You’ve got a couple of years’ investment banking experience under your belt and Goldman Sachs comes knocking – do you make the move across?
For an increasing number of analysts who have gone through their training programmes and got the requisite 24 months’ experience under their belts – so-called ‘first bouncers’ – the answer is yes.
In the past few weeks, Goldman Sachs has hired second-year analysts from a variety of investment banks including BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Nomura and RBS, according to data from the Financial Conduct Authority register.
The new hires are: Abhishake Srivastava, an inflation trader who joined from Nomura where he traded equity derivatives, Jorge Nin Garaizabal, an equity derivatives trader who joined from J.P. Morgan, Amish Chjotai, who works in corporate FX sales and joined from RBS, Ioulios Meimaris, a credit salesman who joined from Deutsche Bank, Alexandre Thorel, who works in investment banking an joined from BNP Paribas, Mihaljo Tomic, an emerging markets trader who joined from BCG Partners, Yannick Danielsson, a fixed income analyst who joined from Credit Suisse and William Borgerhoff Mulder, who works in hedge fund fixed income sales having joined from Anoa Capital.
These hires, despite their junior nature, are still worth noting for a number of reasons.
Firstly, while there’s a frenzy of recruitment around junior investment bankers, much of this has been focused on IBD where investment banks have been replacing analysts fleeing to the buy-side and frantically hiring to keep up with the dealflow. Goldman’s hires have largely been for its markets business.
In some ways this is surprising. While revenues in Goldman’s equities business surged by 63% year-on-year in Q2, its FICC trading business slipped by 28% on the back of ‘unhealthy’ volatility on the back of the Greek crisis. Meanwhile, its M&A business was up by 62% year on year.
Secondly, there’s the matter of timing. The class of 2015 has just been brought in, so there’s no shortage of juniors milling around the bank, but more importantly, analyst bonuses are typically paid during the summer. A move at this time suggests that expectations are low.
Finally, Goldman Sachs values loyalty and likes to hire its recruits young. A typical starting point is late analyst or associates, so these new hires are clearly thinking ahead.