So, Joshua Bright decided to leave Goldman Sachs because he didn’t want to upset his team by moving internally?
Joshua’s career choices are his own, but as someone else who works for GS in London. I’d say he made a mistake. My experience suggests the bank is very supportive of anyone who wants to change divisions.
For example, a colleague of mine worked in the middle office. He wasn’t being challenged enough, so he went to our human capital management (HCM) division and said he wasn’t enjoying his work. He then told his manager he wanted to quit. And guess what? His managing director (MD) put him in touch with the Internal Mobility Team at HCM, and he’s now got a different and more interesting job in a different division of Goldman Sachs.
I’ve moved internally too. I was hired for an internship with a front office division at Goldman, but my team didn’t have headcount t hire anyoe at the end of my contract. However, my manager and my team liked my work and they gave me good reviews. My MD then recommended me to other desks within the division which were hiring and which I was interested in. I still had the standard 8-9 interviews which anyone hired either internally or externally has to go through, but I got a job on a different desk and my MD’s endorsement really helped.
Once you work for Goldman Sachs, moving internally is a real possibility. Personally, I know over 200 people at GS in London, and about 30% have moved internally, to a different division and/or geography.
If you want to move, it’s up to you to network and learn about the myriad teams and types of roles available. You need to make the most of the opportunities to meet all the other GS people – there are sports teams, diversity initiatives, volunteering opportunities, speaker series, conferences, off-sites, intra- and inter-divisional professional networks….
When I was still an intern, I asked around 50 people for coffee chats in the space of 7-8 months, and 47-48 people were happy to meet within a week. Sure, one or two were especially busy, but they asked me to contact them two to four weeks later and I met them eventually. All were keen to share their experiences, backgrounds. past mistakes, and to give me advice to succeed.
Even better, many of those I met with put me in touch with their colleagues, so I had 2nd and even 3rd degree connections within the firm. Please note that I am not an exception, or a networking genius – people at GS are constantly meeting new people, and catching up to discuss markets, GS initiatives, job roles and the broader industry – particularly the buy-$id€.
And if you work at Goldman and are thinking of leaving like Joshua? Here’s a hot tip: Go to the upper ground floor in the River Court building between 3pm and 5pm in the second half of the week. This is the usual rendezvous point before getting a coffee at the nearby Manon, Coco, or from the GS canteen itself….
Emilia Pearson is a pseudonym
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Photo credit: Walkway by Stewart Morris is licensed under CC BY 2.0.