Associate Search Consultant

Summit Rec2Rec; South Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

Summit Rec2Rec is seeking a Graduate Executive Search Consultant to learn retained search from the ground up, focusing on Private Equity. You will map markets, approach senior executives, and manage search processes end-to-end for demanding institutional clients.

A strong academic record and genuine curiosity about business and leadership are essential. This is a cerebral, long-cycle role with meaningful professional growth.

Qualifications

• Strong academic record and written communication.
• Genuine intellectual curiosity about business and leadership.
• Resilience and comfort with rejection in a long-cycle environment.

Responsibilities

• Conduct in-depth market research and mapping of target companies and executives.
• Identify and approach senior leaders for live search mandates.
• Manage candidate pipelines and support structured assessment processes.
• Build your network within a specific sector or geography over time.
• Work closely with senior consultants on live, high-value search assignments.

Skills

Academic excellence

Strong communication

Resilience

Networking

Job description

Graduate Executive Search Consultant – Private Equity

Our client is a specialist executive search firm working exclusively within Private Equity — placing C-suite leaders (CEOs, COOs, CFOs and other senior operators) into PE-backed portfolio companies, and placing investment professionals directly into PE firms themselves. They work across sectors including commercial services, industrial services, HVAC and building automation, largely across the US market, and have built a genuinely strong reputation for de-risking high-stakes leadership hires for their PE clients.

This is a rare chance to learn executive search from the ground up, in one of the most commercially sophisticated corners of recruitment — where the stakes, the fees, and the calibre of client conversation are a world away from high-volume agency recruitment.

The Role

As a Graduate Consultant, you'll be trained from day one in the mechanics of retained executive search: rigorous market mapping, direct approaches to senior executives who aren't actively job-hunting, structured candidate assessment, and managing a search process end-to-end for demanding institutional clients. You won't be cold-calling switchboards — you'll be learning how to have credible conversations with CEOs and Partners.

Responsibilities

• Conducting in-depth market research and mapping target companies and executives
• Identifying and approaching senior leaders for live search mandates
• Managing candidate pipelines and supporting structured assessment processes
• Building your own network within a specific sector or geography over time
• Working closely with senior consultants on live, high-value search assignments

What We're Looking For

• A strong academic record — you'll need to think and write with precision
• Recent Graduate with strong academics and credentials
• Genuine intellectual curiosity about business, leadership and what makes companies succeed
• Resilience and comfort with rejection — this is a long-cycle, high-reward environment, not instant gratification
• Confidence to pick up the phone and talk to senior people who have every reason to say no
• No specific degree required, but candidates with an interest in finance, business or Private Equity tend to pick this up quickly

Worth Knowing Before You Apply

This is a slower-burn, more cerebral style of recruitment than typical 360 agency work — search cycles run over months, not days, and there's more research and less high-volume dialling. If you want fast commission and a noisy sales floor, this isn't it. If you want to build genuine expertise in an intellectually demanding, well-paid corner of the industry, it's an excellent place to learn.