Goldman Sachs is holding graduate hires steady
Goldman Sachs will be keeping up its graduate intake at around the same level as last year’s, the bank has announced, despite a painful fourth quarter.
Richard Gnodde, Goldman Sachs’ international head, told Bloomberg Television in Davos that the firm would “adapt to the environment”, and that it “expects to add more than 3,000 graduates this year.” He also noted that Goldman was continuing to hire “at all levels”.
The 3,000 number is crucial, as it is the approximate number that the bank took on in 2022, to the best of our knowledge. Keeping graduate numbers high suggests that Goldman thinks 2022's difficult conditions won't last forever and that it still needs to train junior staff for the future.
The firm's commitment to hiring comes after banks have been burned in the past. After the financial crisis graduate hiring was cut to the bone, but banks then found themselves desperate for trained junior staff a few years' later.
Hiring junior staff on the open market rather than training them in-house can be costly. “The recruiters who’d refused to talk started calling me up,” one former associate told us of the market rebound after the lockdowns. “From being ignored, I was suddenly feted. Technical questions were dropped from interviews and candidates like me who had previous experience were waived through,” she said.
Gnodde also said that Goldman will hire “selectively”, although what that means is up to interpretation. Last week, the firm cut 3,200 jobs.
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