Goldman Sachs reviews

You get to work with great, sharp, execution-oriented people. In front-office technology roles, you learn the business and people skills, not just technical skills. I'm paid well and I appreciate the prestige and respect comes with working at Goldman. The people I work with are a joy to work with. They are humble, fun, very sociable, and very professional. Everyone is very well put together and affable. Honestly, I absolutely love working at Goldman, so don't let my below nitpicks make you think I don't. The only way for us to improve is for us to be transparent about—and focus on–our issues. So I'm going to focus on the nitpicks. If you can live with them, then JOIN! Because I'm pretty much covering every nit-picky grievance I have. (Really.) I think things are largely moving in the right direction, and that's what matters most, as it tells me that we are aware of our deficiencies, and we're actively working to improve them. No place is perfect, but Goldman is certainly among the very best places to work. I feel very happy, privileged, honored, and humbled to be a member of Goldman's "family."

A little background about myself, I worked in the Salt Lake City Office which has grown to be the second biggest location in the United States and my entire career was in Operations Division. Please take that into account. I can't speak for Sales, Trading, or any other division outside of having to deal with them on a regular basis to get work done nor can I talk about the other office locations outside having visited a few and all are different. Ops is great in that you can learn a lot of transferable skill sets and abilities that you can take to almost any job. You are only niched into ops by your own lack of creativity if you think that ops is a dead end career choice post college. I hope this helps puts things in perspective for a lot of you. I still believe that overall this is a great place to start a career although I would doubt that its a place where people ultimately make their careers (at least in Ops). Some Pros about GS is that - Professional growth If you don't know what you want to do in life running through the gauntlet that is Goldman Sachs is a smart move to build up your professional profile and skill set. You will be forced into situations that take you out of your comfort zone and if you are lucky you will have some good people around you to help you prepare and learn from those experiences. Every situation is treated with highest professional manner and everything you do is expected to be of the highest quality of work. Every report should be accurate and concise, every email professional in tone and content, every analysis has every angle covered with good presentation and the appropriate content for the audience. Everything matters and you better be sure your work is up to grade. Don't be scared they will understand you are new to this the first few times you make a mistake. - Smart people all around you If you haven't realized it by now you will shortly that you are rarely the smartest person in the room (if you are currently that will change at GS). These people are smart. Very smart. You can pull the wool over their eyes once or twice or maybe get by for awhile with a manager that doesn't care but in the long run (year or longer) you will be exposed. Thats ok, you don't always have to be the smartest in the room you just can't take it personal every time someone calls you out in public or private and get better. Again, this is Ops not other divisions. Ops is not out to call you out every time you make a mistake or criticize you on every idea. They do it its because the firm benefits more when your mediocre idea is vetted with other smart people and becomes a great proposal. Don't take it personal. - High stress environment This is a pro and a con. If you can handle a high stress environment you will thrive. If you can't you will learn to or you will be looking for a new job shortly after joining. GS puts a lot of pressure on you really quick. Like I said before, what you do matters and sometimes you have to make really hard decisions in short periods of time because market is closing or client is threatening a walk or your manager doesn't want to lose his or her head and needs you to crunch some numbers yesterday. Just know that once you overcome these obstacles you will be better for it. - Responsibility is high for junior individuals Another pro and con. Almost the same speech from high stress environment. - Mentors Rest assured the really good managers at GS (and they exist) understand that good junior analysts need good mentors to show them the ropes and take them under their wing. GS will even match you up with one if you haven't found one on your own. Just know that its on you to follow up with them and if you are smart you will have more than one and they will be strategically placed in positions that you can leverage. Reach out to them, gain their insight and heed their advice because they have been there longer than you and guess what they are still there and successful so they must know what they are talking about. Just don't restrict yourself to one, get many and get them from backgrounds that you are not comfortable with. More perspectives will often change your own on a situation. Take this advice; man walks in a desert when he surrounds himself with people that think and act like him.