Graduate recruitment at J.P. Morgan in the U.S. is changing. It’s targeting students on Snapchat, interviewing them virtually and using as much social media as possible to reach a broad range of students. Turning up on campus is only one part of the whole process now.
Not that it’s short of people wanting to get in – applications for its full-time analyst and associate program have increased by 40% over the past two years. Only 2% are accepted, says Michelle Bucaria, its head of firm-wide campus recruiting and CIB experienced recruiting at JPMorgan Chase.
“We have way more applicants than we need to fill our jobs, across internships and full-time positions, but there are still opportunities,” she said.
Bucaria didn’t reveal which universities the banks targets, but says that it combines on-campus recruitment with other tactics like co-sponsoring events with university finance and investment clubs. It also runs a series of regional events where students from various universities in the area attend.
For example, Bucaria said that an event in Chicago typically attracts students from 15 or 20 nearby schools. They also did a spring event in New York that attracted students from Columbia, NYU and a few other local universities.
“We look to engage on the campuses of target schools with students who might not traditionally think that financial services was a career they could have,” Bucaria said.
But the primary method of getting a full-time job at J.P. Morgan is to come through the internship programme. This is how to convert an internship into a full-time role.
What are the key elements of your training processes?
“Interns get various development opportunities throughout the summer while they’re here, including educational opportunities, compliance training, networking opportunities and exposure to senior management.
“The intern program mimics the program for the full-time hires but in a shorter format.
“The length of training varies by program – some are a few days, others about a week, followed by ongoing training throughout the summer, for example, finance, investment banking, corporate banking and commercial banking modules, and coding.
“Investment banking interns cover topics like basic economics, financial math, technical training and product overviews. Especially for analysts who have a liberal-arts background, we want to make sure that they understand the financial products they might not have had exposure to at school.”
How will JPMorgan interns be assessed?
“We need to make sure they clearly understand the expectations from their managers so that they can do a great job in the role. It’s a meritocracy – if they perform up to or beyond expectations, then they will be successful.
“Interns should have an intellectual curiosity, ask questions and talk to people across the bank. Don’t just hand in assignment because you did steps one through 10 and checked those boxes; understand where it’s going and complete steps 11 through 20 without having to be asked.
“Demonstrate that you’re interested in starting a career in the program that you’re enrolling in.
“Get out there and meet people, whether it’s other interns, analysts, other folks from your school or in your department. It’s really important to get to know a broad base of employees and gain a really broad understanding of the organization.”
Approximately what percentage of summer interns typically get a full-time offer?
“The vast majority of summer interns do get offers. We spend a lot of time on the assessment program, which is very rigorous, and our internships are coveted.
“For some of the larger programs, we try to hire for the particular locations where our headcount needs have changed, but typically we do very little full-time entry-level hiring after the summer interns accept their offers. The large majority of full-time analysts are previous interns.”
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