Average tenure of an MD at Goldman only around 8.5 years?

I thought it could be roughly estimated with just # of MD's hired per year and # of MD's total.

MDs/(#MDs hired/year) = average tenure of an MD. (ie: a firm has 10 MD's, one MD hired per year, means average tenure is 10 years)

From this article of questionable reliability:
http://moneyistheway.blogspot.com/2008/01/goldman…

We see that there are only around 1700 MD's among GS's 35,000 employees (~5%). From here:
//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/goldman-sachs-prom…

We see that GS has hired around 250 MD's per year in 2008, although this number has been rising recently. I'll round down to 200 MD's per year on average to be conservative. That means the average tenure of an MD is only 8.5 years.

Say the average new MD is only 35 years old. Do they just retire at age 43? Go on to conquer different fields? Start their own companies?

 

If I understand the structure correctly, partnership at Goldman is not a one way promotion; partners can and do get demoted if they don't make rain. Therefore, depending on performance, you could see somebody become a MD more than once.

Also, retirement is very possible. A GS MD could easily live well and put away 1.5 mil/ year. 12 million is plenty to retire on. PE, industry, and even public service are all possible.

 
West Coast rainmaker:
If I understand the structure correctly, partnership at Goldman is not a one way promotion; partners can and do get demoted if they don't make rain. Therefore, depending on performance, you could see somebody become a MD more than once.
You're correct, but you're working under some serious misinformation. MD =/= partner. At Goldman, there's MD as well as PMD, or Participating Managing Director. Not every MD is a partner there.
I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 
drexelalum11:
Who the fuck cares

+1

i think wso should start to ban people like these. why people spend time obsessing about worthless information i will never know. like does the op honestly believe he will become a MD at goldman? if not, then why do you care? i said it before and im saying it again, the quality of posts is becoming worse with every passing day.

 
Best Response
hungryman1:
drexelalum11:
Who the fuck cares

+1

i think wso should start to ban people like these. why people spend time obsessing about worthless information i will never know. like does the op honestly believe he will become a MD at goldman? if not, then why do you care? i said it before and im saying it again, the quality of posts is becoming worse with every passing day.

Well perhaps not at Goldman, but I don't see why Goldman's MD's would be so different from MD's at other investment banks. If MD's do generally only stay 8.5 years, I personally think that's something interesting to know. I think most people on this site do have an end goal of becoming either an MD or a partner in some other industry like PE/HF/VC, etc.

All the good topics have already been discussed lol, trying to bring something new here.

 

You may work in finance, but you will probably never be one of these people. Why waste your time? Focus on being the best employee you can be, and if you're really the kind of person who can make Partner at Goldman, 99% chance you will do that or something better.

Most people climb Mt. Whitney looking in front of them rather than looking vertically. It's makes it a lot easier to stay on the trail.

 

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