A behind-the-scenes look at how recruitment in financial and trading tech has evolved, through the eyes of a 20-year insider
From Cold Calls to Consultative Strategy: The Hiring Evolution in Trading & Energy Tech”
I’m coming up on 20 years in recruitment next year and damn, has it changed.
The industry today is almost unrecognisable from the one I joined back in 2006.
Back then, it was borderline like a boiler room. SThree group companies ruled the roost. Cold calling was king. Everyone was suited, booted, and trying to emulate Wall Street. Job requisitions were treated like hot stock tips. Information was the ultimate currency.
And the real value? It wasn’t in the candidate, it was in the CV.
There was a genuine knowledge gap. No LinkedIn. No easy access to names in your niche. Mapping your market took real work. Headhunting and identifying decision-makers weren’t just part of the job, they were the craft.
You had to be good on the phone. And if you weren’t, you had to make 100 calls a day until you got good. No hiding behind email. You didn’t have anyone’s email address anyway.
I remember cold-calling a client who urgently needed an SAP FICO consultant, fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. We delivered three candidates in under eight hours. They looked at us like gods. Like the fourth emergency service. We had saved the day. Using nothing but keywords and gumption.
Recruiters made a living reintroducing candidates to companies they’d worked at before, or reconnecting them with former hiring managers who’d moved on and were building a new team again. And it worked because without them exchanging numbers, those people in their old team just disappeared.
Unless they met a savvy recruiter.
We were thanked for it.
Client: “How the heck did you find Jerry, Richard?”
Me: “Err… who?”
Client: “He worked for us three years ago, he was amazing.”
Me: “Oh… you mean candidate number three on that incredible 40,000 strong database I mentioned to you on our first call.”
Jerry would be just as happy. Reunited with a trusted employer he didn’t know was hiring.
But then LinkedIn arrived.
It levelled the playing field. It devalued the database. Suddenly, simple, low-hanging fruit recruitment was no longer needed. Clients only came to us with the hard stuff.
Recruiters had to evolve.
We leaned on speed. Specialisation. Niche networks. Everyone claimed to be an expert in something. Anything to stand out.
“All I ask is one shot to prove ourselves,” we’d say, over and over again like the chorus of a number-one hit in the office.
And still… it wasn’t enough.
In-house teams rose up. Built their own talent pools. Created their own communities and events. Used the same tools we did.
Now? The game has changed completely.
We still deliver CVs, but we’re also talking about hiring strategy, interview structure, candidate journeys, and bringing talent intelligence. We’ve become consultative by necessity.
Comparing what I do now to what I did in 2006 is like comparing a bank cashier to a business advisor. It’s the same sport, but the game has evolved.
It’s harder now. But it’s better.
There’s a deeper satisfaction in being embedded with clients, in not just filling roles but transforming how they hire. Then, watching them win because of your input.
That’s why I’m still doing it. And why I’ll still be here 20 years in.
This post was originally posted on substack