Goldman Sachs Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Goldman Sachs

Pros – compensation is good. Prestige comes with the job.

Cons – Long hours compared to other companies.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more laid back
Relate more to support people

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Goldman Sachs

Pros – Senior people are smart and actually try to mentor you to some extent as long as you reach out to them. You have opportunity to advance and you're working for some of the smartest people out there.

Cons – You are not going to get a decent lifestyle pretty much at any investment bank so you really need to decide what industry you want to be in. If you want to be an investment banker, there's no better place to work.

Advice to Senior Management – Should continue to emphasize the importance of mentorship and junior development. Spend more time promoting people internally rather than always looking outside for talent.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Goldman Sachs

Pros – great exposure to deals, good people, most people are trying to do the right things, good senior leadership, good business structure

Cons – the hours and demands are as tough as advertised. there is upside in pay structure when things go well, but also real downside when they don't

Advice to Senior Management – none

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Goldman Sachs

Pros – High pay, benefits, nice gym, prestige

Cons – Smaller firms pay a similar amount for much less work

Advice to Senior Management – You guys are doing well

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Goldman Sachs

Pros – Great reputation, great resources, and very nice and knowledge person

Cons – Hard to get promoted. The little dirty details of the system really matter.

Advice to Senior Management – eliminate the people who can only talk

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Goldman Sachs

Pros – working as a software engineer here gives exposure to large real time financial systems

Cons – old technologies, repetitive work, deadlines

Advice to Senior Management – no comments

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Goldman Sachs

Pros – Gs has one of the best name brands in the world. Once you've worked here, whether it's on the revenue side or the 'federation' (non revenue producing, legal, operations, compliance etc.), you reap the benefits everywhere you go after that.
I also love the culture here. I think I've been spoiled for the real world. Especially on the revenue producing side, everyone is smart, and driven and ambitious. It's rare to find slackers or people that slide by on other's work because they tend to get weeded out pretty quickly. I also love the open culture that allows a summer analyst to walk into an MD's office and get 5 minutes of their time as it's all about reaching back and helping the next one here.

Cons – They're not the greatest at helping you advance your own career. It's somewhat of a maze, and even though there's a very clear advancement structure (2-3 years analyst, 3-4 years associate, 5 years+ VP, MD), it's hard to figure out a)what you're doing well right now and b)what you need to do better at in order to make it to the next level and c)what skills you need to work on to excel at the next level. The yearly 360 review process just isn't enough when you're project based or a young hire.
Other than that...I love GS. The hours are long, but everyone you know is probably doing at least 12 a day, so it really just depends on the group you're in.

Advice to Senior Management – Definitely keep focusing on the diversity initative. I think that the outreach to campuses is great, but the rentention here isn't nearly as representative of the effort you put into bringing good people into the firm.
I appreciate the 'anonymous' review system and the algorithm that allows you to normalize for people that might just hate you for no good reason - but in my review I should be able to get clear concise feedback on what each of my scores mean, feedback on what I can do better, and concrete metrics to go by. That has been sorely lacking in every one of the groups I've worked for here

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Goldman Sachs

Pros – Great pay and resume builder

Cons – long hours and type of work depends on personality

Advice to Senior Management – Needs to be more meritocratic

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Goldman Sachs

Pros – benefits, office space, fellow employees

Cons – very long hours, poor management in certain areas

Advice to Senior Management – reward those who work hard and not those who give most face time.

Former Employee – worked at Goldman Sachs

Pros – Wonderful learning experience and great benefits

Cons – Not easy to remain there for a long time. Most people are very young

Advice to Senior Management – Try to see who truly works and cares. There are a lot of people who do absolutely nothing day after day but have a superb acting talent. What a waste of money for the company. Truly sad!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend