Goldman is the easiest way to earn a great deal of money at a young age, but to do that, you're gonna have to work at it!

The hours are gruesome; I worked regularly from 7am to midnight in Investment Management, some people in other divisions (Investment Management, Sales & Trading, etc.) will usually work less. Investment Banking usually worked from 8am to midnight.

The dress is usually biz-casual, except I-banking or when meeting clients. Sometimes during the summer some of the salespeople even go as far and wear polo's!

The best thing about Goldman is definitely the strong reputation, it's name alone is worth half the work.

Your bosses are degrading and make you feel incompetent in almost anything you do. Your sense of confidence will be lowered as they only want to take advantage of their valuable workers to further their own goals.

I think that a lot of people at goldman have a superiority complex of some sort, but for the most part, this is limited to the hot shots or money makers.

$55,000 was the base salary. $10,000 was relocation bonus. Overtime pay (1/2 of
hourly rated salary) for over 40 hours/week. Discretionary year-end
bonus is usually how it works.

It's very by-the-book when trying to advance yourself in terms of formal rank at Goldman. The rules are rigid and you can't really beat the system as you have to go through the fixed route. But there are ways to advance yourself in terms of responsibility, but this can be dangerous when you're a first year analyst doing the work-load of an associate and not getting compensated for it.

Goldman is very supportive of diversity, yet they do not seem to compromise talent for diversity.

The best advice is to not make mistakes. If you do, you will be frowned upon. Get a sense of the culture and the atmosphere around you, and be sure to leave your personal life at home, it's all about business at Goldman. Most interns do not get offers and the one's that did were not the popular ones, but were the ones who kept it formal and professional. Just work hard, master your skills, and get used to the environment.

At Goldman, people are very prideful of their status. Everyone feels as though they are about everyone else outside the firm, and with this, there is a lot of internal pressure to perform well as excellence is demanded.

As a summer Analyst in Investment Management, I was paid $45k, I-banking and Sales/Trading get a little more, technology and uperations summer analysts are paid a little less.

Goldman Sach's has pretty consistentedly been rated as the #1 IBanking firm in the US, and the quality of talent is immense. It is truly difficult to get in to the firm, and whoever gets in are highly respected for the rest of their lives.

Most be people are smart, but at the same time are normal as well which is a nice change in the finance world.

When at Goldman you will most likely meet many motivated and smart people, that is, as long as you are not in the Private Wealth Management Division. Here, most analysts do not enjoy their job. The work is unchallenging as you deal with rich peoples' money. It's very different than working in strict I-banking. The average hours per day are around 7-8 and are not bad and the dress is casual. However, there is little room for career advancement or growth. After 2-3 years they will write you a good recommendation when applying for your MBA and then kick you out. No one from this division has been promoted to associate when I worked there.

Good firm to work for, as long as you work within your own boundaries. Do not try to be a star, only be a star within your cubicle.

Due to the large size of the firm, your degree of freedom in your work is mostly limited to your specific area of expertise.