A Career In Wall Street

[chenchow]

Career In Wall Street has been a dream for many people. The success story of a Recom member, Tan Ying Ying (yytan), who has successfully landed a permanent job at JP Morgan Chase & Co prompted me to ask her to share with Recom members. She has agreed for me to reproduce this link (same as in news section) in Recom! She hoped to share her success with Recom members. Many Recom members know her personally and we could also say "Awesome!". Her networking skills is fantastic. I quote from a friend, "Walking with her in Boston from place to place is a tough feat. Often, you have to stop twenty times, as she would meet familiar faces all over the places!"

"A new chapter of life will be written for Tan Ying Ying in July 2004. That is when her life in Wall Street begins. She will serve as a full-time analyst at J.P. Morgan Chase and Company, a dream job for many young, aspiring financial professionals. The company, a leading global financial services firm, was formed as a merger between J.P. Morgan and Company and The Chase Manhattan Corporation in December 2000. As of December 2002, J.P. Morgan Chase and Company has about US$800 billion in assets and is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. "

Read the full article at http://edtech.kdupg.edu.my/webpage/staff/aus/tanyingyingnews.asp

Feel free to share any comment, ask her any question. She is a very busy person, as you can find out from the article, but I am sure she is willing to reply our questions!

Ying Ying, on behalf of Recom, Congrats! and We are proud of you! Hope that your success will prompt more success story in Recom!

[Cirnelle]

WHOA!!! thats really awesome!!! really proud of u!!

hope you can share your "pahit dan manis" on your road towards success with us... :D [/b]

[chenchow]

I believe Ying Ying is currently on her flight back to US, so I believe she would only be able to reply to Cirnelle's question when she is there. Hope you would be patient.

Ying Ying gave me a book a few days ago, "Who Moved My Cheese" and I think that's a very good book. From my observation, she read a lot of those books, besides maintaining a very wide network of friends.

[Schye]

yeah, that is a good book but i read it in Mandarin (a present from my mom)

By the way, I would really like to know how Ying Ying manage her time as i am really bad in time management.

[sanghanuman]

Impressive. Hope to be like her.

[jiinjoo]

well, work hard, work smart. it's not free you know. :wink:

[sanghanuman]

Thats true.

[chankingguan]

I have a question....what does it take to work at wall street...i mean...wats the courses u have to take..how to get noticed so u'll make it there...all those sort of stuff. One more thing..is the career of an analyst more rewarding than a trader???? Thanks....hehhehehe

[chenchow]

On what does it take to work at Wall Street?

Look at what Goldman Sachs website.

http://www.gs.com/careers/learning_center/articles/learning_center_963400.html

Some citations:
"You recruit leading individuals. You put them together into focused, driven teams. You let their skills, their drive, their intelligence and their creativity come to the fore. You train them, challenge them and focus their energy on some of the most involving, rewarding problems in the industry. You give them the place, the knowledge and the opportunity to excel. Financial know-how is easy to teach - in fact, training will be an important part of your placement here - but the skills that make our people industry leaders are beyond teaching. Here is what you need to work at Goldman Sachs:

A passion for excellence:
Belief in the power of the group:
Integrity:
Leadership:
A desire to be challenged:
The drive to make your mark on the world:

So, you can be any major. Really. That's what they look for. Many from my university, like Electrical and Computer Engineering major get to work at wall street.

It is the soft skills that matter, not the technical skills.

To get notices, build networks. Lecturers, friends etc... Go and visit some I bankers etc.. Try to grasp opportunities available.

[windy_city]

Goldman Sachs has the most unique team work culture. It is a company where customer come first, team second, and "I" come last. I read a book about its corporate culture before, but I forget what the title already. WIll try to find it and share with everybody!

[Randomphantom]

I guess for GS, they look for people with:

Ivy leaguer or top Unis, oxbridge - a filter for the interviews so I hear.
2.1 above honours/high CGPA in (almost) any discipline - also a filter
Soft skills to get you through the interview
Mentioned characteristics and values
Amazing achievements to make you stand out from the tons of scintillating applicants
Ability to fit into their culture seamlessly - likewise, Ivy leaguers stand a better chance

They get people from diverse backgrounds too, lots of top brain PhDs and MBAers. My chances at GS? = 0.0001 = only in my dreams...

[windy_city]

Ok maybe what you heard is not that true after all. Anyway, take a look at the interesting article below:

The Top Financial Company in the world(as of the year 2001)
Global Debt & Equity Offerings:
Jan 1, 2001 - December 31, 2001

1. Citigroup/ Salomon SB
2. Merrill Lynch
3. CSFB
4. J. P. Morgan Chase
5. Goldman Sachs
6. Morgan Stanley
7. Lehman Brothers
8. UBS Warburg
9. Deutsche Bank
10. BofA Securities
11. Bear Stearns
12. ABN Ambro
13. Barclays Capital
14. BNP Paribas
15. DK Wasserstein

The hiring process of Goldman Sachs.Despite consistently hiring the cream of the crop, Goldman changed its hiring
process for the 2002 recruiting season. All groups will start recruits off with
a 30minute,
two-on-one interview with professional staff (i. e., investment
bankers, traders, asset managers, etc.). At the end of the day, the interviewers
will meet to review the candidates and determine who merits a second look.
Previously, Goldman had been famous for a fairly grueling process, with
most candidates reporting at least three rounds of interviews. One source had
a mix of fit and technical questions, but got the impression he was being
graded on more than his answers. ?It didn?t matter if I got the questions
wrong, but they wanted to see how I thought and how I reacted under
pressure. The worst thing to do is to come across as arrogant.? Naturally,
making a good impression on everyone is important. Says one insider,
?Goldman is a very, very consensus-driven place. I think in the full-time
hiring process, you could literally meet a total of 25 people.?
The inner circle
Goldman, more than any other Wall Street firm, weeds out those who won?t
?fit? with the firm?s culture, say insiders. All candidates are questioned on
their willingness and ability to work hard as team players in an intense and
demanding work environment. Interviewers say they look for ?people with
smart personalities who aren?t afraid to work hard. We especially don?t want
big egos around the place, so we try and find out how you will be able to work
with someone you don?t like too much personally.?
Recent interviewees remark that they were surprised by the number of
?detailed questions? that interviewers asked them about their grades at
college and graduate school, even where school policy prohibited such
questions. Insiders report that there is no clear delineation of personal and
professional questions during the hiring process. Candidates must be
prepared to answer any question at any time.
?They stress over and over again that anybody graduating from a top MBA
program can do what they want them to do,? says one source. ?But they can?t
change their personality or make them pleasant to work with. They really put

a lot of effort into the personality part.? One hire reports receiving ?rapid-fire
personal questions: ?Why did you go to that school?? ?How were your
grades?? ?How were you perceived by your peers?? ?Your professors???
Personality and GPA aside, one insider says, ?You don?t have to be a finance
expert, but you have to be special in some way. It helps if you were the best
at something.?
Candidates who copped to a strong financial background on their resume or
cover letter should prepare to receive several detailed and probing questions
on business and finance issues, although this will be more likely for full-time
hires than summer hires. ?If you get asked something you don?t know, admit
you don?t know right away,? advises one insider. ?They want to know that
you know your limitations.?
When screening potential summer associates, Goldman generally conducts two on-campus rounds and a third round at the firm?s headquarters, which is
described as ?sort of a super day, but a miniature version,? with about four
30minute interviews. For summer associates ?trying out? for full-time
positions, contacts say, ?there?s very strong attention paid to how well people
work together.? A current Goldman banker and former summer associate
advises those trying to make the cut, ?A summer internship is the best way to
land a full time job.?
When hiring undergraduates as investment banking analysts, Goldman Sachs
does not require ? although it prefers ? candidates with degrees in economics
or finance. Many of Goldman?s new hires are liberal arts majors (even
philosophy); however, the firm emphasizes that all new hires meet the
following requirements:
1. Outstanding academic and extracurricular achievement
2. Comfort with financial concepts and basic numerical computations
3. Personal integrity
4. Initiative
5. Ability to work as part of a team in a demanding and time-consuming environment
6. Strong oral and written communication skills

(All the info here is taken from Kellogg database, Vault Employer Profile: Goldman Sachs. Please respect and acknowledge the copyright.)

[topdog]

i have a friend (malaysian) who majored in comp eng who's now working at goldman sachs. he was a summer intern there too.

i'll try to get him to join recom.

[xovey]

i would appreciate it if someone could post a new link to the news. the current page is not there anymore. It would be interesting to read that article