Ranking Masters in Finance Programs

Who Have Goldman Sachs, JPM and Morgan Stanley Hired as MBA Summer Associates?

 

Ever wonder who was hired for a job you interviewed for? Alas, employers rarely tell you who got the job; you often wait for a friend to call or see a Linkedin update for that. Even when you hear, you still shake your head and ask why. Was it their background or temperament…or just another case of the old boy’s club in action?

“It’s just business, nothing personal.” That’s what they say in the movies. In real life, hiring decisions are real personal. If you’ve plunked down $100K for an MBA, a summer internship is your shot at the big time, especially if you want to work for one of the big investment banks.

So who is getting hired this summer for coveted summer associate openings? This year, eFinancial Careers spilled the secrets of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley. Not surprisingly, these firms are hiring the best students from the best programs, notably Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, INSEAD, the London Business School, Wharton, and Kellogg. Specifically, these are the types of candidates these firms are hiring as associates:

• Goldman Sachs: “The 2014 summer associate class at Goldman Sachs includes its fair share of career-changers, with ex-structural engineers seeming to be a favourite… In New York, you’ll find a former spinning instructor from Seattle who’s completing an MBA at the Tuck School of Business, and an-ex officer in the German army who worked as an analyst for RBS and Rothschild before embarking on an MBA at the Haas School of Business in Berkeley.” In addition, the firm has hired a former strategy consultant with McKinsey & Co. and Roland Berger.

• Morgan Stanley: “Morgan Stanley’s 2014 summer associate class contains several career bankers…There’s a former member of UBS’s ‘strategic analysis group’ who’s gained a summer internship in investment banking whilst studying an MBA at LBS. There’s also a former corporate strategist from Citigroup, who’s done much the same. Several of Morgan Stanley’s summer associates are full CFA Charterholders, suggesting the bank rates the qualification and all the hard work it entails. In New York, you’ll find a former senior consultant from Booz & Co, who’s studying an MBA at Harvard. In California you’ll find a former law clerk who switched into ‘product development and monetization’ at a gaming company and is now completing an MBA at Stanford and working in the technology investment banking team for the summer.”

• J.P. Morgan: “…as long as you have solid academics and big name schools on your resume, JPMorgan is seemingly willing to think creatively when it comes to recruiting summer MBAs. This year, for example, it hired a former physician in the UK’s National Health Service who’s studying an MBA at Wharton after working for a cancer diagnostics company. It also has a former operations director for a chain of cinemas who’s working in New York on the finance associate leadership programme. In London there’s a former commercial director for an online gaming company who’s studying an MBA at London Business School. – With Morgan Stanley also hiring summer MBAs with gaming experience, it looks a little like a stint in online gaming, followed by an MBA, followed by a switch into banking, is becoming a thing.”

That said, the popularity of bulge bracket investment banks may be waning, according to the latest MBA employment survey conducted by Training the Street (TTS). In this June’s results, TTS found consulting has overtaken bulge bracket banks by a 25-to-22 percent margin. These banks have also seemingly pulled back on MBA recruiting. TTS survey responses showed that only 41 percent of participants had been recruited by bulge bracket banks (a seven percent drop over the previous year). Conversely, 48 percent had been approached by consultants, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Entrepreneurs have also curtailed the recruitment efforts towards MBAs, with 2014 numbers slipping from 22 percent to 15 percent.

Here are some additional results from this year’s TTS MBA survey:

• 60 percent of respondents were “Very Optimistic” about their job prospects after graduation (a 12 percent increase). Another 29 percent were “Somewhat Optimistic,” with only 4 percent being “Very Pessimistic.”
• 48 percent of respondents with job offers received starting salaries from $100,000-$125,000. Another 26 percent accepted offers of greater than $125,000.
• 40 percent chose New York City as their ideal location, followed by the San Francisco area (22 percent) and Chicago (10 percent).

Source: eFinancial Careers, Marketwatch

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