On Wall Street
October, 2000

Broker Job Hunting Goes Online

No longer must the job-seeking broker wait for a headhunter’s call; broker jobs are now just a few keystrokes away.

It started in the computer business and quickly spread to other industries.  The “it” is online job posting and recruitment, which quickly is becoming one of the standard ways Americans look for new jobs – and employers look for new employees.  Many of the general online job sites routinely list hundreds of thousands of jobs; Monster.com, for example, carries more than 400,000 general job listings at any given time.

But it wasn’t until this year that a website was created exclusively for the brokerage industry.  Also new this year is growth in the number of brokerage-oriented executive recruiters who have their own sites.  What do these sites have to offer?  And is the Internet the way to go for reps looking to find a new job?  Here’s a look at what’s available online.

Brokerhunter.com

For brokers actively seeking a job change, Brokerhunter.com offers a broad platform from which to be seen.  The Atlanta-based service launched in May allows reps to post anonymous information about themselves free of charge.  This information is entered into a database.  Brokerage branch managers and other firm executives can examine the current pool of candidates by criteria including location, production, assets under management, and rates of trading turnover.  If they find a candidate they like and ultimately hire the broker, they agree to pay a fee of 3 percent of trailing-12-month commissions.  The service says the fee is half the rate brokerages currently pay executive recruiters.

While brokerage firms can access the Brokerhunter.com database, the names of brokers are withheld, so that firms cannot contact the candidates directly.  Instead, Brokerhunter tells the reps the names of the firms that are interested in them.  Reps then can choose to respond to the inquiries.  Any broker who gets hired through Brokerhunter receives a $200 bonus from the service as an incentive.  So far, more than 2,000 individuals have posted information about themselves, says Steve Testerman, president of the firm.

Since the type of broker sought by brokerage firms – generally big producers without compliance problems – is not thought to be the type of broker who would actively seek a job online, some have wondered about the qualify of the candidates to be found on the site.  But Testerman says that 6.5 percent of the producers listed recently were million-dollar producers, and more than 8 percent of the candidates had in excess of $50 million in assets under management.

“And I know that those numbers are only going to continue to get better,” Testerman adds.  Currently, he says, most candidates – like most brokers overall – are in the mid-range of production and assets.

Michael Magat, a broker in Pasadena, Calif., recently joined the independent contractor firm of Interfirst Capital after he received 20 inquiries in two months through Brokerhunter.  The $250,000 producer says one branch manager even called him on his cell phone five minutes after Magat posted an online message that he was interested in a conversation.

“I was very satisfied with the site,” Magat said.  “It got me the lead to go to the firm that I’m at.  It’s a very convenient way for firms to get a hold of you and vice versa.”

Brokerage firms that want to test the online recruiting waters can post broker openings at no charge.  Among the firms that recently listed positions were Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, First Union Securities, Gruntal & Co., and Edward Jones.  Many smaller firms also use the service.

Richard Schwarzkopf, director of branch development at Gruntal, said his firm recently made it first hire through the service.

“We posted a job opening about three weeks earlier, and we received quite a few leads.  It’s a wonderful concept,” he said.  “It seams to work.  I had some doubts because I thought we’d get introduced to some low-end rookies, but we’ve gotten responses from some good-middle-sized brokers from good firms.  Many were in the $200,000 to $500,000 annual production range.  We’re happy with the initial results and look forward to working with them in the future.”

Dain Rauscher said it was keeping an eye on Brokerhunter.com, and Salomon Smith Barney is also taking a wait-and-see approach.

“We have hired a couple of sales assistants from Brokerhunter.com” but not any brokers, said Scotland “Scotty” King, the firm’s director of private client resource development, who questioned a come-one, come-all approach to the sensitive task of hiring brokers.

“Moving a book of clients from one firm to another is a scary task.  There has to be a really good reason to inflict the trauma of making a move on one’s clientele.  It requires a lot of investigation on both sides,” she said.  “I want to know that a financial consultant’s moving is in the best interests of his clientele and that my firm can meet those needs.”

Testerman responds that the site merely lets hiring managers qualify possible candidates.  From there, it’s up to managers to contact the brokers and get to know them.

RECRUITER HOMEPAGES

Not designed to compete directly with Brokerhunter.com, the websites of traditional brokerage recruiters were created to give them credibility and, perhaps, added visibility.

Mark Elzweig, whose three-year-old Web presence may have been one of the industry’s first, said his site was designed to give people “an electronic brochure.”  Elzweig said he doubted that he had landed any prospects as a result of the site.

“I’m certainly not getting unsolicited phone calls because of it.  I just don’t think that huge producers are searching the Web for jobs.  But it helps establish an immediate comfort level.  When we talk to new people, we tell them about the website before we even send them our card.”

Similarly, Danny Sarch of Leitner Sarch Consultants said he wants a site so that people can find him when they want him.

But the website of Rick Peterson & Associates clearly is designed to help land business.  Peterson opened his site in July at a cost of $20,000.  Now he’s advertising in trade magazines to attract visitors, who can read a variety of material ranging from the basics of hiring to the proper protocol for leaving a firm and starting at another.  The Peterson site is updated weekly to illustrate the specifics of recent hiring deals and to show where new branch offices are opening.  Learning which firms are launching the offices, however, requires a call to Peterson.

“We tell the broker everything he needs to consider to make a move,” says Peterson.  So far he’s received 3,800 hits, has made four placements, and has 16 other reps in consideration.  Peterson said that while his sales staff still makes cold calls, the site allows the caller to refer the person to a website where they can read more about the company.  Peterson fought the concept of a website for years until his two grown sons convinced him otherwise.

“Now, I don’t know how we did without this.  Half of our sales meetings are devoted to talking about the website,” he said.

Not every recruiter wants the unsolicited traffic that comes through a website, however.  Two years ago, Jason Robledo, of J.R. Partners Executive Search in Chicago, had a site, but received poor quality resumes.

“There were MBAs just trying to get into the business, young people out of college, undesirables who had had numerous jobs, people who just weren’t placeable.  I just said, ‘Forget it.’ I didn’t want them to know where I was.”

Shelly Molton, Molton Associates in Pescadero, Calif., said she too wants to cater to a more exclusive clientele and has decided to shelve plans for a website for now.

HUMAN VS. ONLINE RECRUITING

Many traditional recruiters criticize Brokerhunter.com because they say that it can’t provide the kind of personalized expertise they offer.  They insist the most desirable brokers must be persuaded to leave their current employers.

Testerman counters that many big hitters don’t want to deal personally with recruiters.  Therefore, the impersonal nature of an Internet billboard sites them.  “For every guy who might get interested in moving after a 45-minute phone call.” He says, “there are 10 more who wouldn’t want to go through that call.  Unless you’re dared certain that you’re going to leave, you’re not going to let a salesman have at you.

Conversely, one branch manager says recruiters help him by doing some of the grunt work necessary to screen candidates.

“Recruiters find the candidates, check them out, look through their U-4’s and verify their production,” said Phil Fluegge, producing branch manager for Fahnestock & Company in Sterling Heights, Mich.  “Recruiting firms know what we’re looking for. But with one of these sites, we have to assume that the person’s credentials are what they say they are.”

Fluegge, however, says that he too is willing to keep an open mind about recruiting from the Internet.  “Brokerhunter.com could be helpful, but it’s not going to be our first choice.  What I’d tell other branch managers is to take a look at the site for themselves.

BrokerHunter Facts: BrokerHunter.com is an employment website for jobs within the Securities Industry segment of the Financial Services Industry.

In summary, this is the place for you to find employment, jobs, careers, opportunities, new jobs, permanent jobs, job placement information or a new position within the Securities Industry segment of the Financial Services Industry.

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