(This article was originally published by the blogger in Chinese on digital financial news media, ListenWallStreet on November 9, 2015)
Goldman Sachs has recently promoted 425 new Managing Directors(MD), of which one third was born in the 80s, a quarter is female, and one fifths Asian. Furthermore, around 38 (9%) new managing directors are of Chinese descent.
Managing Director (MD) as the highest position below Partners in an investment bank, usually requires 12 to 15 years experience (straight from an analyst position), is generally offered a considerable base salary of as high as $400,000, and more than a million is reachable with bonus added up.
According to the stats offered by the New York Times, in the annual promotion this time, 20% of the MDs work in Asia, 54% and 26% of them work in the Americas and Europe, respectively.
ListenWallStreet reporter Jingying analyzed the public information on LinkedIn of new MDs, and found out that about one fifths are Asian, out of which one thirds are of Indian descent, half are of Chinese descent. Meanwhile，reporter notices similarities in the education background and career path of the Chinese MDs, thus summarized them below as a reference for readers interested in Investment Banking career.
Ivy League, the Dominating Education Background
Firstly, nearly all the new Chinese MDs have top-tier American or European university education background. Based on reporter’s analysis, except for 14 MDs who did not state education information on LinkedIn, other 24 Chinese MDs all have studying abroad experiences in the U.S or Europe, with American universities as the most prevailing background. 17 MDs graduated from Top 10 universities in the States, with as least 14 from Ivy League universities such as University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Cornell. Bulge bracket banks often have their ‘Target Schools’ during on-campus hiring. Although some of the MDs have studied in Chinese universities or second-tier American universities on the undergraduate level, we can see that they also hold a Ivy League Master or PhD degree. Other than Top 10 American universities, some MDs have graduated from Top 5 British universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and LSE.
MBA, the Same Old Mainstream
As the well-known professional degree for management, MBA’s popularity keeps fast increasing both in China and in the US, despite the enrollment expansion of the top MBA programs that leads to questioning of the worthiness of pursuing an MBA degree nowadays. Reporter finds that among the 24 Chinese MDs with public profiles, half of them hold MBA degrees of Ivy league universities or top 10 non-Ivy league universities such as MIT and Stanford. 5 of them hold PhD degrees in Engineering and Computer Science, and another few hold Master degrees in Computer Science, Finance etc. Many Goldman employees joined the bank with a bachelor degree, and after several years of experience, usually chose to pursue an MBA degree in top business schools, with Wharton and Harvard the most popular choices. Another few MDs had joined Goldman after getting an MBA degree. As seen, an MBA degree itself is a decent opportunity for further education and improvement, but to join bulge bracket investment banks, top business schools provide unparalleled advantages no matter in terms of teaching resources or alumni network.
‘Loyalty’, Path to Faster Promotion
The majority of the newly promoted Chinese MDs work for New York and Hong Kong, with concentration in Investment Banking, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), Investment Management, Sales and Trading, Quantitative Strategies, Technology etc. Among the 2o Chinese MDs with publicly seen job information, half joined Goldman right after graduation. Business Insider also points out that 40% of the new MDs started their career as analysts at Goldman, which shows that Goldman has put lots of effort in employee retention. Graduates from the previously mentioned ‘target schools’ usually started from analyst positions, and some post graduates were able to join the bank as an associate. A small amount of PhD graduates also joined the bank usually as strategists. Reporter finds that it often takes 13 years for an analyst to work straight up to an MD at Goldman. Many MDs have worked in other companies in consulting or investment and then joined Goldman. This path takes 16 years on average to get promoted to an MD position at Goldman. Recently, Goldman has also carried out policies to accelerate the promotion of junior bankers to encourage employees to stay at Goldman. It seems that ‘Loyalty’ is the path for faster promotion to an MD position at Goldman.
Based on the Goldman Sachs’ newly promoted Managing Director list, we can see that the Chinese MDs usually have Ivy League or other top tier university education background and MBA degrees. Moreover, we see that it takes the shortest time on average for an employee who joined Goldman right after graduation to work straight up to an MD level. It is also interesting to note that although most Chinese MDs hold an MBA or finance degree, the MDs have very diverse undergraduate majors, i.e Biology, Music, International Relations, Math etc. They were able to join Goldman after graduating from college, just that they also received business school education after years of working.
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Glamorous Journey 