From Quora, the OP asked the following question:
What are some mind-blowing facts about Goldman Sachs?
Anonymous posted the following answer:
- The average employee compensation (salary + bonus) was $399,506 in 2012.
- Revenue per employee was $1.29m in 2012.
- Their top energy analyst predicted that oil would surge to $200 a barrel in 2008. He made the call in May when oil was trading at $105. It crashed to $30 a barrel four months later.
- Goldman only generates 14.4% of its revenue from investment banking. The bulk, 53%, is from sales & trading.
- Unlike their rivals, Goldman's equity research analysts never, ever go on TV to discuss their opinions.
- 60% of their top executives are Jews, who only account for 2% of the US population. This is reportedly the highest ratio among peers.
- The average employee tenure in 2011 was 5.5yrs, up from 5.0yrs in 2008 and 4.5yrs in 2001.
- The average tenure for executive officers is 22yrs.
- Each employee receives on average 25hrs of training per year.
- In 2010 and 2011, Goldman received 300,000 applications for full-time positions. 4% were given offers.
- Of the applicants who receive offers, 9/10 accept.
- It only had 21,000 individual high-net-worth clients in 2011.
- By market value, Goldman is only 37% the size of JP Morgan.
- It uses 1m computing hours per day for risk management calculations.
- Red flags raised by two young analysts prior to the '08 crash arguably saved the entire firm.
- Of the $550m fine it paid to the SEC in acknowledging that it misled investors for a particular subprime product, only $250m went to harmed investors. The rest was pocketed by the US Treasury.
- Sidney Weinberg, who started off as a janitor's assistant, went on to become the CEO and led the firm for 39yrs.
- It hired a summer intern (into its Investment Management unit) who thought that Portgual is next to Mexico City. She didn't get a return offer.
Sources: anecdotal, recollection from interviews, conference presentations, sell-side reports, etc.
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