Morning Coffee: Goldman Sachs has 300 employees it values above the rest. How to make $900k but avoid banking, consulting or tech

Over one million people applied to work for Goldman Sachs last year. Almost none of them got in.

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Speaking yesterday, John Waldron Goldman's COO, said the firm received 875,000 applications for experienced positions and hired 1% of applicants. It also received 300,000 applications for summer internships and only hired 1% of the would-be interns. 

Getting into Goldman Sachs is therefore not easy. Tommaso Ponsele, who joined last week from Citi, is one of the fortunate very few. When people leave Goldman, the implication of Waldron's words is that there is a queue of Ponsele-style potential external replacements. But when its most important people leave, Goldman tries to replace them internally.

Waldron said the firm has 300 people in "top roles," for which it's conducted some intense succession planning in case they leave. Those 300 people are 100 fewer than Goldman's 400-person partner pool and 1,700 fewer than its 2,000 or so managing directors. If you've got a succession plan at Goldman, you're part of the elite-elite. 

Succession planning is nothing new - most banks do it - but Waldron said Goldman does an "enormous amount" of it. After starting with its 300 favourite people, Goldman will be making succession plans for others too. When it hires externally, Goldman is "very choosy", said Waldron, who himself attempted to leave for Apollo last year but was bought back when his boss argued he was actually irreplaceable. Next time, there may be a plan in place. 

Separately, it's not necessary to get a job in banking, consulting or technology to make over $500k a year. You can also do it by importing black plastic mats for cars, but you will still need to work hard. 

The Wall Street Journal points out that large numbers of people in the US are making a lot of money from mid-sized regional businesses like car dealerships, car washes, residential lighting suppliers, beverage distributors, and grocery stores. They are people like David MacNeil, who dropped out of college and now sells thick rubber floor mats and other accessories for cars. "By the end of ’91 I made $40,000. By the end of ’92 I made $160,000. By the end of ’93 I made $400,000,” MacNeil told the WSJ. $400k equates to around $900k in today's terms.  

He still had to work hard, however. “While all this was going on, if you called my 800 number at three in the morning, you know who would answer it? I would,” MacNeil said. Some things are constant.

Meanwhile

Citi CEO Jane Fraser says Citigroup is focused on investing in banking talent, its prime equities business, and back-office efficiency and technology. She also says Citi aims to be “a boring thing of incredible simplicity and beauty.” Good luck with this. (Bloomberg) 

Hedge fund Marshall Wace has a strange business model and interesting interviews. 1,000 stock salespeople and others across submit trading recommendations which are run through a process called TOPS (Trade Optimized Portfolio System) to create model portfolios. Contributors are paid if the portfolio performs. In a good year, contributors can make hundreds of millions. The firm has a "cosy" London office where it drives its people "incredibly hard" and has been known to conduct interviews by demanding that prospective hires visit the most countries in Europe as possible using public transport in 24 hours. (WSJ) 

Bankers who finally offloaded the $13bn of debt they lent Elon Musk to buy Twitter didn't get paid bonuses for doing so. “You can’t ring the bell on something you had to hold for two years.” (Financial Times) 

Goldman Sachs is still trying to recoup the $20.7m it paid Tim Leissner while he was working on 1MDB transactions. He was handed a subpoena as he left the courtroom after being sentenced to two years in prison. (Bloomberg) 

The people of Malaysia are unhappy. Leissner has received threatening texts and his homes have been broken into. “He will always be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.” (WSJ)  

French business schools are trying to attract students affected by US visa issues. “If you’re an international student affected by the suspension of visa interviews in the US, we’re here to help you continue your academic journey without interruption.” (Financial Times) 

Eric Trump doesn't like banks. “Honestly, I would love to see some of the big banks go extinct, because, honestly, they deserve it,” he told a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas. (Bloomberg) 

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