There’s been a paradigm shift at Goldman Sachs. Forget rhetoric from CEO Lloyd Blankfein on Goldman being a tech company, the bank is finally putting its money where its mouth is.
Goldman has hired in Andrew Trout, a Silicon Valley ‘fixer’ who can help the bank attract more of the technologists that it – and other banks – struggle to lure away from Facebook and Google. Goldman has made one important change – it’s upped pay. Specifically, programmers and engineers starting out at the bank can now expect a salary of $100k – up from $83k previously – and bonuses have risen from $12k to…something larger, according to a report on Bloomberg.
“Our intent is to be competitive for the best talent,” Elisha Wiesel, Goldman’s recently installed chief information officer who is behind the scheme told Bloomberg. “If we have to change our package, we’ll change our package.”
This puts Goldman’s entry level programmers above its analysts in the investment bank. Firs year analysts take home a salary of $83k, according to Glassdoor figures, rising to $154k after two or three years’ experience. In other words, engineers are now considered more valuable to Goldman than its entry level front office juniors.
Trout’s methods for getting hold of new tech talent seems relatively simple. For a start, he will advise the bank on which campuses to scour to find the best engineers and, at a more experienced level, it will work out a way of targeting technology professionals outside of the financial sector.
If you’re interested, Goldman will then test your programming prowess using HackerRank, a website that tests and grades people’s coding skills, and CoderPad, which interviews candidates in a live programming scenario. Much like it’s new personality test, Goldman’s interviews will also focus more on the interviewee’s interests and skills, rather than trying to fit them into jobs directly. Wiesel said he wants to infuse a sense of “culture” in the tech team, and help it work closer with the business.
Separately, Moelis & Co, the boutique investment bank, is on a massive hiring drive. It has plans to double headcount, according to an interview in Financial News with its founder Ken Moelis. Right now, it has 700 people, meaning that it could potentially have 1,400 deal-makers in the future. Not everyone is convinced this is the greatest idea. “Doubling is easy,” one London-based European banking head told FN. The hard part is ensuring that headcount is profitable.
“Businesses like Moelis grow via headcount expansion, so at what point do you start to see limits to scale?” said another bank analyst.
Meanwhile:
Deutsche Bank has shaken up its U.S. investment bank again. Tom Patrick, the head of its equities business, will lead its Americas operation. This is the third change in 18 months. (WSJ)
“I do feel that as a man, I get odd looks if I leave early because of a childcare or school issue. I have been asked, ‘Can’t your wife do it?’ on occasion (she has a career too!).” (Financial News)
Are workers without kids really taking up the slack? (BBC)
RBS is cutting 20% of its IT workers in London (Financial Times)
A London stock exchange employee has died after falling from a first floor balcony (Financial Times)
Quant hedge funds are losing out to humans (Business Insider)
Is the next quant meltdown coming (Institutional Investor)
Here’s what Larry Page should have said to James Damore (Economist)
Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com
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