So, now we know: more people want to work for J.P. Morgan’s investment bank than for Goldman Sachs’. Jim Cochrane, J.P. Morgan’s global head of recruiting, told the Financial Times that the bank receives 45-50 CVs in application for every job it advertises. By comparison, Lloyd Blankfein said last month that Goldman received 313,000 applications for 9,700 open positions in 2015: a ratio of 30:1.
What makes jobs at J.P. Morgan 50% more over-subscribed than jobs at Goldman? Both banks feature strongly in our league tables of top tier players. Both have seen their stock fall in the past three months. Goldman beat J.P. Morgan in our 2016 ranking of the ideal employers in finance, and it outranked J.P. Morgan in the Vault’s recent ranking of finance employers. Goldman also ranks ahead of J.P. Morgan as the preferred employer of business students. Nonetheless, J.P. Morgan is the harder bank of the two to get into. – Maybe candidates want to get close to Jamie Dimon?
If you want to work for Dimon, you’ll need to perfect the art of talking to yourself. The FT reports that J.P. Morgan has been whittling down all those candidates by asking them to use ‘HireVue’, a program which requires them to record themselves answering scripted questions. There’s advice on how to prepare for this here. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, has been using machine learning and artificial intelligence to sort through its 30 CVs per job – but won’t say how.
Separately, Barclays dropped some bad news yesterday. In a trading update posted to its investor relations site, the bank said income from its investment bank is likely to be worse in March 2016 than it was in March 2015 – thereby confirming the industry’s worst fears, that January and February were not an aberration and the first quarter as a whole has in fact been abysmal.
Meanwhile:
“People were holding out hope that March would get better and partially save the quarter. That didn’t happen. There’s no saving this quarter.” (Bloomberg)
Barry Zamore, the man who started Credit Suisse’s US loan trading desk, is leaving. (Bloomberg)
Credit Suisse has only added 25 of the 210 Asian relationship managers it wants to hire. (Financial Times)
Tidjane Thiam: ““It’s a great time to grow. There is no change in our belief in the long-term growth prospects of Asia, so what we want to do is kick up growth when it’s the cheapest.” (The Australian)
The head of the G10 Trading Desk in APAC, Robert Ettinger has left Bank of America Merrill Lynch. (Finance Magnates)
Italian private equity fund Charme Capital Partners is hiring in London. (Financial News)
Jamie Payne, a member of the UK FIG team, left Deutsche Bank. (Global Capital)
Emerging market bankers Reid Paine, John Gunes and Ege Ackasoy left Deutsche Bank. (Global Capital)
Ex-Goldman commodities trader speaks out against consensus: “I need to be really quiet,” he said. “In order to be an independent thinker, you should not speak to too many people” (Wall Street Journal)
What to say when you’re leaving your job in a hedge fund: “I am searching for the narrow gate, trying to take a new path in life.” (Reuters)
The day before he left Pimco (after writing a handwritten note of resignation in the middle of the night), Bill Gross was told he’d lose $200m if he quit. (Bloomberg)
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