Working At Goldman Sachs: Employee Reviews and Culture (2024)

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

The leadership by aknowledging clients, the process would be very important in terms of my development in work-space.

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Lack of communication and stability without improvment.

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Meetings/parties with co-workers

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Benefits and challenges, benefits, compensation,

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

No work life balance , very demanding

Goldman Sachs Benefits

401k

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Versatility of equipment to work with.

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Silos. All groups are in silos and not allowed to cross them. Which leads to no cross training.

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Insurance benefits, 401k

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

People here are really friendly and want to help in a professional way

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Long working hours and performance ratings

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

The teammates and work process

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

work-life balance since some time I used to work till 12 hours.

Goldman Sachs Benefits

learning different skills, team meetings and acknowledging the work progress through team work

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

They pay us very well

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

It's very stressful job , working hours are more

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Health care

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Interviewing and following up with individual clients to meet their life insurance needs in a timely manner.

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

No upward

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Remote Work

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Challenging work; smart coworkers; abundant opportunities to learn

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

absolutely no work/life balance

Goldman Sachs Benefits

strong benefits package; lots of PTO (minimum 18 vacation + 9 sick days)

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

I love my co-workers. The job is difficult and the company is picky about who they hire, so the people you work with are good, hard-working people.

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

The hours are long and the resources to complete the work assigned to you is often lacking.

Goldman Sachs Benefits

You set your own hours, which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, no one's stopping you from working long hours, and the pressure to do so is real. But on the up side, if I ever needed to leave work early for an emergency, or if I had an appointment I needed to go to, I knew that I had the flexibility in my schedule to do so.

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Great benefits

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

They controlled my life. No path to progress my career wise and no rewards for months of excellent services. Get saying things will hapen that never did.

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Flat organization, focus on teamwork, great learning experience

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Increasingly regulatory focused

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Competitive, decisions can be made quickly, challenging

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

That being senior entitles you to treat others poorly

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Smart motivated people, a place where you can be rewarded for hard work and excelling in your field.

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Not always meritocracy as they say, teamwork can sometimes feel more like competition.

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Wellness programs, onsite health center

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Challenging growth oriented firm. Goldman Sachs encourages and supports entrepreneurial efforts. I manage a diverse team that has the resources and support to be successful.

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Limited ESPP. Could have a more robust retirement program

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Firm has good benefits, and flexible time off. Theu strongly encourgage a healthy work / life balance.

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Pay and benefits, learning, support, career advancement

Cons of working at Goldman Sachs

Office Politics, bureaucracy

Goldman Sachs Benefits

401k

Pros of working at Goldman Sachs

Intelligent co workers, smart people around, loads of learning opportunities

Goldman Sachs Benefits

Relocation bonus

If your job stressful? Are there a lot of 20 somethings with heads full of gray hair?

Nope, not on our end at least. Clients are either stressed beyond belief or chill, no inbetweeners.

AssestBacked... what's your advice here? I'm a successful algorithmic trading strategy developer that got hooked up with the wrong people. I helped create a small hedge fund a few years ago. In fact I was the only strategy developer employed by them and my strategies were the only strategies in production. After my strategies produced only 10 months of stellar performance the manager terminated my job, falsified my work performance to avoid paying me a bonus and claimed they never traded my strategies. I am bringing legal action against them. I have a rock-solid case and would love to see the truth about my strategies made public. People often don't believe a story unless they read it in a major publication. In the meantime I'm trying to start a new hedge fund. I want to get your opinion on the kinds of people in GS that a strong strategy developer like me coming into GS might encounter. Here is what I'm looking for. 1) Managers and co-workers that truly and honestly work a team. I can't stand working for/with others that are motivated by their own greed to "borrow" my ideas, claim credit for my work, or find a way to kick me out once they've stolen a stellar strategy from me. As I said I was personally terminated for producing stellar strategies. So it does happen. The more capable a strategy develoeper is, the more this is a risk. I singlehandedly built an efficient strategy discovery and validation architecture that would have normally taken 5 to 10 software developers. My colleagues have said I'm the best software developer they've ever known I briefly worked for another hedge fund that wanted me to hand over my strategies without contract and before they issued my first paycheck. I walked away. I've also worked with less competent strategy developers that borrow my ideas out of the drive to compete, then implement the ideas poorly and fail, only to keep coming back to me for more ideas and waste my time! Basically strategy developers often get *** over and face a struggle to find a real team. I can tell from your AMA that you are more of a salesman. No one can steal your ability to make money. Algorithmic strategies are ripe for theft. And their original authors are easy to silence. This is why I'm staying independent until I have enough of a strategy portfolio and track record to take to an investor. 2) Access to good market data (thousands of instruments, several years, proper timestamps, order book updates/snapshots) and good computational power. I am tired of the idiots that think that superior strategies can be built on price-only data, a handful of instruments and lots of intelligence. I've seen that bet fail or become very expensive. So how do your strategy developers at GS fare with these issues? Do they have my concerns? Does everyone at GS accept that strategies get passed around and people quit and walk with great strategies to form their own hedge fund? Is there a manager at GS that truly sympathizes with what strategy developers face? Thoughts?

Our developers are paid based off what their software produces, if it sucks they get no money if it rapes they get a *** ton. I share a few of your concerns but I dont really need too, Im more organic than anything. Strategies get passed around by our true genius is in the fact that we are always developing new ones. I guess there is a few, I dont do development personally so I cant help you there. Sue, win your money, work on a contract based platform.

First off I can't believe people feel this way about investment bankers. They make lots of money and most commenters don't, sounds more like jealousy than anything to me. Anyway I feel like this whole thread has been robbed by a stupid morals argument that really pertains nothing to his job whatsoever. He does what he has to do for his paycheck. Bam! That said I 100% positive I want to be in investment banking/trading/ advisem*nt, really I don't care the area but I know I'll lean more towards trading. But I recently read an article that I found interesting: quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-15/jpmorgan-posts-perfect-trading-record-for-three-quarters-of-2010.html it says "JPMorgan Chase & Co. racked up a perfect trading record for the second half of last year, making money every day after accomplishing the same feat in the first three months of the year. ...... Traders at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. also made money every single day in the first quarter." Being more trading oriented could you give me some insight on the best way I could make this MY reality or at least come as close as possible. I am aware there advanced computerized trading systems make these firms lots of money but what are they doing that most people are not? in laymans terms HOW ARE THEY GETTING PERFECT RECORDS. also when you speak to a client at your firm do you simply advise them on what's the best investments for them and have the firm handle them, what if a client disagrees with you? what has been your best most memorable deal? whats been your worst deal? and what do you like best about your job?

By being the best at their jobs. I explain complex investments that are usually brought to their eyes in one of two ways: They ask for a way to do something and we produce it for them, or, we suggest it to them. If a client disagrees its not going to happen. My most memorable deal has been a little old lady who goes to church every sunday telling me in graphic detail about her fantasy murders of her competitors. The worst deal was some old *** man who wanted me to break everything down to his 12 year old son for his input. I like everything about it, best perk is probably the office space though, I have a couch and table plus a conference room down the hall.

I've read Goldman Sachs has an almost cult like corporate culture. What is it really like?

We love our jobs and our firm. We get treated like human beings and are genuinely excited about our jobs. So yeah, maybe we are cult like but it is the good kind. The king where if you want out people are sad to see you leave. (But they dont make you drink the Kool-Aid first)

1. What's your annual salary? For what you do (private wealth management right?), how much of it is commission based? 2. How many hours/week do you work? 3. What exactly do you do at work? Talk to clients all day and read the news? I don't know anything about private wealth management so sorry if this question sounds ignorant. 4. How stressful is the job? 5. Why'd you leave your job and then come back?

A lot, I havent got paid yet. I dont do commission, I work off of performance results. (*** security, *** pay check) Im looking at an 80 hour work week or so. Read info about the stuff were selling. Talk to clients whenever I am needed to explain complex stuff in English. Not that stressful so far. Got paid more, got paid more.

what's the best way to start working (internship or otherwise) at Goldman Sachs?

By showing us youre Goldman Quality.

Do you find that you're more or less interested in your personal portfolio as a result of your job?

Im always interested in it, but the priority I place on it is more or less lukewarm compared to my work. As a general rule in my field you leave a majority of your compensation at your firm which is what I have been doing until I can take it out. In my case my old compensation was inaccessible when I left so Goldman said it will make up the difference if I pull my weight.

How does it feel to work for a douchebag company

Pretty good actually, my boss seems to care for me as a human being, I have a career path laid out for me, I understand exactly what is expected of me and I know how I can excel in my current position. How is your work?

How do people working inside Goldman view the hate in some media, like the bits done by Jon Stewart does on The Daily show? do they just giggle at it, or does it hurt?

> do they just giggle at it, or does it hurt? I'm going to guess their fantabulous salaries help assuage any "hurt" Mr. Stewart may inflict.

I was really hoping OP would shed some light on what Investment Banking actually is. ipeefreely, feel free to comment/correct/criticize what I say here but I'm going to try to describe what Investment Banks do. In basic economics, you learn that there are Savings and Investments. Savings can be thought of all the money you make minus your consumption. Of course this comes in many forms, anything from your parent's stock portfolio, your grandparents retirement fund, your local fire department's pension fund. The name "savings" is pretty explanatory-it is the money you are saving. Investments are opportunities to create something that will generate wealth. A basic function of this might be a friend who buys a bicycle to deliver newspapers. The bicycle is an investment. It produces wealth. Now if you think of it in the Supply and Demand model, Savings is the "Supply" of money and Investments is the "demand" for money. You parent's 401k retirement fund is a supply of money that can be used and is being offered for us, and your friend (if he can't afford the bike himself) has a need (demand) for money to buy that bicycle. As you can imagine, there is a large body of supply and demand for money out there. Google's IPO is an example of a demand for money, or an investment opportunity. Google needed money to build an office building and buy desks and computers to create more wealth (im making this up, for all i know they just built more nap capsules and volleyball courts). Stocks, bonds, loans, are all examples of investment opportunities. Savings comes in many forms too, but I think i already gave some examples. Now what does this have to do with Investment Banks? The world would be fantastic if any of us with some savings could make optimal investment decisions. For example, if you have ten dollars left after spending the rest of your paycheck, and wanted to invest it, it would be nice if you knew exactly where to invest that ten dollars. but the chances are, you don't know if boeing or airbus is a better company, let alone compared to other investment opportunities such as a US or Greek government bond, real estate in Hong Kong, the Yen, or Copper. And taking the time to research every single opportunity in the world is not going to be cost effective because the time you spend is not going to be worth the return on your 10 dollars (let alone humanly possible). but what if you and your friend combined your respective 10 dollars, so now you have 20 dollars to invest, and half the companies to research. So following this logic, if all your friends combine your money, you now have a large enough pool that the research that goes into making this investment is going to be worth the time. (side note: quick math. if you spend 100 hours to find a great investment opportunity that gives a guaranteed 1000% return, your ten dollars would give you a 100$ return, giving you a 1$/hr pay. if you did the same amount of research but instead with all your friends' money, and now have a pool of 1000$, then your return is 10,000$, and your hourly pay is $100/hr. side side note: for those econ/finance people out there, yes i am ignoring decreasing marginal returns on investment) so it makes sense to aggregate savings into large funds. and since the returns are really high and there is a lot at stake, it might even make sense to have one of your friends who is really good at this to quit his day job and do this exclusively. everyone else can chip in a little from the fantastic returns and pay that friend. now you have your friend who is in charge of a large fund. lots of companies want him to choose their company because his investment decision will decide whether their company can invest and grow or not. these companies obviously want to show that investing in their company is going to be valuable. but how do they show this? how can you convince your parents that buying you a bike is a good investment because by delivering newspapers you will be able to pay back their loan? you might show that the bike will cost 100$, and you make 1$ for every delivery you make. you know from experience that these bikes last about 500 deliveries before wearing out and need about 100$ over the lifetime in terms of repairs. so you are looking to make $500 with a cost of $200. Say 500 deliveries takes about a year to make. you decide that you will split the profits 50/50 with your parents. so they are getting 150$ for the 100 investment they make. a 50% return. your parents are convinced. now how do you do this with a fortune 500 company? how do you calculate the cost and revenue? this is where the investment banks come in. Companies hire investment banks to do the analysis that I just did so they can present themselves to the large pool of savings that are out there. you notice that the investment bank isn't actually deciding whether to invest or not in the company. rather, they are representing the company to funds. oh and what do you do as an analyst for 110hrs at Goldman Sach's Invesment Bank? you make sure the left margin on all the powerpoint slides is the perfect distance because a company just paid big bucks for Goldman to make that pretty powerpoint to show to those investors out there that have trillions of savings ready to be invested. This took me half an hour to write. i hope it helps.

This is really good. If I had to generalize (cause I'm lazy). Investment banks can (and do) do two things (1) help companies raise money by developing investment rounds (think IPOs) for investors (2) advise companies on mergers and acquisitions (when 2 companies become one) Their job wrt these two things is two fold essentially. (1) figure out how much this company is worth and how much people are willing to pay for share. This part is valuation. (2) help execute by consolidating lawyers, bringing together investors, and doing all that process stuff. Now I think the biggest misconception out there is that investment banks actually do this. The big guys (i.e., Goldman) got smart somewhere down the line and realized "hey we understand finance better than anyone, we have awesome lawyers to structure complex products, and we have access to CEOs and senior leadership across the board. so why don't we use that knowledge to invest our money". And so "prop trading" grew... huge. Big investment shops have access to information that you and I just don't. For example, I can't just raise some money and sit down with the CEO of an oil services company and do on-site due diligence before I buy them. Look at Goldman's 10-k (annual report). 3/4 of profit comes from prop trading and there's barely a note about what they actually invested in. Goldman isn't necessarily corrupt here - and it's dangerous to just assume that Goldman is simply evil (although people who work there might be greedy, sure) cause it misses the point that there is an inherent problem in the system. The problem is the corporate sytem in america is outdated tax payers are responsible for the downside risk of corporate investment. If Goldman goes bankrupt (and them being too big to fail is another problem altogether) they can only lose when they put in. furthermore, management can't lost anyting but a bonus. Essentially the world over is subsidizing banks to make high-risk investments. Oh yah, and analysts make models etc, but the reality is that these models are just made as evidence for a decision that was already more or less made :p

Did the people at GS have souls at all? Mainly referring to the upper-ups make 7 figures and up. I can understand a green kid with a BS in Finance taking their money for a few years; but, don't the managers understand what they are doing to the world?

It's hard to answer "did they have souls?" Money attracts a lot of scumbags - yes. But banking attracts smarter scumbags. There's scumbags everywhere - these ones just happen to make money. What percentage of Americans despise bankers cause they wish they could be one? Probably higher - and if given the chance, they'd do the same. The industry is broken, yes, but "soulless" people are everywhere and always will be. Banks get a lot of attention for what's happened recently, but have any of you met sales people? Some of the worst people I've met are in sales.

1) How much were you paid? 2) Were most of your co-workers in it for the money or did they actually enjoy their job?

ALL were in it for the money. Some just hated it less than other. I was a summer, so I got no bonus...

What did your typical work day look like?

I spent ~80% of my time in front of a word document or excel spreadsheet. You spend A LOT of time reading annual reports (10k, 10q filings). You send your work to a senior person, they review it, give back usually useless comments (line spacing etc) or things are impossible to get (breaking down financial data into components where no publically available data exists), and repeat. You also review lawyer documents and do some due diligence from time to time (e.g., visit a factory, interview management, etc)

Would you say your job was technically difficult, required great talent, mental fortitude, etc.? Is there anything intellectually exceptional about the average Goldman Sachs employee? Also, how many hours would you say the average Goldman Sachs analyst works per week? I know this varies greatly, but is it at all like the entertainment industry where 16 hour days are the norm, or the opposite?

average is probably 12-20 hours/week. The work is technically difficult for someone without a technical background, yes. But it's not incredibly difficult. There's about 4 models you need to understand (M&A, LBO, etc) in excel and be able to build from scratch and adapt to industries. It takes a smart person 1-3 months to get good at that. After that, you need one of two things to succeed. (1) you understand finance better than others. I don't mean take finance courses, but really understand how value is created and understand theory to know when assumptions (and you make a lot) make sense. The other is to be good at politics and have everyone like you. Not much different from most jobs in that respect, I guess.

How are bonuses decided? When you were offered a full-time position, how was this negotiated? Do you know the thought process behind such large bonuses?

At junior levels, bonuses are decided just like pretty much any other industry: how much you work and how much people like you. The range in bonuses is really small at that level. Higher up, bonuses are more-or-less based on how much money you bring in. It becomes a sales job at that level (at least in IBD).

Can I get a job? Please? :( On a serious note, I attend a prestigious liberal art school that's no longer targeted for recruitment, and I'm told my app through their site is literally one in a pile of thousands that will never be accepted or considered seriously. Is my only hope sweet talking alumni who've been at the firm for 5-10 years?

It's very tough to get into. I consider myself lucky in getting an interview a few years ago. I used every resource I had at university to work on some connections and networking. Went to as many of GS' recruiting events as possible. Got my name and face out there.

Do they have job openings?

Always hiring...well, except for last year.

I want to intern at Goldman Sachs next Fall as a part of a program my college offers. The internship would be a IT internship. What would I be looking at, in terms of work, office environment, etc.? I already have experience with another IT internship with NYC, and I have plenty of IT experience from running my own IT business at home. Can you tell me how it is? Or what the IT interns would do?

You'll be thrown right into the fray. They won't expect knowledge off the bat, but you should pick it up quickly. Hours will be varied based on the size of your project(s). The time you spend there will really depend on the day. They do a lot of learning events for interns, as well as mixers. Absorb as much as you can and meet lots of people.

Do you ever feel like the media is unfairly one-sided towards you? Today, for example, I hear Goldman Sachs are planning on giving bonuses in the form of shares that can't be sold for 5 years. That's surely better than just cash, but it won't get reported in the media. All that will get reported is how many zeroes are on the end.

Yes, right now we get beat up a lot. But it's always what's hot at the moment. Remember when everyone was talking about windfall taxes for energy companies when Oil ran up to the mid $100/barrel range? And the compensation story you're referring to isn't really that different (with the exception of the longer vesting period) than how it was in the past. The comp was very aligned with risk, even in the boom years.

Do you feel that Goldman (and other investment banks) provides a legitimate service to society? Can you see why many people don't believe it does (at least when it comes to financial innovation)? How would your co-workers answer the same question?

I think one of the things that's lost (and that we sorta chuckle at) is that Goldman doesn't really do direct loans to individuals to, say, buy a house. So when Lloyd is getting grilled about "starting up lending again" by a congressperson, who is clearly referring to individual mortgages, I get the feeling like we are being misunderstood. I think that we provide legitimate services, but they are complex. Here's an example - an energy delivery company E may be in the business of buying energy from company X and delivering its customers. * E needs some sense of certainty in what money it outlays to obtain the energy from X. But, as we know, energy markets can be volatile. * Goldman comes in to guarantee a price of a unit of energy from E to X. * If we guarantee too low a price, and the cost of energy goes up, we take a loss, because we guaranteed that low price to X. * Conversely, if the price of the energy goes down, X is required to pay us the agreed to price, and we make money. So, we might enter this transaction with some view on where energy is going, but it provides certainty and comfort to the delivery company.

So how big was your bonus? Do you feel good about what you're doing?

Year end discretionary comp for 2009 won't get paid til early 2010. I'd say all but a few are privy to what people are being paid (and how). Do I feel good about it? Depends I guess on what it is I'm "doing". I work in Technology for a big bank. I'm happy about being able to learn a lot at a pretty fast pace. Could you maybe clarify the second question?

hey i go to Stevens Institute of Tech across the river... any internship opportunities?

Hiring seems to be picking back up a bit. They're strict about using the public site to apply gs.com/careers