The City headhunter chasing you may earn £33,000

When a City headhunter rings your mobile at twenty to nine, the instinct is to picture a silver-haired grandee with three decades of contacts. Often that is not who is on the line. Entry-level consultants at London executive search firms typically start on a basic salary of around £32,000 to £36,000, with first-year bonuses that can reach £20,000 at the strongest houses. Some firms advertise £33,000 base and on-target earnings of £40,000 to £45,000 in year one.

That gap matters. The person describing a seat that might pay you six figures could be two years out of university, working from a brief they did not write, for a client whose name they may not be allowed to say. None of that makes the call worthless. It does mean you should treat it as the opening of a commercial negotiation rather than a compliment.

The calls are getting more frequent. Morgan McKinley forecasts London finance vacancies rising 17% in 2026, with the capital accounting for 52% of all UK finance recruitment for the first time. Fintech is hotter still: London roles are projected up 37% year on year, taking about 70% of the UK's fintech openings. The Financial Times has run its own guidance on handling these approaches, and the reason the topic keeps coming round is simple — more mandates means more phones ringing.

Who pays the City headhunter, and why it matters

You are not the customer. The hiring firm is. Retained search — the model used by the so-called big five of Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds and Egon Zehnder — means the firm is paid in instalments to run a defined process, whether or not you take the job. Contingent recruiters are paid only when someone signs. The second model rewards volume and speed, which is why some approaches feel scattergun. Ask which one you are dealing with in the first two minutes. The answer tells you how seriously the mandate exists.

Why your phone is busier than the mood suggests

The headline forecasts look buoyant, but they sit oddly next to the near term. Morgan McKinley's own tracking flagged a slowdown in early 2026, with vacancies down sharply year on year. Annual projections are bets on a full twelve months, not a description of March. Accountancy vacancies climbed 15%, with executive management roles doubling, and accountant hiring is forecast up 32% as firms absorb AI implementation and regulatory change. Read that as demand concentrated in specific niches, not a general bull run. A call is evidence of one live search, nothing more.

What to say in the first five minutes

Most damage in these conversations is self-inflicted, done in a corridor while trying to sound relaxed. Three habits protect you.

Establish whether the role actually exists

Ask who the client is, whether the mandate is signed, how many candidates are already at interview, and when the firm wants someone in the seat. A consultant working a real retained search can answer all four. Vagueness on every one usually means they are building a longlist to win the business.

Never volunteer your current pay

Your existing package is the anchor the whole negotiation swings from, and once it is written down it follows you through every subsequent conversation. Give a range you would move for instead. If pressed, say the number depends on structure — deferred stock, buyout of unvested awards and bonus timing all change what an offer is worth.

Take it off your work phone

Use a personal number and a personal email address, and call back at lunch or after hours. Employers can and do monitor company devices. Getting caught fielding approaches on a work handset has ended more City careers than any bad interview.

The clause that decides how fast you can leave

Enthusiasm is cheap; your contract is not. Senior City roles routinely carry three to six month notice periods, garden leave and post-termination restrictions, and a firm keen to hire you in April will lose interest if you cannot start until November. Reform is genuinely in play. The previous government said in May 2023 it would cap non-competes at three months, then never legislated. A government working paper published on 26 November 2025 reopened the question, with responses due by 18 February 2026. The options on the table include:

• a statutory three-month cap on non-compete clauses
• a cap that varies by employer size, such as three months above 250 staff and six below
• an outright ban making non-competes unenforceable
• a ban below a salary threshold combined with a cap for higher earners

Lawyers expect firms to respond by tightening notice periods, garden leave and non-solicitation terms instead. Dig out your contract before the second call, not after the offer.

The reference check that follows you around

Regulated finance has a paper trail that ordinary jobs do not. Under the FCA's SYSC 22 rules, a firm appointing you to a certification or senior manager function must obtain a regulatory reference from previous employers as part of its fit-and-proper assessment. Your last employer is not merely asked to confirm your dates. The regulator's policy statement PS26/6 on the Senior Managers and Certification Regime also extended the validity of criminal records checks from three months to six and dropped the requirement for internal and intragroup moves. Anything unresolved in your file will surface. Better you raise it than the paperwork does.

What to do before the next one rings

Take the call, always — even when you are happy where you are. Ten minutes buys you a live read on what your skill set is worth and who is hiring. But keep a private note of who approached you, for which client, and at what level, and check the number against the firm's website before you say anything specific. Reread your contract now, while nothing is at stake. And watch what lands after the February consultation closes: if non-competes are capped, the price of moving in the City drops for everyone.