Saturday, September 15, 2012

Thanks, Goldman, for Giving My Peers Their Lives Back




From Zara Kessler at Bloomberg: This week Goldman Sachs sent budding twentysomething financiers a message: Think before starting your career here. As a recent college graduate, I'd like to offer Goldman my thanks.

Actually the message wasn't quite so blunt. As first reported yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, Goldman will no longer offer two-year contracts to analysts hired straight out of college into the investment-banking and investment-management divisions and will put new conditions on bonuses formerly paid at the end of the two-year program. According to the Journal, the change came "after executives grew frustrated that many graduates weren't staying with the firm after completing the two years, and after Goldman fired a handful of analysts over the past year for signing on to work at other financial companies in violation of their contracts."

It's not surprising to me that Goldman is having trouble retaining the best and the brightest. Yes, there is the general disenchantment with the finance world over the last few tumultuous years, the late nights spent in cubicles with Excel spreadsheets and takeout Chinese, and the reduced bonuses (although the annual salary, at $70,000 to $80,000, is enough keep food on the table of a modest New York apartment). But I suspect a major reason more trainees were leaving is….

More?  Check out http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-14/thank-you-goldman-sachs-for-giving-my-peers-their-lives-back.html

No comments:

Post a Comment