GS Goldman Sachs Group Inc

By Lindsay Gellman 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has always sought to attract the best and the brightest. Now, that isn't enough.

The Wall Street bank wants candidates who aspire to a career in banking, rather than a short stint. So it is making changes in the way it interviews and assesses candidates for summer analyst roles, typically the first-rung jobs for a banking career.

Goldman said Thursday that its recruiters will no longer conduct first-round interviews for summer positions on campus at elite schools like Harvard University, Yale University and Stanford University. Instead, all candidates for summer analyst positions must complete a video interview, answering prompts from a software program.

While a seemingly minor administrative change, the move alters a rite of passage in finance, in which students don suits and ties and do their best to apply financial concepts, such as valuation techniques, they've recently crammed. Shifting to video screening allows the firm to cast its net wider and brings it a step toward "leveling the playing field" for recruits from nonelite schools, said Edith Cooper, global head of human capital management.

Videos will be reviewed by Goldman's recruiting team and the bank will invite those who make the cut to one of its offices for a day of in-person interviews, called "super days." The hope, executives say, is that opening up interviews to a wider field candidates will turn up people passionate about a long career in finance, executives said.

Wall Street investment banks have long been content to siphon standouts from the Ivy League and a small handful of other top schools. But Goldman has lately found that students from places like Harvard and Yale might be less likely to stick with the firm over the long term, with many bolting to other jobs after just two years, said Russell Horwitz, co-chief operating officer of the securities division.

If recruiters are "going to invest the time to attract people, they want to make sure they're getting a higher likelihood of people being here longer and having a strong career," he said. "Having access to a broader funnel of candidates, and thinking differently about experience and background, is just a better investment."

For example, among the high-ranking executives who sit on the firm's 41st floor are alumni of American University, Hamilton College and George Washington University, Mr. Horwitz noted. Harvey Schwartz, the firm's finance chief, is an alumnus of Rutgers University.

Goldman recruiters will still visit a few dozen campuses to get to know students, host gatherings and answer questions about life at the firm, Ms. Cooper said. For now, recruiters will still conduct on-campus interviews for M.B.A. students, she said.

During their first-round interviews, undergraduates will have to use a video-recruiting software program to answer prompts about their qualifications and background, said Mike Desmarais, global head of recruiting. Later, the footage will be reviewed by a human, he said. The new procedure will allow recruiters to conduct significantly more first-round interviews than in the past, he added.

In addition, Goldman will deploy more resume-screening technology and is piloting the use of personality tests to better identify students with dispositions reflecting the firm's core values, Mr. Desmarais said. Those include "grit," "judgment" and "problem-solving," he said.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2016 15:26 ET (19:26 GMT)

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