The long view: why I'll talk you out of the wrong hire

The fastest way to lose a reputation is to push the wrong placement through. I've watched it happen across 25 years: a candidate who interviews beautifully, a bank that's tired of an open seat, a recruiter happy to collect. Six months later the hire isn't working, and everyone blames the recruiter. And rightly so.

So I'll do something that sounds bad for business. If I don't think a candidate is right for the seat, I'll tell you, even when they'd say yes and the easy thing is to move them through. Same in the other direction. If a role isn't right for a banker I've known for fifteen years, I'd rather lose the deal than burn their reputation, and mine, on it.

Why this isn't charity

It's the opposite. Honest counsel is the rarest thing a recruiter offers, and in a market this small it's the most remembered. The bank I tell to keep looking this year is the bank that calls me first next year. That reputation compounds, and it's the one thing a bigger firm can't buy off the shelf.

Look at how small the room is. California had 182 FDIC insured commercial banks at the end of 2015. At the end of 2025 it had 110. Add the savings institutions and the state is down to 116 headquartered banks today. Everybody left in that room has worked with, or worked around, everybody else.

The math works out. When the hire holds, the bank calls again, and they call before they have a search. That call, the one that comes before the job is even open, is worth more than any single placement. And over my 25 years, I'm proud that 93% of my placements are still with my clients. That's a statistic I like to protect.

Bankers don't move much either. The quits rate across finance and insurance was 0.9 percent in June, the lowest of any private industry the BLS breaks out, against 2.2 percent for the private sector overall. So when a commercial banker does move, it's deliberate, and people notice. Push the wrong one into a seat and you've spent something that took years to build.

What this means for you

If you're a bank, you get a recruiter who will tell you when your credit box is too tight for the talent you're chasing, or when the RM you love doesn't have the credit acumen the seat demands. If you're a banker, you get someone who won't shop you around or talk you into a move that looks good on paper but falls apart in culture.

Fewer searches, run well. That's the whole practice.

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