Goldman Sachs question

This may sound like a stupid question but I am just getting into the finance scene and I need clarification. I am currently a junior economics major and I am looking to land an internship next summer. I have a general interest in the markets, securities, and finance and I am planning to apply at banks, investment banks and insurance companies. I know enough to know that Goldman Sachs is generally considered the best, most prestigous place to have a job in finance. However, I am not really interested in becoming an investment banker or going to business school; I really would rather go to law school. My question is, other than investment bankers, what other positions are available at a place like Goldman Sachs? I see on their site that they have about a dozen different divisions with investment banking being just one of them. What exactly does an analyst, or an intern, in another division do? Are the hours any more tolerable in other divisions? This might sound immature, but all I really care about is getting 60-90 minutes a day to go to the gym, the rest can belong to my job. Is the dress code very strict (suit and tie) or can you get away with no jacket? I apologize if these are ridiculously pedestrian questions, but I am a newbie and I do need some direction.

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Best Response

You can get 60 minutes to go to the gym (most days) in banking, and no other job at GS has better pay, experience, or exit opps (unless you consider their private equity group not part of the banking division).

If you don't want to get into banking though, I suppose you can look into operations or perhaps a general counsel (aka- legal) internship. The hours in op's are pretty good overall.

If you want to get into financial law, interning at a bank and then applying for law school to eventually do corporate law would not be a bad path. However, most people I've met go the other way- they were lawyers then realized that banking was more interesting/lucrative.

GS is a great place to work, but if you are not interested in banking and are more interested in law, it's not likely the best place to get an internship. I'd think you'd be better off looking into an internship (hopefully paid, but probably not) with one of the big law firms brought in to do legal advisory on M&A deals, IPOs, etc etc. They'd give a MUCH better experience than general counsel at a bank, which is pretty much a compliance gig to make sure bankers aren't breaking SEC regulations.

 

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