On Wednesday, October 8, 2014, Mr. Rob Hutchinson ’77, a Vice President at Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, came to campus to give a general overview of the company and specifically the Wealth Management division. Sarah Duncan ’15, joined Mr. Hutchison for the conversation. Sarah had the opportunity to work in the New York office as a 2014 Summer Analyst, and will be returning next July as a full-time analyst.
Mr. Hutchinson, a native of North Carolina, was an English major at Davidson and has been with Goldman Sachs since 1987. He explained the differences between the divisions at the firm, the differences in culture, work hours and basic roles that people within the firm play. The information session focused mostly on Goldman Sachs as a company, the Investment Banking Division, and the Asset Management Division.
The Asset Management division is responsible for money management and is a client-facing position. Sarah Duncan explained that her mornings were made up of talking to clients about their personal accounts, the market, and helping the financial advisors with anything they needed. Every morning during her 10-week internship, she spoke to one particular client, to the extent that she built a solid personal relationship with this client. This is what a typical day looks like for a analyst. As analysts progress in wealth management, they move closer and closer to client-facing roles. Duncan and Hutchinson also emphasized the difference in time commitment in investment management, in comparison to the investment banking division. In her role, Sarah Duncan arrived at her internship by 7:00am at the latest, and departed after 9:00pm, working about 60 hours every week.
Hutchinson spoke about the culture of Goldman Sachs, and honed in on the “client” aspect of the 14 business principles upon which the business is built. He emphasized that, at Goldman Sachs, clients always come first, and the “long-term greedy” partnership that is forged with clients reflects this principle. Furthermore, the company invests in the people that work there. Sarah Duncan gave the example of how she received over 45 business cards after two super days. At Goldman Sachs, fit is very important, and during the interview process the interviewers are looking for someone who will be a good fit for the company.
If you are interested in learning more about Goldman Sachs, you are encouraged to reach out to Sarah Duncan about her experience over the summer.
Summer 20115 Analyst applications were due on October 19th.