Goldman Sachs - GIR - Salt Lake City - Legit?

From what I gathered it's more auxillery support than true research, although lately there's been a big push for quants in SLC GIR. Don't get me wrong though, I would jump at the first offer of that job

^ and ^^ are both spot on. Don't do it unless you plan to go to get an MBA as an exit option, and you don't have any other offers. The GS job would greatly improve your change of getting into a good b-school even though its not an NY FO job.

I know very little about the sell side, but from the buyside perspective, it appears to be a good program. Very small group and thus the lack of information, but people are starting to notice them. They are definitely front office and from what I hear they primarily recruited from BYU.

MBA is not the only option. A friend of mine works a relatively large fund and I know they were interviewing a kid from this program couple months ago. Not exactly sure how that ended up, but if you know your sector/stocks well, you will be good to go.

What are your other choices? I would disagree with the sentiment of "don't do it unless you have nothing else." It depends on what your other options are. If you have BB IBD, go for it. But if you are debating between this and a MM firm, I think it depends a lot on the group and you will probably have to dig deeper.

NYarb -

I do have a FT offer from a public finance firm that specializes in advising Government Public Housing Finance Agency's (they are essentially a public finance IB, as they offer all the same services then some, but they do not underwrite debt). It is a good offer and I feel that I would get good capital market experience there, as I would be on the bond advisory team (one of my interviewers in her 2ed year with the firm told me on my interview that she was responsible for advising a 300m bond issuance - perks of a small firm is they give you a lot of responsibility early). To put the size of the firm into perspective the company has about 10 people working there and the consistently advise over 1B dollars a year and they are leaders in Public Housing Advisory.

I also have a final round interview at a boutique technology IB, which I am 100% sure they are going to extended me a FT offer. Their analyst is leaving for a BB in a few months and they want to replace him with someone right out of undergrad who has a strong base (I have taken out of school modeling classes). This firm is even smaller then the Public Finance firm, but I would get corporate finance deal experience working there (deal size is around 50m+). It is a legit IB and they average about 3-4 deals a year and have been around for 8 years now (firm was started from three guys who worked in a P/E fund together).

My long term goal would be to try and make it to a reputable PE firm in about 2-3 years. I have been told the only real ways to do this would be ER or IB. So even tho I know I would get good credit experience at the public finance firm, I don't know if it aligns with my long term goals.

Also note that I am from a large state non-target, so all my opportunities to break into banking have been me shooting out cold emails. The GS opportunity was surprisingly posted on my schools career services website.

The ART program is not FO as mentioned above, but it supports the main GIR team. AFAIK, at the end of the 2 years in ART, you may be extended a FT offer. Since you are looking to exit to a PE firm, I would probably say that the technology boutique IB looks like your best bet. Especially since the three founders were working at a PE firm.

not sure about the above comments, but that program is FO. Look on a GS ER report and you will see their names. End of the day they talk to clients, which means they are FO. I would agree with NY arb. Take GS if you get it.

Interviewd and accepted offer, the brand and training seemed worth living in dowtown SLC. Remember, its a program, only two years of training then you're up for mobility- could take you to NY or London. Think of it as going to a very prestigious grad school. As mentioned above, even if you you're not promoted to associate or get burnt out on the industry; you can leverage the GS brand into pretty much anything. If you get the offer and accept, I'll see ya out there.

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Did you end up accepting?

What is the compensation for this straight out of undergrad? ...Sign on, base, bonus

And what are the hours like? Normal hours and earnings season hours -- what time are you in the office and when do you leave? Saturdays or Sundays?

Bump... anyone want to shed some light on this program?

bumpppp

I spoke to a VP in the SLC office and he said that it's 7 days a week. He said to expect 12 or more hours a day. Somewhere around 40-50% of the people in the 2 year analyst program receive full-time offers for the NYC office. Some get poached to IBD, some go to grad school.

I know a few people who did 2 years in this program. They've either moved to GS NY, other ER shops in NY or buy side. Great training and resume-builder if that's the only legit FO position offered to you, although I personally would not take anything in SLC.

Can anyone shed some more light on compensation for the program? I have heard that first year salary is around 60K, but it would be nice to get some confirmation. I have not been able to get reliable info about bonus structures and so forth, so any info is helpful.

BUMP

This thread's a bit old. Anything changed? How many are in this program? How many FO traders does GS really have in SLC? Is it mostly support or real FO?