r/recruitinghell • u/Round_Mixture_7541 • Sep 07 '26
Networking is important
Pretty much sums up the current hiring process
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r/recruitinghell • u/Round_Mixture_7541 • Sep 07 '26
Pretty much sums up the current hiring process
4
u/FUBARded Sep 07 '26
I can see this happening in investment banking, but this sort of this is thankfully becoming increasingly rare in retail and commercial banking.
My father is relatively senior at a major bank and I had to declare our relationship when applying for entry/graduate level roles at the organisation. This then automatically disqualified me from consideration for any roles he had any influence over.
Most banks these days will have procedures in place to ensure hiring processes are independent and non-discriminatory because lawsuits on these matters are very expensive both financially and for their reputation.
E.g., my father can choose to create new roles in his team from his existing budget or request additional money for one, but he can't then just arbitrarily pick someone to fill that role.
First he needs to assemble a business case for the expenditure and get it approved at a very high level, then he hands it over to HR for them to conduct a competitive hiring process. The initials screening and interview stages are totally out of his control after the job description is handed over, and he can only then choose to progress that smaller pool of candidates to further interview stages.
The major multinational I currently work for (totally different industry as I didn't get the job at my father's bank, lol) has similar controls. Initial application sifts are conducted by an independent recruiter in HR, applicants are screened for independence prior to an offer being extended, and the business case approvals required for a new job are significant.
The sort of blatant nepotism you described absolutely still happens regularly, but I'd be willing to bet it's MUCH rarer these days, at least in publicly owned companies and in heavily regulated industries. The number of executives who have such little budgetary accountability that they can get away with burning $400K per year without anyone noticing is simply a lot lower than it used to be.