Lateral move question
Hey guys - quick question for all of you. Current GS employee - going to keep group vague to avoid revealing my identity. Didn't get associate offer due to a whole bunch of office politics and BS - associates / VPs I work with tell me I can do the job, but there's some drama within my group. Long story short is that they've offered me the opportunity to go to a different group but as a "third year analyst". There are no third years at goldman, so in effect they would keep me for the extra year and then I'd be up for promotion next year. I have an offer from another BB in a top group - I'd go over as an analyst and then get promoted next summer. So effectively both offers are the same. But with the GS offer, all of my peers who stayed would be promoted this summer and I would still be an analyst. Should I lateral to the other bank or just suck it up for the extra year at GS?
Just me but I'd leave. GS is a politics driven place, and if you're not on the right side of the politics (as it seems), then you might not have that many opportunities to move up even if you do stick out the year. No guarantee you get associate next year, and if you don't you'll be in a really rough spot.
Take the other BB offer if you like the firm/group. Important to be moving up as quickly as possible and getting more responsibilities at a group/firm that values you. Just my 2 cents though.
Yeah that's what I'm thinking as well. Just quite annoying frankly b/c GS is a great firm and the people there are (for the most part) great as well and I would've liked to stay there for longer, so they've placed me in a bit of an awkward position.
I would stick it out at GS. Unless you plan to stay at this next firm for a while, you will always have to explain why you moved downstream (read: red flag). Staying at GS also provides more option value. For example, if you wanted, you could apply to bschool in the fall or recruit externally. It sucks that your peers will be promoted while you remain an analyst, but going to another firm does not make that go away. I don't really see the benefit of going to another firm, unless like Trackback said, your chances of getting promoted at GS next year is lower than this other firm.
I'm not sure that's true. I've seen lots of people move around for a variety of reasons, and moving to another BB in a top group is easy to explain. It isn't like he'd be leaving for a MM or something. People don't like firm or group culture, they're looking to be at a bank with different strengths, they get attractive lateral hire offers, they want to be in a different part of the city, etc. Not a red flag in my opinion.
It does seem like in this case, given what he just responded with below though, his promotion prospects at GS are a little dubious given that his new groups told him they knew he was a "leaver." That's also a shitty thing to have to deal with at work, I'd rather be somewhere I'm more respected and treated better.
Yeah that's definitely a fair point and is kind of why this is a hard decision tbh. The couple of problems with staying are 1) the promotion policy at GS is fairly well known by now and staying as an analyst could be a red flag down the road; 2) the group I'd be going to is aware that initially I wasn't supposed to get the associate offer (I.e they mentioned that I was a "leaver" at one point in our discussions). So sometimes as much as I like the firm I think there's merit to starting fresh.
you could end up in the same position the following year, you don't want to find yourself coming back as a 4th year analyst.
Yeah GS is obviously a great company and I have lots of positive things to say - but my main worry is that there is no guarantee that anything materializes next year and then I'm outta luck at that point.
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