"Tourre, 28 when he wrote the emails, reflects on the strangeness of being so young, yet being in such a critical role with pressures from those above him at the firm to make money. "... I am now considered a "dinosaur" in this business (at my firm the average longevity of an employee is about 2-3 years!!!) people ask me about career advice. I feel like I'm losing my mind and I'm only 28!!! OK, I've decided two more years of work and I'm retiring" As you can see the news reported that GS career lasted only 2-3 years on average. I realize this is a very competitive and harsh career; however 2-3 years sounded very short. Why GS would go through the long hiring and training process only to let them go in 2-3 years. Their HR must set up some harder standard in that case, to find someone really fit. Why would any company train someone for 1-2 years costs a lot of money and let them go in third year???? If this is just an unknown prop firm, I can see that happening because prop firms don't pay traders. Traders are actually pay to get education in most cases, except First NY Securities. 2-3 years career longevity on average.....Somehow I don't see this is true for GS . 5 years sounded more realistic. Any thoughts?
jumping to a career in PE or to a HF can be more lucrative. no surprise here. im sure 2-3 yearsonly includes analysts and bankers in finance/capital markets.. >70% of the employees at GS are still back office monkeys, that will be stuck there forever.
It's even harsher than that...even employees that "make money" are not safe; banks hire 30-40 people per round and are really only interested in retaining the top 5 or so. A high bonus doesn't guarantee anything either. There are Hedge Fund positions for many of the people who have been let go, yearly, through standard cuts. However, hedge funds are wise to the PnL game; put another way - if your PnL depended on flow generated by your seat (not you), then your hedge fund career is likely to be short if not non-existent.
That's not really common for traders at most BBs... I don't know if it's different at GS or what, but either way it strikes me as a pretty large exaggeration. As someone noted, that might also take into account IBD, in which almost all leave the firm after 2-3 years. It is common to stick around longer on the S&T side.
sounds exactly like what ben affleck says in the film Boiler room.. "You become an employee of this firm and you will make your first million within three years.. I'm a fucking millionaire. Now guess how old I am? Twenty-seven. You know what that makes me here? A fucking senior citizen." GS == JT Marlin x 1000
It obviously relates to Investment Banking, where 90% or so of the employees last 2-3 years, after which they either try to go to PE, VC or grad school. And that is Investment Banking in general, not just Goldman.