Goldman Sachs to visit IU

Editor's Note: Goldman Sachs paid for the reporter's trip to its New York headquarters.\nNEW YORK -- With the hope of luring IU's best and brightest to one of Wall Street's oldest firms, representatives from Goldman Sachs will hold an information session regarding opportunities with its investment banking division at 7:30 p.m. today in Room 100 of the Kelley School of Business.\nGoldman Sachs is a global investment banking and securities firm that provides investing, advisory and financing services to corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net-worth individuals.\nAccording to Thomson Financial Securities Data, Goldman Sachs ranks among the most profitable Wall Street Investment Banks, having made more than $4 billion in investment banking revenues this past year.\nFinance professor Bob Klemkosky said the firm, which has 76 IU alumni globally, has a long-standing history with IU and has been interviewing on campus at the Kelley School for 20 years. But representatives said they will return Nov. 13 to interview select students, marking the first time the Wall Street firm has conducted campus-wide interviews at IU for its investment banking division.\n"They look for well-rounded people," Klemkosky said. "They've always hit the Ivy League schools hard ... most of the kids out of the Ivy League are non-business majors."\nRandy Powell, director of the Business Placement Office, said the company typically interviews students with very high grade point averages.\n"There are other firms like this, but they are probably at the top of the heap," Powell said. "It's a very select group of schools they visit."\nGoldman Sachs Managing Director David Baum, a 1986 IU graduate who is head of American mergers and acquisitions, stressed that students majoring in any subject have an opportunity to find a job within the company.\n"Ultimately in this business it may be more important to have done well in psychology class rather than in calculus," Baum said. "Not to upset any of the business majors, but a lot of what we do on the numbers side is not rocket science ... we need people with great aptitude, judgment, strong interpersonal skills and a good commercial sense."\nEnglish Department Chairman Kenneth Johnston said a liberal arts degree gives students these types of skills.\n"There is more open-ended problem solving and critical thinking about any range of issues," Johnston said. "In English, we know we have the importance of writing and thinking through writing."\nBaum said the team of recruiters coming to campus is made of IU alumni and will be considering three things in particular when evaluating students.\nFirst, he said students must have demonstrated strong academic performance throughout college, which he said gives them a "ticket to a conversation." Then, he said students must have both strong leadership skills and work experience.\n"Investment banking is a tough nut to crack because they generally recruit at the Ivy League and in the Northeast," said Career Development Center Director Alan McNabb. "It means they really think highly of our students and the fact that they're including our arts and sciences students is enlightened on their part."\nJohnston said the distribution requirements in the College of Arts and Sciences makes for well-rounded students.\n"As Cardinal Newman in 19th century England said, 'a liberal education gives you a sense of the relative disposition of things in the world,'" Johnston said. "You're going to know something about foreign cultures, math, science ... the world of nature, the world of society, the world of thought."\nAlissa Burstein, a vice president who manages the investment banking division's analyst program, said university recruiting is a critical aspect to bringing young analysts to the firm.\n"We recruit at approximately 60 schools around the country formally and hire many people from schools where we don't formally recruit," Burstein said. "There's no one right type of school or program or student. We look for a variety of different types of backgrounds in order to have a balance within the analyst class and feel as though a number of different types of preparation would lead to someone being a very successful analyst in the program."\nNancy Labiner, an associate with the analyst program's management team and a 1991 IU graduate, said Goldman Sachs will recruit from several Big Ten schools including Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa, Michigan and IU.\n"We've had enormous success with the analysts that we've hired from Indiana," Labiner said. "We feel as though the school has been a terrific source of talent for us."\nBaum said the recruiting effort is important because "we're only going to the world's finest educational institutions and our goal is to skim the cream off the top."\nWhen new analysts begin with the company, Burstein said they are given a great deal of responsibility. The analysts work with teams that include associates, vice presidents and managing directors to execute transactions and advise major corporations.\nLyndsay Harding, a first-year analyst who graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in Asian and Middle-Eastern Languages, said she enjoys the work because "it's never going to get stale." She said as an analyst, "you get the granular view and you get the 30,000 foot view ... there are a lot of moving parts."\nShe said that although she did not have much business training before coming to the company, a big buddy and mentor program within the firm has helped her adjust quickly and work on several projects simultaneously.\nIn addition, new analysts go through a five-week training program to prepare them for the job. Baum said those without business experience also complete a one-week supplemental math and accounting component.\nGabriela Gryger, also a new analyst with the company and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a dual degree in international relations and business, said that although she works long hours she enjoys the work.\n"It's like med school in a sense," Gryger said. "You're working ridiculously long hours, but you're paying your dues."\nBaum echoed her sentiments.\n"There's no question it's a very tough job ... 80 plus hour weeks are not at all unheard of or unusual," he said. "It is a group of overachievers who clearly enjoy working with other people."\nDespite the heavy workload, Andy Seger, an analyst and a 2000 IU graduate, said a university like IU prepares one for such a job because of the blend it provides between strong academic programs and extracurricular opportunities.\n"I think the reason that Wall Street firms have become so interested in Indiana University," Seger said, "is that the students (from IU) who have landed jobs on Wall Street have been very successful"