Goldman Sachs: still attractive

All these woes notwithstanding, the bank’s reputation remains strong among aspiring MBAs, reports “Business Week“. Goldman Sachs hasn’t seen any decline in job enquiries from MBA students since last year, confirms Sandra Hurse, Vice President for Global Recruiting. “Our application numbers remain on par with previous years, and attendance at our recruiting events on campus this year was high.”

Business-school students, especially those interested in investment banking, said in interviews that they wanted to work at Goldman Sachs because of its financial success, its influence on Wall Street and its high-energy, lucrative workplace.

The same bonuses and profits that trigger fits of rage in critics are cited by business-school students as proof of the company’s strength. “They’ve been able to avoid the big blowups other banks have had,” said Jeremy Dent, 28, a student at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, who is interviewing for a summer internship with Goldman Sachs.

The money sure is attractive, especially for debt-laden students still paying off business school. The median starting salary for 2009 MIT's Sloan graduates who entered investment banking was $100,000.  Eleven percent of the 295 Sloan students looking for jobs took positions at investment banks. Goldman Sachs, which doesn’t disclose its starting salaries, hired five.

At Harvard Business School in Boston, the 2009 median investment-banking salary was $95,000, plus a median signing bonus of $40,000. Six percent took jobs in investment banking, according to the school’s Web site. Harvard students who took jobs in consulting received a median salary of $125,000, plus a $20,000 median bonus, while students going to non-profit and government jobs received median pay of $90,000.

Goldman Sachs’s culture and the opportunity to work with “the smartest people on Wall Street” make the company attractive to students like Dent, who attended about six events with Goldman Sachs recruiters and employees during his first semester at Stern School. “At the end of the day, clicking with the people you work with is critical,” Dent said. “You’re working till three in the morning, and you have to like the people who sit next to you. The quality of people at Goldman really is stellar.”

www.businessweek.com

• New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business
  Full-Time MBA