector and want to pivot to a new sector)

6.) Not sure if you have had time to look at our website or the client list we sent in advance, but do you have any preferences as to our clients?

7.) What has your feedback been like thus far / during your summer internship? What were the areas you need to work on?

8.) What has been the most challenging and rewarding thing about your investment banking internships?