GS FIG NY Culture

It is highly dependent on the vertical you are placed in. There are three: Banks / Specialty Finance, Insurance and FinTech / Asset Management. Banks is very busy but mostly on client service and random useless math, not a lot of dealflow. Insurance does some M&A and FT/AM is most active between pitching and deals. Those are the facts, what follows are my views and others may have differing ones depending on their experience, but I suspect it to be a majority who agree with me. 

Culturally I would say FT/AM is the worst objectively, with very high turnover at all levels thanks to uninspiring leadership at the top and nonexistent culture - everyone understands their role is as a cog to bring in and execute deals, it isn't Google. Some debate on which is better between banks / insurance because banks leadership is based in Midwest and not NY, so the MDs (not partners) are the ones managing people and leading cultural stuff.

Bigger picture for those interested, I think a lot of fairy dust exists on this site regarding GS FIG. It is living on the legacy of the great FIG bankers of years past (e.g. Chris Cole), but is only differentiated today in the exits it provides analysts (and yes, even very bad analysts are getting good exits to MFs). There are whopper deals that have been missed as late (e.g. Discover/Capital One, BlackRock/GIP) and if you are a FIG hardo, JPM has an objectively stronger franchise (cannot speak to culture) while the boutiques can give you much better training. Lot of politics and favoritism for reasons that are not based on merit. At the associate level and above within GS FIG, with a handful of exceptions the talent gets progressively less impressive. Group leaders are like characters out of an 80s finance movie: all white males, not charismatic, apathetic and cold-hearted. Number of people (some quite good) they have fired during all of those layoff waves without batting an eye is frightening. 

Relative to other GS groups, I think FIG is at the bottom of the pack with Industrials being worst. If relevant, best groups culturally from anecdotal things I have heard (i.e. strict no Saturday work, outings) are Consumer, NR and RE (all have great dealflow, especially NR and consumer lately). TMT has gotten a bad rep after the survey but there is a new group head and the mid level / seniors in the group are actually very down to earth and chill people; underrated culturally and still deserves its top-of-street creds. Hope this helps and again, others may have different views based on their experiences.