Wall St fights it out for crop of graduate talent
9 July 2014
US graduates are the focus of an intense tug-of-war between Wall Street titans eager to sign up the cream of the crop of this year’s academic talent this summer, says a report in the New York Times.
9 Jul 2014US graduates are the focus of an intense tug-of-war between Wall Street titans eager to sign up the cream of the crop of this year’s academic talent this summer, says a report in the New York Times.
Investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are being outbid by private equity giants, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone, with salaries of around $300k (£175k) on the table, double what a second-year banker at Goldman might earn.
Burdened by additional regulations brought on in the wake of the global financial meltdown of 2008, banks are also haunted by negative images and have been seeking other ways to attract recruits with offers of more holiday time and extended contracts.
Private equity firms, meanwhile, have grown on a buoyant stock market, low interest rates and expanding markets that produce more clients for their industry.
This summer, dozens of junior bankers in their early to mid-20s will follow the traditional path of moving to private equity roles after spending their first two years after college at investment banks.
For them to move to high-paying private equity firms, it means sneaking around to find exit doors from their banks without their bosses noticing they are often being poached.
A graduate quoted in the New York Times said of the recruiting process: “it’s not really so much a process as a feeding frenzy, with banks, headhunters and private equity funds all caring about their own interests.
“When all this starts happening, you have no choice, really, not to engage with it. If you don’t, there’s so much peer pressure around you, and you feel you’re missing out on opportunities.”
Investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are being outbid by private equity giants, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone, with salaries of around $300k (£175k) on the table, double what a second-year banker at Goldman might earn.
Burdened by additional regulations brought on in the wake of the global financial meltdown of 2008, banks are also haunted by negative images and have been seeking other ways to attract recruits with offers of more holiday time and extended contracts.
Private equity firms, meanwhile, have grown on a buoyant stock market, low interest rates and expanding markets that produce more clients for their industry.
This summer, dozens of junior bankers in their early to mid-20s will follow the traditional path of moving to private equity roles after spending their first two years after college at investment banks.
For them to move to high-paying private equity firms, it means sneaking around to find exit doors from their banks without their bosses noticing they are often being poached.
A graduate quoted in the New York Times said of the recruiting process: “it’s not really so much a process as a feeding frenzy, with banks, headhunters and private equity funds all caring about their own interests.
“When all this starts happening, you have no choice, really, not to engage with it. If you don’t, there’s so much peer pressure around you, and you feel you’re missing out on opportunities.”
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