Is Goldman Sachs the most prestigious financial firm?

It seems from friends and here that GS is universally acknowledged as hands down the most prestigious firm on wall street and in finance. are there any other firms that come close to them? I heard people mention KKR and Morgan Stanley before so i guess they would be close seconds or something?

54 Comments
 

In investment banking it is one of the most prestigious, but if you are talking overall financial firms, it depends on what you are doing. Hedge funds like DE Shaw, Renaissance, Citadel, AQR, etc. would be more prestigious, and arguably top prop trading shops like Jane Street and Getco might also be more prestigious.

 

lol your friends are idiots

There are many firms that are much more prestigious than GS. KKR, Carlyle, Blackstone, etc. on the PE side, Citadel, DE Shaw, on the quant/trading side, and a number of hedge funds that I'm not too familiar with.

I can name at least half a dozen people at my school who turned down GS IBD for places like BX, silver lake, etc.

GS is just another BB firm. While arguably more prestigious than MS, they're far from the most prestigious on wall street

 

GS is the most prestigious overall, and in the sense that it's quite difficult to get into a firm like KKR without Goldman on your resume. However, getting into GS is not the end of the game.

 
machinegunfunkNot saying that, if you hate the GS guys and love the KKR guys go KKR, but all else equal 99% of people would say GS is the most prestigious bar none while only .2-.3% would say KKR or Blackstone

Well then I guess it's settled.

This thread was mad fun, yo.

 
Art Vandelayi want to be at premier I-Bank after graduation from university. i should accept my offer from Barcley's IBD or shoot for GS ops (in order to get a foot in there door)??

If you want to be in the premier bank, you should go Goldman Sachs ops since GS>Barclays. But obviously depending on your interests (PE etc.) you can make an argument for going to a weaker firm in IBD, although some would say the brand GS really trumps all

 
Best Response
machinegunfunk
Art Vandelayi want to be at premier I-Bank after graduation from university. i should accept my offer from Barcley's IBD or shoot for GS ops (in order to get a foot in there door)??

If you want to be in the premier bank, you should go Goldman Sachs ops since GS>Barclays. But obviously depending on your interests (PE etc.) you can make an argument for going to a weaker firm in IBD, although some would say the brand GS really trumps all

i really really hope youre fuckign joking. this better be a huge troll. this is honestly the dumbest thing ive ever seen

 

If I had the capital, I would create a new business school that ONLY accepted applications from GS/MS front office roles and call it the (G+M)S school of Finance. It'd rape Chicago and Wharton in the finance rankings easily.

Damn, someone give me a silver banana for this post, this is called INNOVATION bitches. unlike all you tools on excel all day.

 

Troll;

Crawl out of your ass and take a look around. This is the real world. Do you still have all your deposits at IndyMac?

Regular Joe's have not heard of KKR because they have no interest in finance. A look through the WSJ will find articles talking about KKR or Blackstone. Goldman Sachs is associated with making a lot of money and greed. The regular joes are the ones that vote Barney Frank into office. Give me a break.

Some people might believe this crap, don't mislead them. People have been asking about how to get their haircut lately.

"yeah, thats right" High-Five
 

Okay let me put a stop to this. According to a (crappy) London website, Goldman Sachs IS the most prestigious financial services firm. Check this out - http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/12314.cntns

The Top 30 Firms are as under: 1. Goldman Sachs

  1. BlackRock

  2. Blackstone

  3. Barclays Capital

  4. PIMCO

  5. J.P. Morgan

  6. Deutsche Bank

  7. Jefferies & Co

  8. Moelis & Co

  9. Cantor Fitzgerald / BGC Group

  10. Lazard

  11. KKR

  12. Rothschild

  13. RBC Capital Markets

  14. Morgan Stanley

  15. Standard Chartered Bank

  16. Wells Fargo

  17. Perella Weinberg Partners

  18. Credit Suisse

  19. Houlihan Lokey

  20. UBS

  21. Greenhill & Co

  22. Citigroup

  23. Bank of America Merrill Lynch

  24. Macquarie

  25. ICAP

  26. MF Global

  27. Nomura

  28. BNP Paribas

  29. HSBC Investment Bank

 

My own personal list:

BEST OF THE BEST 1. Goldman Sachs (big gap)

EXCELLENT 2. JP Morgan - big winner of crisis (gap) 3. Morgan Stanley (gap) 4. Blackstone

Good but not well known 5. KKR 6. Paulson hedge fund investor 7. Fidelity 8. BlackRock

Good investment banks 9. Deutsche Bank 10. Credit Suisse 11. HSBC

Not well known or in trouble with recession 12. TPG Capital 13. Renaissance Technology 14. Citadel Hedge fund 15. Jefferies 16. RBC Capital 17. Citi 18. UBS 19. Bank of America 20. Nomura

Obviously comparable if looking at front office positions (IBD, S&T, prime brokerage, asset management, wealth management, private equity, etc.) but I think this is pretty accurate; some of the more obscure names on the acs london list - perella weinberg, lazard, greenhill - that 99.9% of people haven't heard of don't qualify for top 20 rankings as they are not prestigious

 

This is like the pepsi challenge... everyone has their own taste. Plus for this to be serious you need a qualifier for "prestige" if we are saying its prestigious because it has a long name then ill start a new IB and call it "The Hot Spot Investment, M&A, LBO, and all around awesome modles and bottles Bank" and then it will be with out a doubt the most prestigious

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

Nah dude clearly you haven't been in a UBS...that list isn't necessarily in order, just set as equivalents.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

I'm sitting in the tiny ass library in Florence and laughing so hard at this right now, all the little women are glaring at me over their glasses. Please don't stop, I need more of this.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

The most prestigious firms are ones that most of us have likely never heard of...like the Delta Force of Wall Street.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

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