• $23 billion hedge fund Balyasny has adoped a new approach to recruiting young talent.
• A stock contest serves as an early application pool for the firm's internship program.
• A former participant and two firm execs explain how to snag an invite and make a good impression.

When Sophia Guiter arrived in New York City last October, it was her first time in the Big Apple.

Despite the allure of Broadway, Times Square, and the city that never sleeps, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, college student had a bigger mission: making an impression on executives of the $23 billion asset manager Balyasny. She and two of her Marquette University classmates were set to compete in the firm's first-ever US stock pitching competition the next day.

Guiter's focus paid off: Her team placed third, and she scored an interview that led to an internship with Balyasny's proprietary research team, set to start this summer.

Balyasny, meanwhile, has now adopted the competition as a regular part of its recruiting pipeline. It held a second stock-picking contest at the end of February and plans to host two such competitions a year in the US from now on.

In addition to prize money awarded to the top three teams, the top two teams, plus other standout students, are granted hard-to-get interviews for Balyasny internships. For example, six out of 15 participants from the February contest were interviewed for Balyasny's 2026 internship program.

"It's basically an early application pool for us, and we would love to be able to fill a good amount of our summer internship class via the stock pitch competition," said Hannah Dinardo, the firm's head of campus recruiting.

Balyasny is just one of many "buy-side" firms ramping up campus recruitment — that is, getting talent in the door earlier through internships versus waiting until they've had job experience. In the past, hedge funds and private equity firms recruited almost exclusively from investment banks. But campus recruiting has become increasingly important to the sector, which has ballooned in size in recent years due to growing interest in their investments.

"Having a cohort of young talent — I don't want to say that it's inexpensive, but it's an earlier investment," explained Steve Schurr, a Balyasny portfolio manager who conceived of the stock-picking competition as a talent pipeline. Today, most of Schurr's 10-person team counts Balyasny as their first job out of college, he said.

Guiter, Schurr, and Dinardo sat down with Business Insider to give their advice on how college students interested in a finance career can get invited to the competition and make an impression on the asset manager's top execs once there.

Inside the competition

Here's how it works: Balyasny recruiters, including Dinardo, identify campus clubs with students they can invite to submit stock pitches, which act as applications to the competition. The firm prioritizes sophomores.

Pitches are reviewed blind, meaning the school names are withheld until the final selection round. Then, five schools are invited to and hosted in New York to participate in an in-person competition.

At the event, student teams present their pitches to the judges — who are also portfolio managers — and the other teams for 10 minutes, followed by a seven-minute Q&A.

In addition to traditional Wall Street target schools, Dinardo says the firm also aims to include lesser-known universities like Marquette University — a small private school in Wisconsin. (The winners of the February competition hailed from The University of Alabama.)

"It's such a great way to evaluate students' skill set through their work product and to really see how they're thinking about markets, how they're thinking about stocks, and just see them in a totally different light versus just a one-to-one interview," said Dinardo. "You're able to also, from a recruiting perspective, see how they stack up against their peers."

Get strategically involved on campus

Key to scoring an invite is being in the right college clubs.

"The competition as a whole has been really helpful for us to better understand where we're spending our time on campus and which groups really align well with what we're looking for," Dinardo said.

She advises students whose groups aren't yet on their radar to hone in the club's educational program and mission.

"Think about the curriculum of the club. Is it a group where students by their sophomore year are going to be prepared to compete and participate in a competition like this?" she said, adding: "Are they well versed in diligencing an idea soup to nuts and from start to finish being able to build out a stock pitch and an investment pitch?"

In choosing which clubs to work with, Dinardo also looks at a club's relationship with its members, preferring a loyal base versus a handful of students aiming to fill out their resumes.

"A one-semester engagement opportunity on campus to build out your resume and get on an email distro list. I would say that's typically what we try to avoid," she said.

Put in the hours

It can be hard to juggle classes, jobs, friends, and other club commitments, but Guiter advises students prioritize the stock-picking competition if they want to succeed.

"We were putting in over 80 hours a week, especially that last week," Guiter said. I mean, we'd wake up in the morning and we would work on that until we went to bed. We were really focused on it and really wanted to stand out to the judges and come as prepared as possible."

She had never worked so hard on anything in her time as a student.

"It was definitely the most I've ever juggled on my plate at one time, but worth every minute of it."

Practice getting 'grilled'

Rehearse presenting your ideas and answering questions as much and as often as possible.

"Don't show up and have only practiced your pitch like, three times," Guiter said.

She and her team did multiple run-throughs in front of their entire investment club and professors.

"We'd go up during class or have Friday pitches where people would come, and they would just grill us," she said. "There was a time where it went on for an hour and a half."

Ahead of the competition, the top five teams get a 45-minute pitch revision session with members of Balyasny's analyst development team to prepare for the final event and get a better sense of the types of questions they might be probed on.

Think of ways to be different

Balyasny doesn't give students tight parameters for picking a stock, just a market cap amount. So when thinking about which equity they'd showcase, Guiter and her team went for something they thought would be a less popular choice: a healthcare stock.

"We wanted to branch out from the tech and AI space because we figured a lot of our competitors would choose a stock within that space," she said. "We wanted to differentiate within a market that has a lot of research that we could build off of."

Indeed, the skill set required to be a successful equity investor is "evolving rapidly," said Schurr.

"You need to have a high degree of creative intelligence. You need to be a really independent thinker, but you also have to have an adaptive mindset," he said.

Guiter and her team used ChatGPT to assist with the extensive research project and show they could harness technology.

"We analyzed how often management fulfilled their promises by analyzing 10 years of earning calls," she said.

Focus on process

Looking back, Guiter said her group should've included more details about the time spent on the project as well as their research approach when delivering their 10-minute pitch. It's something she now encourages other students to do.

Indeed, Shurr (who was a judge at her competition) said he is looking to hear about research processes and conclusions that say something interesting. Even if the judges don't agree with the stock call, this will give them insight into the process.

Schurr added that successful teams "did a deep amount of interesting and variant work and could articulate their thoughts quite well about the nature of the business and where they believe the perception was misplaced," he said. "And they could show their work."

This focus helps him and other PMs determine the competition winners and identify which students to invite to Super Days.

"Really what you're trying to do with this is not identify one great idea, you're trying to identify someone who has an innate strength as a sleuth to go and dig for information in a unique way," he said.

CORRECTION: March 12, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the timing of Guiter's internship and the amount of the prize money.

• Recruiting firm Prospect Rock Partners surveyed over 900 bankers, from boutiques to bulge brackets.
• BI obtained some of the results, including how much bankers in varying groups and levels made.
• See which titles and coverage areas saw the biggest pay bumps in 2024 as dealmaking rebounded.

Psst! How much was your bonus?

On Wall Street, your end-of-year paycheck can often indicate your standing at work. Yet, knowing where your bonus pay ranks compared to peers is not so simple.

In an effort to shed some light on Wall Street pay trends, recruiting firm Prospect Rock Partners surveyed more than 900 investment bankers about their 2024 salaries and bonuses.

The survey was conducted between December 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025 using Prospect Rock's banking industry contacts. It's the third year Meridith Dennes, the firm's managing partner, has conducted it.

"It's always been so cryptic," Dennes told Business Insider about the Wall Street compensation structure. "The whole point of the survey is that compensation is much more nuanced than what people talk about."

Survey respondents included bankers from all ranks, from analysts up to vice presidents and managing directors, and across a multitude of coverage groups, and firms.

Prospect Rock Partners gave BI permission to publish select slides from its full survey. The results shared here suggest that so-called elite boutique banks (think Evercore, Lazard, and Centerview) saw total compensation increases of between 11% to 68% across all roles. Total pay for associates at elite boutiques rose an average of 31% for first-year associates and 33% for second-year associates. Managing director compensation at elite boutiques jumped from about $1 million in 2023 to over $1.7 million in 2024, an increase of 68%.

These bonus insights come as Wall Street waits with bated breath to see whether the M&A rebound many industry experts predicted for 2025 will fully materialize or fizzle out.

"There's so much uncertainty — geopolitical risk, the impact on the private sector of DOGE cuts, tariffs, and the interest rate environment — which can cause a lot of turmoil in the market," Dennes said.

The investment banking hiring surge that started at the end of 2024 continues, however, Dennes said.

"I, as a recruiter, am seeing an increase in job requisitions coming in, but it's much harder to find talent than what people want," she said. "More companies who haven't used recruiters in the last two years are coming out of the woodwork now."

2024 compensation overview

This portion of the survey gives the average 2024 compensation for survey respondents at all investment banking levels.

The most junior employees — first-year analysts — averaged a base pay of more than $110,000. The data also suggests that most analysts earned a bonus that equaled about 50% of their base pay in 2024.

Higher-level bankers —  vice presidents and up — generally earned bonuses equal to or higher than their base pay. The biggest gains went to group heads, who are usually managing directors and partners. They saw average bonuses of more than $1.7 million.

What bulge-brackets are paying associates

Bulge-bracket firms are the largest banks, which tend to handle the biggest deals and, therefore, have the largest investment banking teams. These firms tend to include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup.

Associates are the second-most junior rank at an investment bank after analysts. This chart shows that associate-level survey respondents who work at bulge brackets earned between $176,000 and $221,000 in base pay for 2024. They reported higher bonuses in 2024 over 2023.

What middle-market banks are paying associates

Middle-market bankers tend to focus on smaller clients, often those with annual revenue of under $1 billion. This cohort included banks like William Blair, Piper Sandler, Oppenheimer, and Baird, Dennes said.

The average 2024 base pay for associate bankers at these firms was lower than at bulge brackets — but not by very much. The average 2024 bonus for each position was even more for this cohort than for survey respondents who work at bulge brackets.

What 'elite boutiques' are paying associates

Associate-level bankers who work at "elite boutiques" take the cake for the highest average 2024 base pay and bonus, reporting higher numbers than their peers at bulge brackets and middle-market firms.

Elite boutiques are considered the top-tier boutique banks that can compete with the big firms. In 2024, Evercore, Centerview, and Lazard, for example, snagged top 10 positions on the league tables for both global and US M&A advice, according to M&A tracker LSEG.

Survey respondents from this group work at firms like Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, PJT Partners, and Moelis.

More details on 'elite boutique' pay

These banks tend to focus solely on investment banking versus larger firms, which may have consumer banking and asset management services. Some boutiques also focus on deals within a specific sector, like media, telecom, or healthcare.

That means they often have stronger execution abilities, said Dennes, and therefore higher fee income per banker on their leaner teams.

"One of the most significant findings is the clear correlation between increased compensation in 2024 and recovering deal volumes," she wrote in an overview section of the survey's findings. "This recovery appears most pronounced at elite boutiques, where compensation is directly tied to deal performance and revenue generation."

Pay by industry group in 2023 & 2024

Second-year associates, whose 2024 comp is described in this section of the survey results, are bankers who have been in the field for anywhere from two to five years, depending on whether they started in investment banking as an analyst or were hired out of an MBA program.

The largest group of respondents in this group described themselves as as M&A generalists. The survey says this cohort averaged $187,000 in base pay and about $134,000 in bonus last year.

Others well-paid associates in this group worked in business services, restructuring, and DCM.

Some overall comp is down from years ago

The report shows how average comp has changed since 2022. In some cases, it wasn't for the better, like for vice presidents and managing directors.

For context, global dealmaking hit more than $3.16 trillion in 2024, which is up 10% over 2023, but still lower than 2022 volumes of $3.45 trillion, according to deals tracker LSEG.

• JPMorgan Chase has spent billions to become a technology-driven bank.
• Now, due to the bank's RTO stance, some of its tech workers are considering leaving.
• Recruiters and insiders lay out how its policy could spell trouble for retaining its top tech talent.

Anthony has never been interested in attending town halls, but when texts started rolling in about his top boss' remote work diatribe, it was too much for the technology vice president to ignore.

An IT employee named Nicolas Welch had questioned JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon while he was visiting an office in Columbus, Ohio, about leaving some return-to-office decisions up to managers. Dimon launched into an expletive-laced response, in which he complained about employees not paying attention on Zoom and that there's "not a goddamn person" he could get a hold of on Fridays.

The audio of the exchange went viral. It also struck a nerve, and now some employees are considering leaving, teaming up to influence work policy, or, like Anthony, entertaining job offers from rival banks.

"Jamie Dimon's like, 'Well, hey, if you don't like it, you know where the door is.' Yes, we do," said Anthony, which is a pseudonym to protect his identity since he was not authorized to speak about internal matters. "And that's going to impact him. He's going to lose some good people."

JPMorgan has long prided itself on being a tech-driven bank, with a $17 billion IT budget and nearly 60,000 technology workers. To stay ahead of its rivals and keep clients engaged, it funds research and development across cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and crypto.

Business Insider spoke with two recruiters and five JPMorgan employees, four of whom requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, who said the bank's unpopular RTO mandate could spell trouble for the bank's ability to retain and attract tech talent. Dimon has espoused the merits of in-person collaboration, but support for the RTO plan was scarce among those interviewed by BI.

As the March 3 expiration date for hybrid work approaches, Dimon has said he's aware that his hardline stance could push some employees away and is fine with that attrition.

"I completely respect people that don't want to go to the office all five days a week. That's your right. It's my right. It's a citizen's right," Dimon said in a CNBC interview Monday. "But they should respect that the company is going to decide what's good for the clients, the company, etc., not an individual."

While 70% of the bank's 317,233 employees are already in the office five days a week, technology workers are part of the contingent still working one or two days at home.

The battle for technical talent — which tends to be industry-agnostic — was long fought using perks, with companies providing lavish extras like fancy food, massages, and even paid family planning services to keep workers happy and attract new ones. With many of those falling away as companies focus on cost cutting, recruiters say hybrid work is emerging as the strongest benefit a company can offer.

Ryan Mazza, who runs the New York office of the financial-talent search firm Selby Jennings, said he had "no doubt" that there would be talent attrition among companies that impose a five-day RTO. "There will certainly be a competitive disadvantage for those companies," he said.

Companies with flexible working policies have quickly distinguished themselves from the wave of their competitors pulling employees back to the office. Spotify plastered its message on a Times Square billboard in early January, saying its employees aren't children and it was sticking with remote work. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser maintained her pledge to hybrid work this month, as did the fintech Revolut.

Welch, the tech operations analyst who triggered Dimon's testy comments, said the town hall roused employees rather than quieted them. The RTO decision has pushed some workers to explore the possibility of a union and organizing a unified response.

"People are absolutely emboldened. I don't know fully what that means yet," he said.

JPMorgan declined requests for comment.

Tech behemoth of Wall Street

JPMorgan's technology footprint is massive by a few measures. The bank employs about 44,000 software engineers globally who run more than 6,000 applications and manage about an exabyte (1 billion gigabytes) of data. That engine of people, systems, and data has helped the bank bring in record financial results, with its net income rising to $59 billion for 2024.

The bank also has big AI ambitions, with Dimon saying he has no intention of losing the AI arms race to disruptors. It has created a robust AI research department led by a former Carnegie Mellon researcher, Manuela Veloso, and has earned the top spot on the Evident AI Index, an independent benchmark for AI adoption and performance in finance.

Mike Mayo, a Wells Fargo analyst who regularly grills Dimon on earnings calls, last year called JPMorgan the "Nvidia of banking," commenting on its tech spend outpacing that of any other bank.

Reputation and prestige only go so far, said Deepali Vyas, the global head of the data, AI, and fintech practice at the headhunting firm Korn Ferry. She said she'd seen other companies fail to hire cloud, data, and AI talent purely because of their return-to-office policies.

"The challenge for banks is that top tech talent has options," Vyas said, adding: "If firms insist on a rigid in-office structure without a compelling trade-off, they risk losing talent to more agile, innovation-friendly environments." Vyas added that she knew of a very senior-level managing director within JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank who told her they're considering quitting because of the return to office.

A JPMorgan executive director overseeing data scientists and data engineers, a key hiring area for the bank and its AI ambitions, said he's worried about losing talent to the in-office order.

"Taking away a hybrid schedule, I honestly think, shrinks our talent pool even more," the executive director said. "I wonder how many people were already on the fence in comparison to other opportunities but now said, 'Forget this. I don't want to be forced into an office.'"

While JPMorgan made headlines with its return-to-office policy, remote work has steadily tightened across corporate America. Wall Street bosses such as Goldman Sachs' David Solomon and Citadel's Ken Griffin pulled workers back to the office in 2021. Big Tech companies, including Amazon, Dell, and AT&T, have more recently piled into the effort.

Selby Jennings' Mazza said he's already seeing pay demands increase for finance-sector jobs over the industry's return to office. Tech workers who are considering these jobs are demanding $5,000 or $10,000 in added pay to cover childcare or offset commuting costs, he said.

While some JPMorgan employees, including Anthony, are already in talks with prospective new employers, recruiters said they didn't see a mass exodus of talent coming overnight as today's tech job market favors employers.

Down the line, though, the bank's RTO demands and execution could come back to bite it.

"Once that turns, even if the pendulum starts swinging just a little bit the other way, and this includes JPMorgan and all those other guys," Korn Ferry's Vyas said, referring to Amazon, Dell, and Salesforce, among others, the top performers "will be the first people that leave for that benefit."

'Rushed and unplanned'

Questioning one of the most powerful people on Wall Street has raised Welch's profile within JPMorgan. Welch, who supports network equipment inside Chase branches, joked he's going to have to buy a wrist brace for the number of high-fives he gets walking down the hall. A stranger even gave him a mockingjay pin, a nod to the dystopian "Hunger Games" movie series wherein the pin becomes a symbol of rebellion.

A story about Welch getting fired before the move was rescinded, reported by Fortune, has caught the attention of other employers. He said he'd received multiple job offers in the past week. It's a moot point: "Why would I want to work somewhere else? Chase is the best," he said.

But Welch, who works three days a week out of JPMorgan's Polaris campus in Columbus, is still a critic of the firm's plans. One reason is that he advocates for a hybrid schedule for employees like himself who help care for family members.

"I live with my mom. She is 68. She can't reach the top shelf," Welch said. "She needs help with stuff, and I'm here to do that, you know? I can turn around and go do a thing and come back to work. Why wouldn't I want to do that?"

Home to more than 19,000 employees across 13 buildings, Polaris also boasts the fourth-highest-grossing Starbucks. The campus has been key to several tech initiatives, like overhauling its deposit system on the public cloud and developing edge cloud computing for faster data analysis.

Employees BI talked to said that offices didn't have enough desks, parking, or conference rooms and that office cafés wouldn't be ready for the increased RTO traffic.

In the January memo about the call back to the office, the bank's operating committee acknowledged that not all office locations would be ready for the March 3 deadline and said more information would be shared by the end of the month. The committee added that some offices had capacity restraints and timelines for those would become available on a location-by-location basis.

But as of late February, many workers said they were still waiting for an update. For example, Polaris-based staff have yet to be told when they'll be called into the office.

The "messaging feels rushed and unplanned," the data executive director said.

Meanwhile, one analyst whose office permanently closed during the pandemic and was designated a fully remote worker has been left in the lurch about whether they'll have a job in March.

"I've only been told that it's business as usual until I'm told otherwise. I was, however, advised by my manager as a friend to consider putting feelers out for new roles elsewhere," the analyst said.

Despite these uncertainties, many have been given their marching orders, and some question: What's the point?

"Just because you bring people back into the office doesn't mean you're not going to have Zoom calls," a software manager in Ohio said. "The whole collaboration thing is utter bullshit in my mind because I'm still going to be getting on Zoom calls. The only difference is, two of the people I'm on Zoom calls with might be sitting right beside me," the technologist, who works with people in Texas and Singapore, said.

Putting gasoline on a fire

The aftermath of the RTO rollout has stoked a fire within some JPMorgan employees to unionize.

"They anticipated this was coming," Nick Weiner told BI about JPMorgan employees' RTO expectations. Weiner is a senior campaign lead for Communications Workers of America who has led the effort of some 25 Wells Fargo branches in unionizing. He told BI that he had been in touch with JPMorgan workers for a similar effort.

"The way he did it helped to really put gasoline on this fire," Weiner said of Dimon's town hall comments. Dimon has since said that he shouldn't have sworn.

A petition against the in-office policy has garnered more than 1,700 signatures, and an internal Signal group counts about 200 members. Dimon said in the town hall he didn't care about how many people signed the petition, but that hasn't deterred workers.

Welch participated in a meeting last week with other JPMorgan employees to learn more about the basics of the unionizing process, not because he dislikes his employer — "even after cussing at me, I arguably have more respect for him," Welch said of Dimon — but because he loves it.

"A union is such a difficult thing to kind of even get going, but we love our jobs so much just in general that we're going to do that," Welch said. "We want to be heard. And these draconic orders are so unlike what we've worked in. It's so unlike what we've dealt with."

Have a tip? Contact these reporters via email at [email protected]m or [email protected] or Signal at 646-376-6038. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency probationary employees were fired on Friday.
• But some staff at the EPA were told Wednesday they were fired by accident.
• Similar scenes are reported to have played out at several other federal agencies.

On Friday, hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency staff were notified by email that they were being terminated.

Five days later, the EPA emailed some of them to say they weren't being fired after all.

"This is to provide notification that the Agency is rescinding your termination. You are not being removed from EPA or from federal civil service at this time," read the email, which was seen by Business Insider.

The unsigned email apologized "for this inconvenience" and thanked employees for their service. It also informed them that if they had already turned in EPA equipment such as laptops and badges, their supervisors would help them get those items back.

It's not clear how many employees had their firings rescinded. BI spoke with three. All requested anonymity out of fear of professional reprisal, but their identities are known to BI.

One agency employee whose termination was rescinded, a water-quality inspector, said that working for the EPA was her "dream job" and that she hoped she could go right back to working on the cases she was working on last week.

Another said she wasn't even sure whether she wanted to go back.

"I'm more on the angry side of grief now," the second employee said. "It's just ridiculous."

The second employee told BI they were in a group chat with about two dozen other employees, and "10 or 15" had been told their terminations were rescinded.

Two employees said at least some of the people who had their firings reversed had been hired through the EPA's "Pathways" program for recent college graduates.

On Friday, an EPA spokesperson confirmed to BI it had terminated 388 probationary employees. According to information on doge.gov, about 1,579 EPA employees have less than a year of tenure, about 9.6% of the agency's workforce.

Federal employees typically serve a one-year probationary period when first hired, during which they can be more easily terminated than permanent staff.

Media representatives for the EPA and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Rescinding termination orders appears to be happening across the federal government.

As BI previously reported, some probationary staff at the Small Business Administration were told they were terminated, then not terminated, and then officially terminated over the course of five days.

The publication Government Executive reported that terminations had been rescinded for workers in the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture, which is dealing with a massive bird flu outbreak. The outlet reported that at least one Small Business Administration worker was fired twice with the agency backtracking both times.

The federal government fired thousands of probationary workers starting last week, and more layoffs are expected this week as well.

• An audio recording of Jamie Dimon's WFH tirade at a JPM town hall has gone viral.
• Business Insider obtained a copy of last week's recording out of Columbus, Ohio.
• Here's more of what he said at the wide-ranging meeting, from AI to the CFPB.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has become a TikTok sensation over his comments slamming work-from-home at a recent town hall with employees.

However, audio recordings of the meeting suggest that remote work was just a sliver of the conversation. Dimon also fielded questions from employees and addressed a wide range of issues, from whether AI will replace their jobs to what his request for improved "efficiencies" means for their work-life balance, according to copies of the tape obtained by Business Insider. At one point, he encourages employees to welcome job-stealing AI, saying, "Attrition is your friend."

A TikTok video of Dimon's comments, posted by financial publication Barron's, has garnered 2.4 million views, thanks in part to his colorful and direct explanation for why the bank is calling all employees back to the office five days a week starting in March.

"And don't give me this shit that work-from-home-Friday works," Dimon told the crowd, according to the recording, which BI attained a copy of. "I call a lot of people on Fridays, and there's not a goddamn person you can get a hold of."

Dimon made the comments at a town hall in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, following the opening of a nearby branch with a community center. JPMorgan has a large presence in Ohio, including a headquarters that housed some 12,000 employees when it reopened following renovations in 2023, according to a press release. At the time, the firm called the building "the firm's largest" office space.

Here is some of what he said, including his thoughts on President Trump's dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his advice to young people. The comments are edited in places for length and clarity.

How improved efficiency affects JPM workers

At one point in the meeting, Dimon addresses his push for a more efficient workplace and what it might mean for workers' work-life balance.

"We could be far more efficient and we should always be thinking that way. That's not to torture our people. I want you to have a great life, I don't want you to overwork," he said. "But I think reducing bureaucracy literally will reduce cancer. I think dealing with the demoralizing effect of bureaucracy — you lose people, it gets you sick, and I really do believe that, so — I could be wrong."

On AI taking jobs

Dimon responded to a question about AI by saying that he expects the technology could "eliminate" some jobs. He advised employees, however, to welcome the threat and figure out how to adjust. "Attrition is your friend," he said.

"You know, it'll change some of your jobs — for a lot of you it will be a copilot, for a lot of you it will take away the drudgery, and it may very well eliminate jobs, too. And for that, I don't wanna stick my head in the sand. But what I wanna do is say, 'hmm, let's get ahead of that.' And, you know, I would say, attrition is your friend, you know, if you have jobs it's gonna replace, you know, we could retrain and reskill and redeploy people. But let's learn to use it like any technology to the best we can for our clients."

On young people falling behind

At one point in the call, a software engineering intern asked about Jamie's past comment on young people falling behind, including the challenges they face and how he intends to help. He responded by reiterating the benefits of his return-to-office mandate.

"Yeah, no, I think the ones falling behind that the ones that are not here full time. [laughter] No, no, I'm being quite serious," he said. "It's the ones who aren't here that are meeting less people, learning less, being challenged, not being put on the same amount of teams because they're not here — you know, and that's what I'm talking about."

On Trump dismantling the CFPB

Dimon also addressed President Trump's efforts to shrink the CFPB, which was created in the aftermath of the financial crisis to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. The agency has collected some $19.7 billion in consumer relief through its enforcement actions, including some against JPMorgan.

Dimon said he thinks the CFPB has some benefits, but he applauded Trump's removal of director Rohit Chopra earlier this month and said he thinks the agency should be an arm of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

"The only thing good I'll say about the CFPB is there are consumer protective rules that are good. They should be put in place to protect consumers. Having said that, they were duplicative. The OCC already did it. The Fed does it. The FHA does it. So we get it," said Dimon. "They massively overstepped their authority. I think this guy — Chopra or whatever his name is — was just an arrogant, out-of-touch son of a bitch who just made things worse for a lot of Americans. So if they get rid of it or not makes no difference to me. It should exist, but it should be inside the OCC like it used to be, when it comes to banks."

Nonbank financial regulation

Dimon suggested the CFPB could be put to better use going after nonbank financial institutions.

"You may want a CFPB for nonbanks. Think of payday lenders and all these other things that are not regulated. But remember we're heavily regulated. But at least if it's inside a bank the regulators get to look at safety and soundness, what makes sense, what's fair, how products should be priced or not priced, you know, set best practices. But I assume they're gonna be very tough on the CFPB, and the CFPB has earned it."

On the bank's fintech failings

In response to a question about growth in 2025, Dimon reminded employees that the bank has to acknowledge competition and avoid complacency. As an example, he talked about his and the bank's failures when competing with fintech and even bulge-bracket banks like Bank of America.

"Don't say, well, we're the best in the world. Assume that they're doing something better. Even Bank America does something better than us. Shocking, I know, but. [laughter] It's the digital world. They were ahead of us in digital. How the hell — I don't know. But it's your job to catch up now. And so, but, there are other things that we could have done like a Stripe or stuff like that, but we didn't have the imagination, including me, to say, hmm, we have the best payments, but we should add data and make it easier for the client. What does the client really want? It wasn't the payment they wanted. They wanted to close the sale faster and more certainly."

Do you work for JPMorgan? Reach this reporter at [email protected] or, for sensitive messages, on the encrypted app Signal at 305-857-5516.

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon lashed out at WFH in a now-viral audio recording.
• The remarks are drawing WFH defenders but also fans of RTO.
• Billionaire Bill Ackman applauded the remarks on X as "a must listen."

An audio recording of Jamie Dimon slamming remote work is going viral, and work-from-home supporters and naysayers alike are sounding off.

On Elon Musk's social media platform X, some users applauded the JPMorgan Chase CEO's defense of the bank's 5-day RTO requirement, which was first posted online by financial news publication Barrons.

"I'm with Jamie," Quentin Kasseh, CEO of data and AI company Syntaxia, posted on X, adding that "no breakthrough like the Manhattan Project is built on Zoom calls."

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman also cheered Dimon on. "He is entirely right," Ackman posted on X, adding: "We can all learn from him. A must listen."

The audio recording, which Business Insider obtained and confirmed, has amassed 1.7 million views and counting on TikTok alone. In it, Dimon uses multiple expletives and anecdotes, some drawing laughter, to explain to staffers in the room why remote work is a detriment to his company.

"A lot of you were on the fucking Zoom and you were doing the following," Dimon said in the recording, "looking at your mail, sending texts to each other about what an asshole the other person is, not paying attention, not reading your stuff."

He made clear he wouldn't be flexible with the bank's COVID-era hybrid-work policy that is scheduled to end in March.

"And don't give me this shit that work-from-home-Friday works," Dimon said. "I call a lot of people on Fridays, and there's not a goddamn person you can get a hold of."

As Business Insider reported in January, JPMorgan has called all its workers back to the office five days a week starting in March. The return-to-office mandate affects less than 30% of the bank's employees, mostly back-office workers, including tech staffers.

Some viewers of the video used it as an opportunity to defend remote work.

"WFH is SO much better," one TikTok user said. "I can type notes while in a meeting. I have more energy from not commuting, and I'm more productive overall."

"Newsflash, we do those things in the office as well," said another TikTok user.

Some people suggested that the real problem is an endless stream of pointless work meetings.

"The damn unnecessary meeting is the epitome of inefficiency," one TikTok user said. "Can't stand the 7 hours of meetings that turn an 8-hour day into 12 cause nothing getting done during those meetings."

Do you work for JPMorgan? Reach this reporter at [email protected] or, for sensitive messages, on the encrypted app Signal at 305-857-5516.

• Wall Street's marathon interview process for summer interns is underway.
• Goldman Sachs partner Eric Jordan offers his top tips.
• His advice includes finding your "hook," and being prepared to think on your feet.

The interview marathon known as "superdays" is officially underway for aspiring investment bankers, Business Insider has learned.

Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Jefferies, have begun conducting final-round interviews for college students vying for 2026 summer internships, according to people with direct knowledge of the interviews who asked to remain anonymous to protect their relationships at the banks.

Superdays are an industry term for interview events that take place at the end of the internship recruiting process. It comes after the students have already submitted a formal application, networked with bankers, and completed some sort of intro assessment or interview (like a HireVue video). Superdays can be intense, requiring students to go through three or more as many as half a dozen back-to-back interviews back with bankers of the firm they're applying to. In years past, firms have even flown students out to their headquarters to participate. (This year, many interviews, including those at Goldman Sachs, are taking place virtually via Zoom.)

In an effort to understand how Wall Street hopefuls can put their best foot forward during these high-pressure, rapid-fire events, BI spoke to a partner at Goldman Sachs who has been heavily involved in the firm's campus recruiting strategy for years. Eric Jordan, global co-head of investment grade capital markets and derivatives at Goldman, has conducted many superday interviews and still plays a role in picking which internship applicants get to spend the summer with his team.

"The reason I think that it's exciting for students is, at Goldman, we're looking to grow athletes," Jordan said of the firm's apprenticeship approach in an interview with BI.

Goldman, for its part, gets tens of thousands of applicants each year. For their 2024 programs, they got more than 315,000 applications to internships across the bank globally — and less than 1% were chosen. To become one of those people, Jordan's advice includes finding your "hook," and being prepared to think on your feet. He also offers insight into the qualities his team looks for in a potential intern candidate, including a level of professionalism and the ability to make an impression.

"You want the person that interviews you to walk away saying, I'd like this person on my team. I'd like to sit next to this person," he said.

Prepare for all kinds of questions

It's common in the investment-banking internship recruiting process for applicants to use study guides containing potential interview questions to help them prepare or to turn to social media forums like Wall Street Oasis to find information based on other people's experiences. While Jordan says such preparation is necessary and shows dedication, he cautions that there is no one list of questions you can memorize to hack the system because it's always changing.

Plus, he said, his team is more focused on how students solve problems and demonstrate teamwork.

"I like the majority of the interview to be more of, let's just understand how this person thinks," he said, adding that many of Goldman's businesses need people who can be "spontaneously innovative and creative."

Some of the teams Jordan manages — like the derivatives business in investment banking — are very technical so interviews might include more math or finance-specific questions. But in general, Jordan says his approach is to avoid asking questions that test whether students already know how to do the job.

"A lot of the prep is around what does Goldman Sachs do, why is it interesting to you, and what have you been doing, whether it's school or outside of school, that demonstrates that you have a legitimate interest," he said. "Outside of that, I discourage the folks on my teams from really focusing on the 'take me through' finance questions."

Have a 'hook'

Investment banking attracts top students from the best schools with lots of resources. Everyone has high GPAs and is involved in their school finance club, and everyone has access to loads of information, thanks to the internet.

"We're dealing with people who have excellent grades, they're getting great degrees," said Jordan. "And even if you're not, for instance, a finance major or an engineer, students today are savvy."

Jordan suggests applicants take the time to think about what differentiates them and try to convey that in the interview.

"Being able to really show what you're about and what you're good at and leave a lasting impression is what will differentiate you," he added.

Jordan refers to this as the "hook that will allow the people that meet you to remember you, be impressed by you." Your "hook," he said, should translate into qualities a Goldman banker would want in a colleague.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a finance thing," said Jordan. "If you are an incredible ballet dancer or you make the best dehydrated fruit; people that are super intellectually curious, they're detail-oriented, and they perfect processes — this is ultimately what our clients want."

This is part of why student athletes tend to do well in banking recruiting, said Jordan.

"It's not just because they're so good at sports and they were better than the other people that did it. A lot of it is the dedication that needs to happen," Jordan said. "It shows a drive, and that generally translates really well."

If you're not a student-athlete or someone with an otherwise particularly impressive passion, think about what makes you, well, you. Go from there.

"By the time you get to the superday, you are who you are. And so make sure to think about what makes you special. Your friends and family — what would they say about you?" Jordan said.

Are you, for example, a really great friend? Tell a couple of stories about what makes you a particularly great friend, and show how those qualities would also serve you and your team in an investment banking job.

"Making sure you've distilled the best parts of you, with humility and in a way that's personable," he said.

Manage your anxiety

It's not an exaggeration to say that a student's performance in these interviews can literally determine the course of their career. That's because these summer internships are the most direct way to land a full-time job offer at these uber-competitive investment banks.

If the stress wasn't high enough, Jordan said students attending Goldman's superdays are usually interviewed by two bankers at once. The interviewers are usually senior associates, VPs, and MD-level bankers — folks who have been at the firm for several years — and the Goldman applicants have to go through three rounds of those two-person interviews.

Jordan said a key measure of success is how you handle all that pressure. Your ability to control stress can be an indication of how you'll handle the often demanding, high-speed nature of a junior banker's job.

"We totally understand why it's anxiety-producing. It's one of those important moments in life when you do these interviews," he said. "But you want to show that you can have a good conversation and be yourself."

That said, trying to make a good impression can also lead some students to go too far in the other direction, explained Jordan. You have to strike the right balance between being relaxed and unserious.

"I would be cautious about being too casual. It's important to be yourself, but remember that you are interviewing at a professional organization."

Be consistent

Jordan said it's important to be consistent in all your interviews because afterward, the bankers who asked the questions will get together to compare notes.

"We try to make sure that they're comparing them in a relatively consistent way," he said. "The types of questions we ask about the candidates are meant to be similar so that what we're looking for and the way they're being evaluated is as fair as possible."

Jordan says he still helps his teams make final offer decisions on would-be interns, sitting in to "make sure that we've got the right balance" of people and skills.

"The conversation is really around the group reaching consensus," he said. "Was there consistency in the answers? Did they convey the same kind of message? Did people walk away taking the same thing from the conversation? It goes a little bit like that."

• Goldman Sachs killed a policy requiring its IPO clients to have at least 2 diverse board members.
• Company reps said the change was prompted by a legal ruling over Nasdaq's board diversity initiative.
• A Tulane law professor questioned whether the Nasdaq ruling applies to Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs on Tuesday terminated a policy requiring its IPO clients to have at least two diverse board members, citing a December court ruling over a similar initiative at the Nasdaq stock exchange.

"As a result of legal developments related to board diversity requirements, we ended our formal board diversity policy," said Goldman spokesman Tony Fratto. "We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we will encourage them to take this approach."

In December, a federal appeals court made waves when it struck down Nasdaq's efforts to get companies to diversify their boards.

Goldman embarked on a legal review of its policy following the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, a spokesperson said. As the review was taking place, the bank took two companies public that did not meet those requirements: Titan America, a company that provides materials for construction, and Venture Global, a liquified natural gas producer.

Ann Lipton, a Tulane University law professor, meanwhile, questioned whether the Nasdaq ruling, which centered on the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a government agency, applies to companies like Goldman Sachs.

"The Fifth Circuit said Nasdaq as an exchange under SEC oversight can't require it," Lipton told BI. "It said nothing about what underwriters can require of clients."

The appeals court ruled that the SEC overstepped its authority by approving the stock exchange's diversity rules. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 says the SEC's job is "to protect investors" and "promote competition," not make decisions about the makeup of corporate boards, the panel of judges said. Nasdaq did not appeal the December decision.

Still, Goldman's move follows rollbacks of other DEI initiatives by large US corporations, including Meta, Target, and Walmart. Goldman has historically been among the top banks taking companies public worldwide.

Goldman adopted its board diversity initiative in 2020 as CEO David Solomon vowed to work only with IPO clients that have at least one diverse board member. The next year, Goldman bumped that requirement up to two.

Around the same time, Goldman created a position dedicated to helping clients find diverse board members, which managing director Ilana Wolfe filled.

During her time as head of corporate board engagement, Wolfe and her team have placed about 125 diverse people on Goldman clients' boards.

The bank plans to continue to offer board placement service, a spokesperson said.

"I thought, 'it's great we put out this commitment, but wouldn't it be even greater if we were part of the solution and helped our clients get there?'" Wolfe told Insider in 2023.

Goldman's change of policy was reported earlier on Tuesday by Bloomberg.

• Robert Steel has been a Goldman partner, undersecretary of the US Treasury, and CEO of two banks.
• As vice chair of Perella Weinberg, he's been advising BlackRock on its alternative-asset expansion.
• He talked to BI about his career, his friendship with Larry Fink, and why he doesn't want to retire.

Robert Steel has had the kind of career most people on Wall Street only dream about.

He spent 30 years at powerhouse investment bank Goldman Sachs, where he rose to partner before "retiring" in 2004. In 2006, he became undersecretary of the US Treasury under President George W. Bush and helped prepare the government's response to what became the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. He stepped in as CEO of troubled bank Wachovia during the darkest days of that crisis and later served as Deputy Mayor for economic development of New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Since 2014, Steel has helped lead boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg, first as CEO and now as vice chairman. Last year, he helped the firm score a role as a top advisor to BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, in its expansion into alternative assets.

Specifically, Steel worked with longtime friend Larry Fink on two recent acquisitions tied to BlackRock's expansion into investments traditionally reserved for the uberwealthy: Its $12.5 billion purchase of private-equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and its $12 billion purchase of private-credit giant HPS Investment Partners (HPS).

Steel said BlackRock's latest acquisitions were driven by its leadership's conviction that time was of the essence.

"I think the BlackRock people had what I would describe as a pretty courageous point of view that the opportunity was, for now, significant," he said, adding: "So they'd rather not take the time to build. They'd rather buy and be a strong participant right away."

The spate of deals, including a $3.2-billion acquisition of data provider Preqin, has led some on Wall Street to describe Blackrock's ambitions as potentially game-changing. Marc Rowan, the CEO of private-equity giant Apollo Global Management, recently pointed to the deals as evidence of a new investment paradigm that will meld the realms of publicly traded stocks and bonds with so-called private investments.

"Our industry grew up where I think people thought private was risky and public was safe," Rowan said on a quarterly earnings call. BlackRock, he added, "has delivered a wakeup call to their entire peer set that private is going to be an important part of client solutions going forward."

Business Insider sat down with Steel to talk about his long and storied career, his recent work helping BlackRock expand into alternative assets, his advice to the next generation of bankers, and why retirement is not on his to-do list.

Friends for 20 years

Steel and Larry Fink, BlackRock's founder and CEO, have been friends for about 20 years. They first got to know each other around 2006, Steel said, while he was Treasury undersecretary in Washington.

They've supported some of the same causes over the years, including as cosigners of a public letter in support of Mayor Adams' public safety and crime reduction efforts in 2022. They're also both on the executive committee of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit that seeks to maintain the city's position as an economic and cultural hub.

Steel said he got involved in Blackrock's expansion when Fink invited him and his team to assist with a non-alts project that "didn't come to fruition," without saying what it was.

Steel and Perella soon became part of the team Fink relied on for advice about expanding into alternative assets.

"When he was thinking about people to help with these transactions and give him advice, he thought of me and our firm," Steel said.

Given Steel's long history with Wall Street, he ended up knowing people on both sides of the transactions. HPS was co-founded by Scott Kapnick, Goldman Sachs' former head of investment banking, while GIP's chairman, Adebayo Ogunlesi, was previously a Goldman board member.

"This was a case where I knew the people in BlackRock, I knew the people at GIP, and I knew the people at HPS," he told BI. "So I was involved intensely all the way through."

In describing his role in the deals, he said: "I wasn't writing documents and arguing with lawyers, but I was basically trying to provide momentum to the transaction and to understand the pros and cons and the challenges. And I think I was pretty central to that."

A BlackRock spokesman confirmed Perella's role in the HPS and GIP acquisitions and declined to comment on whether the firm plans to buy more companies in a space that Fink has called "critical" to the firm's growth.

"Private market assets are an increasingly vital part of capital markets," Fink said in the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in January. "And blending both public and private markets will be critical to fully capturing growth opportunities."

Teamwork is a key to a satisfying career

Steel said he came from "a very middle-class background" in Durham, North Carolina, with no connections to Wall Street. As a student at nearby Duke University, he had little interest in finance.

"I steered away from math and science and quantitative things in undergraduate school," said Steel, who majored in history and political science.

Eventually, that changed. He started in institutional sales at Goldman Sachs in 1976 (and remedied his quantitative knowledge by enrolling in the University of Chicago's nighttime MBA program a few years later). Ever since, Steel said, the biggest theme of his career has been collaboration and teamwork.

He pointed to the late 1980s, when he and his team at Goldman launched an ECM division in Europe, as an example.

"The idea of setting strategy for equities and then finding the right people to help lead and execute that was pretty extraordinary," he said. "Goldman Sachs was not very well known in the continent, and we built businesses and built a brand, and I think were pretty successful."

Steel was soon made a Goldman partner, and about six years later, he moved back to New York to co-lead the US Equities Division.

"I was lucky enough to be in a place where the firm was growing and creating new opportunities where I don't think I had one job for 30 years — I think I had half a dozen jobs for five years," he said.

Lessons from high-pressure public roles

While Goldman taught Steel teamwork, Washington DC taught him about working under fire.

"You're doing a lot of things for the first time and you don't really know what's going to work, what's not going to work," he said. "So trying to figure that out so you can hopefully prevent something like a mean-spirited recession is a lot of responsibility, and so that was a pretty challenging time."

Moving from the private to the public sector also required adjustments in other ways. He explained that authority in the corporate world is clearly assigned, ending with the CEO. In government, authority is shared due to checks and balances.

"When you're solving the same puzzles in the public sector, that success generally comes more slowly and takes more time and often requires a bit of compromise — different than the corporate world," he said.

Steel was CEO of Perella between 2014 and 2019, and the firm worked on some notable transactions during that time, including AT&T's $108.7 billion purchase of Time Warner in 2016 and iHeartMedia's $16 billion bankruptcy restructuring in 2019.

As vice chairman, Steel is part of Perella's board of directors and helps with the strategic direction of the firm along with Chairman Peter Weinberg, a founding partner, and Andrew Bednar, who took over the CEO role from Weinberg in 2002.

Words of wisdom for young Wall Street

Although Steel, 73, has certainly earned the right to retire, he told BI he has zero interest in spending his days on a golf course or lounging at a beach.

"I'll take time away over the holidays, but the idea of doing nothing seems pretty uninteresting," he said. "I think the goal is to wear out, not rust out."

"I have friends that are really happy at a different rhythm, and I have no judgments," he said. "But it wouldn't be for me."

Steel, however, appreciates the flexibility the pandemic has introduced to the corporate world, including banking. Early on in his career, he said, the pressure behind constant face time was, at times, overkill.

"I think 'presentism' is maybe a bit overvalued. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be focused, committed, and available, but the idea that every day I had to be in before my boss and stay until after he left," he said, "I think that's moderated a bit, which I think is a good thing."

His main advice to young people is to become an integral and irreplaceable part of your company or team. He said you must think beyond the day-to-day tasks to get there.

"Thinking about how what you're doing fits into a bigger picture and understanding that perspective is a good tool," he said.

• The biggest hedge funds are battling it out to attract and retain top talent and outperform peers.
• Business Insider has talked to elite hedge funds to get a peek into their recruiting processes.
• From internships to high-paying tech jobs, here's what we know about their hiring practices.

The war for hedge fund talent cuts across all levels and positions, with firms like Citadel, Point72, and Millennium constantly competing to gain an edge in a cutthroat industry.

These behemoth funds are now putting serious time and resources into recruiting for internship and training programs to create a steady employee pipeline. Steve Cohen's Point72 and Ken Griffin's Citadel recently opened applications for their 2026 summer internships to undergrad students.

Eye-popping pay, challenging work environments, and the promise of working with some of the best investors in the industry can make them an attractive employment option.

Internships at quant fund D.E. Shaw, for example, can pay up to $22,000. Salaries for entry-level analysts and software engineers are often in the six-figure range. Portfolio managers with winning strategies can take home millions.

Business Insider has talked to some of the biggest hedge-fund managers about how they attract talent, as well as their advice to prospective hires.

Here's everything we know about getting a job at a large hedge fund.

Internships

Years ago, the opaque and secretive world of hedge funds might not have been an obvious career choice for most college graduates. However, these investing behemoths are now investing in getting young, diverse wunderkinder, especially mathletes, familiar with their brands as soon as high school.

Internships are another talent pipeline for some of the biggest multi-strategy hedge funds, which employ armies of traders and engineers. Programs can be uber-competitive and harder to get into than many top Ivy League schools.

Citadel's summer internship program, for example, has become increasingly competitive. Last year, the hedge fund accepted around 300 interns to spend 11 weeks at Griffin's hedge fund or his market maker, working with stock-pickers, quants, engineers, and more. The firm told BI that there were more than 85,000 applicants for the programs, with an acceptance rate of roughly 0.5%.

• Here's how to land a spot at Citadel's summer internship
• Citadel's associate program is a separate internship that puts rising college seniors on track to land a full-time investing role at the $66 billion fund.
• Ken Griffin's advice to interns: Hustle during your 20s and be aggressive when asking for a promotion

We also spoke to Point72 and D.E. Shaw about what they looked for in interns and how to stand out for a potential job offer down the line.

• Here's what it takes to stand out as an intern at Steve Cohen's Point72 and land a job offer
• A D.E. Shaw internship could land a dream gig at the secretive hedge fund. Here's what it takes.

Analyst and investment training programs

In the past, hedge funds acquired investment talent from investment banks. Increasingly, however, the industry's top players are recruiting college students through intensive training programs that can lead to jobs straight out of college.

Creating a pipeline of portfolio managers has been an increasingly popular strategy for hedge funds locked in an increasingly expensive battle for top talent.

• How to get accepted into Point72's ultra-elite analyst training program, whose acceptance rate is less than 1%
• Inside Point72's PM incubator LaunchPoint, where Steve Cohen is known to grill up-and-comers who think they're ready for the big time
• Inside Balyasny's Anthem training program, where aspiring portfolio managers are handed hundreds of millions of dollars to prove they can cut it
• Behind the training programs at Balyasny, which is looking to get ahead in the war for investment talent

Tech jobs and training programs

Hedge funds have long been competing with the finance industry and top tech companies for top technologists. Engineers and algorithm developers are key to helping researchers, data scientists, and traders develop cutting-edge investment strategies and platforms. Quant shop D.E. Shaw also has a unique approach to finding talent.

• Inside Citadel's exclusive engineering program that's helped the hedge fund snap up talent from Google and Goldman Sachs
• Here's how to get a tech job at Millennium, from the programming language to know to the interview questions to prep for
• Millennium is on the hunt for engineers in Miami. A top tech exec for the $58 billion hedge fund details the firm's new training program.
• Inside Man Group's popular training program for non-tech employees that teaches them skills to automate tasks and reduce errors in their work

Other resources and advice

Here's a look at how some firms find and vet new employees, what skills and qualities they're looking for …

• Why quant giant D.E. Shaw seeks out academics, doctors, and veterans to work at the hedge fund
• Citadel portfolio manager explains how he rose in the ranks of the hedge fund and what he looks for in a new hire
• Inside the 5-hour psychological interview that can make or break your career at Citadel, Blackstone, and other finance titans

• Inside the spycraft hedge funds use to vet multimillion-dollar traders, which is edging into murky legal territory

  ... and a rundown of some of the gatekeepers to know:

• The rise of the hedge-fund talent whisperers
• The talent brokers of quant trading: The headhunters at the forefront of Wall Street's systematic-trading and data-science hiring frenzy
• Try our searchable database of more than 350 Wall Street headhunters to find your dream job in private equity, investment banking, or hedge funds

• A 28-year-old tech banker for Jefferies died this week. The cause of death is unknown, police said.
• His body was found Monday at a residential address, according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner.
• Dallas police are investigating it as an "unexplained death," a spokesperson told BI.

Carter McIntosh, an investment banker at Jefferies Financial Group's Dallas office, was discovered dead on Monday, prompting a police investigation, Business Insider has learned.

The body of the 28-year-old banker, who was assigned to the firm's team covering technology, media, and telecommunications companies, was found at a residential apartment building called Bell Knox District, according to records from the Dallas County Medical Examiner's office.

Medical records viewed by BI on Tuesday said McIntosh's body was discovered on Monday at about 11 a.m. The records did not list a cause of death, and a spokesperson for Dallas' police department said it's still unknown.

"Based on the date, approximate time, and location, this incident is being investigated as an unexplained death," Michael Dennis, a public-information officer for the Dallas police, told BI via email on Tuesday.

Jefferies CEO Richard Handler and the firm's president, Brian Friedman, addressed the death in an internal memo to staff on Tuesday.

"It is with tremendous sadness that we report we learned yesterday that Carter McIntosh, one of our talented associates in Dallas, has passed away," a copy of the memo obtained by BI said. "Our most sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and colleagues. We are in touch with Carter's family, who know we stand ready to support them in any way we can."

Before joining Jefferies, where he worked as an investment-banking associate, McIntosh worked at other financial-services firms, his LinkedIn page says. He was in the industry's most junior rank, analyst, at the firm Moelis & Co. until June 2023, the profile says. Before that, it says he was an equity-research analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York until spring 2021.

He joined Jefferies in September 2023, the page says.

McIntosh attended Seton Hall University in New Jersey, his LinkedIn account also says, where he graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in finance.

Here's the memo Handler and Friedman sent about McIntosh's death:

Subject: With Deep Sadness

It is with tremendous sadness that we report we learned yesterday that Carter McIntosh, one of our talented associates in Dallas, has passed away. Our most sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and colleagues.

We are in touch with Carter's family, who know we stand ready to support them in any way we can. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we hope that Carter's memory is a blessing to them during this very sad time.

And for all of you who knew Carter or who are impacted by his untimely passing, please remember that we have resources available to support you in your time of need. We know from experience that these resources both provide solace and help you process the natural grief we all feel. To receive access to one-on-one confidential support with a mental health counselor, please reach out to our wellness partners.

Reed Alexander is a correspondent at Business Insider who can be reached via email at [email protected] or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at 561-247-5758. Emmalyse Brownstein is a reporter who can be reached via email at [email protected] or SMS/Signal at 305-857-5516.

• Micah Nance started at Citadel in 2012 as an associate and was named a partner in 2023.
• He and his team are responsible for investing billions across tech and media at Surveyor Capital.
• He walked BI through his daily routine, leadership style, and what he looks for in a new hire.

Micah Nance likes when his direct reports tell him he's wrong.

"We spend a lot of time debating very constructively," the Citadel portfolio manager told Business Insider.

He encourages his analysts to question and correct him and does not shy away from scheduling multiple one-on-one meetings with them a week to hash out investment ideas and exchange feedback.

"It is OK for anyone to say to me, 'Hey, that statement does not make sense. I don't understand. I think it's incorrect," he said. "Here's why I will never be offended by that: No one on the team has been wrong more than me."

Nance is a 13-year vet of Surveyor Capital, one of the stock-picking businesses at $65 billion hedge fund Citadel. He started at Citadel in 2012 as an associate. About eight years later, at age 35, he became a portfolio manager, and by 2023, he was named a partner.

Nance manages a team of nine analysts and associates out of Citadel's Dallas office. Together they cover about 150 tech and media companies and are entrusted with investing "billions of dollars" of firm capital (Citadel declined to give an exact number).

In addition to encouraging debate, Nance said he also seeks to limit the pressure his team might feel to get results to because he believes it leads to better analysis.

"I'm not perfect, and I don't always do everything as well as I'd like, but I want to inject zero excess stress into our decision-making," he explained.

Philip Lee, the head of Surveyor Capital, said Nance's leadership style has helped him stand out at the hedge fund giant, which has consistently ranked among the top-performing funds and saw a 15.1% gain in its flagship Wellington fund last year.

"A good portfolio manager generates extraordinary returns. A great one also develops extraordinary talent," said Lee.

Nance, 40, sat down with Business Insider to talk about his rise at the world's largest hedge fund, what it takes to work at a place like Citadel, and what he looks for when hiring talent. He also walked BI through his daily routine and what it's like to work in Dallas.

Covering tech in Dallas

Nance started his career at Morgan Stanley in equity research in 2007, a path he had to forge largely of his own volition.

As a student at Texas A&M — not exactly an epicenter for Wall Street recruitment — he wasn't a shoo-in for big-time finance jobs. He grew up in nearby Arlington, and before showing up at Morgan Stanely's headquarters in 2006 for internship interviews, had never stepped foot in New York City. But indeed, he got the internship, and then a job offer. Nance spent five years covering tech and media stocks like Disney and CBS for the bank.

Before joining Citadel, Nance didn't expect to return to his home state, he said. But in 2012, a Citadel portfolio manager who was a client of his at the bank was about to launch a new fund at Surveyor in Dallas. Nance soon became the first hire for the team.

"I was at a point where I was looking to move to the buy-side, and I thought that the coverage fit, the individual fit, the opportunity for growth was there, and the path ahead was exciting — and that's before I even factored in the location," he said.

Today, the Dallas office is home to multiple investment teams and a handful of support staff. The office occupies one floor of a building in what's known as the "uptown" neighborhood. Nance and his family — a wife and two young daughters — live nearby.

"People like living here. It's a great place to be a young person, it's a great place to raise a family, and it's a great place to do this job," he said.

Working for a hedge fund with most of its workforce in Miami and New York and covering companies that are largely based on the West Coast comes with challenges. Nance said he does a fair amount of traveling to attend industry conferences, visit Citadel's other offices, and spend time with the management teams of his coverage companies. He also sees upside to being outside the tech or financial epicenters.

"I think one of the things that I've found is I'm not in any sort of echo chamber," he said. "I'm able to do my work and build my conviction and think with duration and not be influenced by a crowd of other like-minded individuals all the time."

What it takes to work at Citadel

Nance starts most days at around 5:30 a.m. and tries to squeeze in some tennis before work to keep himself sharp and in shape.

"We're decision-makers, and I think the better we are mentally and physically, and the happier and more fulfilled we are, the stronger our decision-making capabilities will be."

He typically gets to the office around 7:30 a.m., and from there spends most of his day managing his team and keeping tabs on the stocks they cover. That means knowing what's going on at as many of those companies as he can, including on a macro-economic and geopolitical level.

Managing a portfolio for a hedge fund is a high-stakes job. PMs are responsible for their team's investment decisions and returns to the tune of millions, if not billions, of dollars. A PM's book of business will be determined by his or her success as judged by top brass — often the firm's founder.

"I'm talking to companies, I'm talking to industry participants, we're talking to experts about a specific business line or company," Nance said of his day-to-day job. "I'm trying to digest all of the research products that a large team creates across 150 stocks, and every day I'm trying to do a better job than I did the day before."

He said he normally leaves the office in time for dinner with his family. But the night usually doesn't end without him sneaking in some work from home.

"A lot of nights, I have more work to do," he said. "I'm reading, I'm reviewing, I'm responding to emails or ideas, and trying to ensure that I'm giving timely feedback and asking thoughtful questions. Then I try to get enough rest so I can wake up and do it again the next day and every single day after that."

Career Advice from a PM

Although investing is an analytical job, Nance believes that emotional intelligence is actually a key to success when it comes to picking stocks.

"Ultimately, we're decision-makers, and we're talking about transacting in a public equity market, and the reality is human beings are on the other side making decisions," he said. "What we want to be able to do is understand how other rational human beings will process information over time."

When hiring, Nance looks for candidates who are good debaters, but also composed.

"Pushback can be useful, but when someone is looking for an argument or gets overly emotional in an interview, that's not a positive sign," he said.

He also leans into applicants who have multi-faceted resumes and life experiences.

"I really value people who have done interesting things, who are not just one-trick ponies in terms of 'I'm super smart, and I'm super quantitative,' and that's it," he said. "My experience is that people with more varied experiences often have a higher ceiling over time."

Nance's advice for aspiring traders is to be "somebody who wants to constantly learn, who's willing to grow, and who's flexible but also able to express conviction."

He added: "Nothing replicates or replaces hard work. It's a bit cliche, but it's true. There's no way to build experience except to have experience over a long period of time."

The energy Nance has spent guiding the next generation of traders has already seen some pay off: One of his former analysts recently spun off as a PM with his own book of trades. The two teams work side-by-side in the Dallas office.

Nance says he takes inspiration from Matt Janiga, a Citadel PM who was never Nance's boss or manager but acted as his mentor nonetheless.

"There's no limit to what kindness is going to bring over the course of your career. I've certainly benefited from it and I hope to pass it on every single day to the people I interact with," said Nance.

• Investment banks are hiring for 2026 summer interns, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.
• First-round interviews are underway in some cases, Business Insider has learned.
• Here's how to ace the HireVue screening process and score a competitive Wall Street internship.

The annual race for summer investment-banking internships is kicking off across Wall Street.

Applications for 2026 summer jobs opened earlier this month at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, RBC, Lazard, and Evercore, according to their website career portals. And some banks have already started sending applicants invitations to complete first-round interviews via HireVue, Business Insider has learned.

"It's a little bit like drinking water from a fire hose," said Meridith Dennes, an investment banking recruiter, of the Wall Street internship process. "There's so much stuff — it's really confusing, and it's changing all the time."

HireVue is a job screening tool many banks use to determine which candidates will get invitations for in-person interviews. Dennes said she is coaching some students who recently received invitations to do HireVue interviews, and Wall Street blogs are filling up with posts by aspiring interns seeking insight into the questions they could be asked. Banks that have been known to use the platform include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo.

Landing a summer internship at a leading investment bank is often the starting point for a high-paying and prestigious career on Wall Street, including for those who move on from investment banking to private-equity dealmaking or hedge-fund trading. The process is super competitive. Indeed, Goldman received so many applicants for the 2024 class that its hire rate dropped to under 1% last year.

To score a spot, you must compete with hundreds of thousands of applicants and nail every stage of the process, including the HireVue interview. Goldman Sachs' head of talent acquisition told BI in a 2023 interview that thjope bank uses HireVue to decide who should attend their "Super Day" — an industry-wide phenomenon for interviewing many job candidates in a single setting.

To help applicants ace this screening, BI has compiled tips from industry insiders, including Dennes, Jaylyn Jones, a former campus recruiter for JPMorgan who now works for Duolingo, and Nathan Mondragon of HireVue. They explain how to channel your favorite influencers as a hack for on-camera appeal, how to navigate some of the software's tools, and what questions you can expect to be asked.

How it works

HireVue is a software that conducts and records one-way interviews. The platform will ask you a question, give you a set amount of time to prepare your answer, and then start recording your response. For banks, the interviews will generally consist of four to seven questions, said Dennes.

After you've been asked a question, you will have 20 to 30 seconds to think about and prepare your answer, explained Jones, who helps the language-learning app DuoLingo find students for software engineering and product management roles. HireVue will give you one to three minutes to answer, depending on the question, she added.

"While they can be a little nerve-wracking, on-demand video interviews are a great way to shorten the hiring process and increase fairness so you can start your first day as soon as possible," Mondragon, HireVue's Chief Innovation Officer and IO Psychologist, told BI via email.

Use practice mode

Most HireVue invitations include a practice feature. Use it to familiarize yourself with all the tools and buttons before your interview begins.

"Utilize the practice questions and other preparation tools offered within the interview platform," added Mondragon. "Only you can see your practice recordings, so use them fully."

HireVue's candidate help center explains it like this: "You can access practice questions by clicking the link from your invitation email and following the prompts until presented with the option to 'Try a Practice Question'. This should not start your interview."

You should also practice answering timed questions while recording yourself well before logging into HireVue, Dennes said.

"The best way to prepare for a HireVue is to take a list of standard questions from your school career center or online and then bullet out your answers," she said. "Then run a mock interview process where you use your phone or a stopwatch and you give yourself 30 to 60 seconds to prepare and 90 seconds to answer."

Practicing with a timer is key.

"You will be surprised at how fast 90 seconds go by if you don't know what you're saying," Dennes said, adding: "You'll be cut off and you won't be able to get to the point."

Move fast and be professional

Dennes suggested that candidates aim to submit their interviews within 48 hours of getting the invitation, even if they have a much longer deadline to turn it in. Think of it this way: Banks want to hire people who really want to work for them.

"If you're one of the first people to submit and you're a strong candidate, it shows you have a commitment to this firm," said Dennes.

Dress professionally and make sure you are seated in a professional setting, Jones and Dennes agreed.

"I recently spoke to a client who told me that a kid showed up in a green flannel shirt. No!" Dennes said. She suggested candidates put on a tie, a dress, or a nice sweater. "I don't know why it's not obvious, but it isn't," she added.

Interviewing at home is OK if you can't find a space that's more professional, but make sure it's presentable, said Jones.

"Filming in your dorm room is totally normal," she said. "But we don't want to see alcohol bottles in the back of your videos, especially if you're presumably not of legal drinking age."

If you have a messy bedroom, blur the background. And sit in a real chair, she said.

"I've seen students do HireVues physically in the bed, like, laying down," added Jones. "I've heard some students say 'Oh I thought it was AI so if I just said enough buzzwords no one was going to watch it.'"

Channel your inner influencer

Even if you aren't the type of person to post a reel or TikTok, pretend you are for a few minutes, Jones said. Channel your favorite influencers or pretend you're FaceTiming a friend or family member. There's a way to speak professionally without coming off as mechanical or boring. That's the energy you should aim for, she said — relaxed, relatable, and energetic.

"There's something about just being able to speak naturally," she said. "Yes, I'm talking to a camera and recording it, but it does not have to be this weird robotic, cue-card vibe."

An easy way to keep up your energy is to remember to smile when speaking and raise the pitch of your voice slightly. Tap into the "Hi guys, welcome back to my channel!" energy of YouTube creators, said Jones — without sounding disingenuous or hokey.

Use bulleted notes versus scripted answers

Use preparation time and the time in between takes to jot down your key talking points rather than trying to write out exact lines to read, the experts said.

"What we want to avoid is the candidates reading word for word a script out loud of the answer," said Jones. "I don't think they realize that we can see their eyes tracking across the screen."

Dennes, the Wall Street headhunter, suggested writing down the questions as they're being asked to make sure you are truly responding to them. Then use those bullet points from the earlier preparation for your answers.

"It's akin to a debate format where you would be asked a question, write it down, and then present your answer."

Take advantage of the redo tool

Many companies give applicants the opportunity to re-record every question at least once, said Jones. Figure out if you have redos before starting and, if so, how many. Then take advantage of it.

A little-utilized trick: There's no time limit between your first take and your redo, so if you don't like your first take, you could spend as long as you want to sit there and think through your answer before recording the second take.

Once you run out of redos, however, the software will submit the last take as your recorded response.

"You can't take it back, you can't undo it, so you really wanna make sure if you're gonna do a redo that you've kind of thought through what you're going to do with that redo," said Jones.

A common mistake, she said, is accidentally hitting "submit" instead of "redo" or "record."

"I had a candidate who accidentally recorded himself Facetiming his friend for help with the answers because he thought he was in between takes."

Research sample questions

Some questions, according to Dennes, may include:

• Give an example of an experience where you've worked within a team.
• Tell us about a time you handled a contentious situation. What was your approach?
• Why [insert bank name here]?
• Tell us about an article you read recently that you were interested in and why?
• What is your greatest weakness?

The "greatest weakness" question is a common fumble, she added.

"You cannot say, 'I am a perfectionist.' Come up with an actual weakness, but one that's fixable or redeemable," she said.

She also stressed the importance of being prepared to answer "Why [insert bank name here]." This is where pre-application networking and coffee chats can really help. It can be advantageous to briefly mention some of the people at the bank you've met or spoken to and what you've gathered in your networking about what makes the firm special and why it aligns with you as a person.

As Lazard's head of recruiting, Danielle Dodgen, told BI in a 2023 interview, this question can often make or break a candidate's chance at moving on to the next round.

"It sounds so simple, but it's really important to be able to convey to the interviewer, 'This is my story, this is how I got here, and this is why I'm pursuing this path,'" said Dodgen. "There are instances where, if candidates haven't put much thought into the 'why,' it's pretty clear to interviewers."

Jones also stressed the importance of relating your experiences and achievements back to investment banking.

"Good candidates are able to give a concise, STAR-method answer that really lays out what they've done, what their actions were, what's the result," she said. "But great candidates then tie it back to the role."

• JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs had blockbuster performance numbers for the end of 2024.
• JPMorgan's profit rose 50%; Goldman's profit jumped 105%, led by higher investment-banking fees.
• Here's what it could mean for hiring across Wall Street in 2025.

Big banks posted blowout fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, led by a growing appetite for corporate financing, institutional trading, and dealmaking —  trends that could boost hiring in 2025.

JPMorgan Chase kicked off Wall Street's earnings season by reporting a 50% increase in profits, led by a 49% increase in investment-banking revenue over last year's fourth quarter, and double-digit growth in trading revenue. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, said profit for the three months that ended on December 31 rose 105%, driven by demand for corporate dealmaking and capital raising. And Citigroup showed a 35% increase in investment-banking revenue for the fourth quarter from a year ago.

The robust results follow several years of sagging demand for Wall Street's bread-and-butter businesses, layoffs, lower bonuses, and an overall muted environment for job hopping.

Now, the strong 2024 performances, particularly in trading, mean that annual bonuses could be as much as 35% higher from a year ago. Banks have started to share the bonus numbers with employees, as Business Insider reported last week.

More broadly, Wall Street headhunters say that hiring has been picking up in select areas in recent months, including junior-banking roles and back-office tech jobs. They expect the shift to continue in 2025.

"The 45% surge in Goldman's profits and CEO David Solomon's bullish outlook on M&A signals a notable shift in the hiring market," said Meridith Dennes, managing partner at Prospect Rock Partners recruiting firm. "Banks that aggressively downsized during the 2022 to 2023 slowdown are now selectively rebuilding their deal teams."

Of course, working on Wall Street could also get harder in 2025. The industry's notoriously long hours could intensify as demand for dealmaking and capital raising continues. At the same time, work-from-home options are shrinking, with JPMorgan last week telling employees on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week starting in March.

Here are 4 trends in financial-industry hiring that could spur Wall Street job growth in 2025:

Dealmakers

Following several years of muted dealmaking, demand for mergers and acquisitions has been picking up in recent months, driven by lower borrowing costs as interest rates decline. The M&A streak is expected to continue in 2025, aided by a more business-friendly regulatory regime under President-elect Donald Trump.

The uptick is already having an effect on hiring. As BI recently reported, John Weinberg, the chairman and CEO of the elite boutique investment bank Evercore, said in December that he's been spending an unusual amount of time on year-end hiring.

"Most of the time, you don't really do much recruiting in November or December," he said at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York. "If you could see my schedule, you'd see that virtually every day I am speaking with and recruiting" new talent, he said.

As for the jobs outlook, he said: "You could probably anticipate that our recruiting efforts will increase, not decrease."

Recruiters in December told BI that they have seen surging demand for M&A bankers in industries viewed as hot for deals, including tech, healthcare, restructuring, industrials, consumer retail, and financial institutions — a trend they expect to continue this year.

Junior bankers

Demand for junior investment-banking talent has also been picking up. Dennes, the headhunter, said that she is seeing especially strong demand for what she referred to as "the seasoned associate," but also at the vice-president level, who tend to sit in the middle of the investment-banking pecking order.

As BI reported in October, JPMorgan Chase ramped up off-cycle hiring for junior investment bankers late last year, according to people familiar with the bank's recruitment efforts and to its online jobs board. At the time of the report, a JPMorgan executive told BI that the bank was hiring across all levels of investment banking amid a bump in deal flow.

Whether the JPMorgan hiring boost will continue in 2025, however, remains to be seen. On Wednesday, the bank's chief financial officer, Jeremy Barnum, told investors that JPMorgan intends to keep headcount flat this year, following a 2% rise in staffing in 2024. That included a 3% rise in its asset- and wealth-management unit, according to company filings.

Goldman Sachs' careers portal, meanwhile, displays 15 open job listings for junior bankers in New York, London, and San Francisco, namely at the analyst and associate levels. In January, one open role called for an associate to cover deals for financial institutions and asset-management clients, while another sought an IB associate to focus on the entertainment sector. A third associate position was focused on executing general mergers and acquisitions.

IT jobs

Headhunters have said that an array of financial-services firms, from banks to hedge funds, are expected to boost tech hiring as they explore and build new artificial intelligence capabilities.

In July, JPMorgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon, said he expects to add thousands of AI-related jobs in the next few years. Hedge funds and proprietary-trading firms have also been getting into the act, shelling out big bucks, as much as $350,000 in annual salaries, to snag coveted AI researchers and engineers.

Some private-equity firms, meanwhile, have been paying up to $2 million, including base salary and bonus, for so-called AI operating executives, recruiters told BI last year.

See BI's top tips for landing a Wall Street tech job in 2025.

Private credit and financing

So-called private credit has been on a roll in recent years as more asset managers, like Apollo and Blackstone, pick up lending that banks increasingly deem too risky for their balance sheets.

Plus, there are signs that demand for nonbank loans will only intensify in 2025, as demand for corporate capital raising increases, including for M&A.

On Monday, Goldman Sachs announced a new structure to capitalize on growing demand for financing. Its new Capital Solutions Group is geared to provide alternative sources of lending to corporate clients as well as financial sponsors.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that hedge fund Point72 hired Todd Hirsch, a former Blackstone senior managing director, to build out its new private-credit business.

Goldman on Wednesday reported record results in fixed-income and equities financing, which includes capital raising on behalf of clients. Goldman's CEO referred to financing a "large strategic opportunity" for the bank, thanks to what he described as "important structural trends currently taking place in finance" including the emergence of private credit.

See BI's top do's and don'ts for landing a job in the burgeoning private-credit industry.

• JPMorgan told employees on Friday that their days of hybrid work were numbered.
• It said the five-day RTO mandate would start in March and affect roughly 30% of the bank's workforce.
• See the memo explaining the new policy and rationale.

JPMorgan on Friday told employees that hybrid work was largely over. In a memo issued by the bank's operating committee, the largest US bank by assets said it was calling all workers back to the office starting in March.

"Starting in March, we'll be asking most employees currently on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week," a copy of the memo obtained by Business Insider said. "As it stands, more than half of our workforce already comes into the office full-time."

A company spokesman said that roughly 70% of the bank's employees were already back in the office five days a week, while everyone else was in three or four days a week.

"We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision," the memo said, adding, "We think it is the best way to run the company."

JPMorgan, which had more than 300,000 employees in September, is the latest in a growing list of large companies to revert to pre-pandemic office norms. AT&T and Amazon have implemented similar five-day mandates starting this month.

JPMorgan's return-to-office policies have been slowly ratcheting up since the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned all managing directors — the highest rank outside the C-suite — to a five-day workweek in 2023.

The full memo sheds some light on the company's rationale:

Message from the Operating Committee

Dear colleagues,

We're proud of how our company has successfully adapted and thrived in an ever-changing environment, and this is thanks to all of you. We are a better organization because of your commitment and continued care for our customers, clients, communities and each other. Developing effective teams and maintaining a vibrant, healthy culture are clearly key for our success — and we believe best achieved through working together in person. This is why starting in March, we'll be asking most employees currently on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week. As it stands, more than half of our workforce already comes into the office full-time.

We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. We are now a few years out of the pandemic and have had the time to evaluate the benefits and challenges of remote and hybrid working. We feel that now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach. We think it is the best way to run the company. As we've discussed before, the benefits of working together in person are substantial and irreplaceable, and as we spend more time together, the more advantages we gain. Being together greatly enhances mentoring, learning, brainstorming and getting things done. It accelerates decision-making and offers valuable opportunities for spontaneous learning and creativity. It also allows our early career professionals to learn through our apprenticeship model and expand their networks by building connections with peers across the firm.

Many of our global locations, but not all, have existing capacity to allow for most or all employees to return to the office full-time in early March. We will confirm the list of locations where this is possible by the end of January. The evaluation of our locations will focus on operational readiness, including food services, cleaning and parking. For locations with capacity constraints, or where changes are needed to create capacity, we will work through plans in the coming weeks and will share information and timelines as they become available on a location-by-location basis. Until your location's readiness is confirmed, you should continue on your current work schedule. It's important to note that following a thorough review and applying stringent criteria, a few specific teams whose work can be easily and clearly measured will continue to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule. These decisions have been made in the best interest of the company. If you are on one of these teams, your manager will confirm your schedule.

We recognize that switching from hybrid to five days a week in the office may be disruptive and require adjustments for some colleagues. Importantly we will work to give you at least 30 days' notice in line with local requirements, prior to your full-time return. Once your location is ready, if you need a bit more time to accommodate the new schedule, you should discuss your needs with your manager and get their approval. We know that a lot has changed in our workplaces since returning to the office after the pandemic and recognize that it will take us some time to get all of our locations ready to accommodate a five-day-a-week schedule.

What is not changing is our support for flexibility in the workplace, which we are committed to providing at every level in a fair way. We fully recognize how important it is to be able to work remotely as life events happen, and managers will be directed to provide team members with the flexibility they need to work remotely under some circumstances, such as unexpected occurrences, family commitments or other times on occasion when you and your manager agree you can work away from the office. As always, we expect you to continue to track your time out of the office, and we will work hard to support a workplace of flexibility and collaboration.

We greatly appreciate your outstanding efforts day-in and day-out and are honored to work together on behalf of everyone we serve.

• Wall Street's biggest banks are gearing up to communicate 2024 bonus compensation to staff.
• Bonuses are expected to be as much as 35% higher as demand for corporate dealmaking grows.
• Here are the dates banks like JPMorgan and Goldman are expected to tell employees what they made.

Wall Street bonus season is kicking into high gear this week as the biggest banks get ready to tell employees how much they earned in discretionary income.

Morgan Stanley, known for leading social media company Reddit's IPO in March, is expected to start telling employees how much they earned in 2024 bonuses as soon as this week, according to three people with knowledge of the bank's plans. A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Other large banks are scheduled to communicate bonus numbers to staff later this month, including Goldman Sachs as soon as next week and JPMorgan Chase the week after that, people with knowledge of the banks' plans told BI.

From junior analysts to senior bankers, year-end bonuses tend to indicate not only Wall Street workers' own performance in a given year, but also their value to the company. It's common for bankers who feel snubbed with a lowball number to leave for other jobs after their check clears.

Bonuses have been down in recent years after hitting new highs in 2021 due to lackluster demand for mergers and capital raising.

This year, investment bankers and traders are expecting bonuses to tick higher (up as much as 35%, according to comp consultants Johnson Associates) thanks to a bounce in deal flow that's predicted to ramp up this year.

Worldwide M&A was up 11% in 2024 to over $3 billion, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group. The five biggest banks — JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Citi — dominated the league tables last year, led by Goldman Sachs with 30% global market share, followed by Morgan Stanley with 25%, and JPMorgan with 19%. Bank trading revenue also skyrocketed, propelled by rising interest rates and stock volatility.

BI spoke to bank insiders and headhunters to find out when employees of the largest banks are expecting to learn their "number." They said bonus information tends to be closely guarded and that communication dates are subject to change. See when the biggest banks are scheduled to tell staff how much they earned in 2024 bonus money, in chronological order:

Morgan Stanley

Multiple people with knowledge of Morgan Stanley's plans said the investment bank, which ranked No. 2 in M&A last year, will start to share bonus numbers with staff on January 8, making it the first major bank to do so.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman is expected to begin revealing comp on January 15, the same day it reports its 2024 and fourth-quarter earnings, a process that tends to stretch out for several days, a person with knowledge of the announcements told BI.

JPMorgan

The biggest US bank by assets plans to start communicating bonus compensation to employees on January 21, a person familiar with the bank's plans told BI. Employees based in the US will be paid the following week.

Bank of America

Bank of America is aiming to begin communicating bonuses on January 27, a person with knowledge of the announcements told BI. A BofA spokesman declined to comment.

Citi

Bonuses at Citi will be shared in the second half of January, according to a person familiar with the plans, though it isn't clear which day. The bank has been undergoing a massive restructuring since 2021 when CEO Jane Fraser took the reigns.

• Each year, Business Insider highlights Wall Street's rising stars.
• These are up-and-comers in investment banking, trading, and investing.
• All are 35 or younger. Check out our lists over the years.

For the past eight years, Business Insider's finance reporters have tapped their contacts to put together a list of who to watch on Wall Street.

We've received recommendations from bosses, colleagues, recruiters, and financial industry experts to create our annual feature. To be eligible, nominees must be based in the US, 35 or younger, and stand out among their peers. The editors make the final decisions.

Business Insider asked these rising stars from leading firms like Goldman, Blackstone, and Citadel to reflect on their successes, challenges, and best career advice.

2024

Meet our 2024 class

Our most recent set of young professionals reflect the future of finance. A number of them are shaping the trajectory of clean energy and artificial intelligence by financing the infrastructure that will underpin it. Some have seen their focus go from niche to hot asset. Others are influencing how Wall Street interacts with Main Street, using their skills and savvy to create new products and services for ordinary investors or giving employees at portfolio companies ownership stakes.

The rising stars also shared how they unwind and stay grounded in order to stay mentally sharp.

2023

Meet the 2023 class

2023's cohort included traders setting new playbooks for deals and trades and an investor building out burgeoning private markets businesses within the world's largest bank. These influencers also financed some of the biggest deals of the past few years and provided an edge to top investors with complex and innovative products.

They shared the lessons learned from their biggest career mistakes and how their Wall Street wardrobe had evolved from their COVID work-from-home days.

2022

Meet the class of 2022

As Wall Street navigated volatile markets, fewer deals, and plummeting company valuations, we found the players rising up despite the challenges.

One invested in space ventures, and another executed multibillion-dollar trades. Some up-and-comers pushed their teams to the top of industry rankings.

From books on the science of sleep to fantasy football strategy podcasts, here's what these bright leaders were reading and listening to. And here are some of their lessons and advice.

Here are the previous editions of our Wall Street rising stars list:

• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017

• Wall Street banks are proving that generative AI is here to stay and the tech is not just a fad.
• Business Insider has reported on how some of finance's biggest banks are approaching generative AI.
• See how giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are weaving the tech into the fabric of their firms.

Wall Street bank leaders say generative AI is here to stay, and they're weaving the technology throughout the fabric of their banks to make sure.

From trading to payments to marketing, it's hard to find a corner of the banking industry that isn't claiming to use AI.

In fact, the technology's impact, made mainstream by OpenAI's ChatGPT in late-2022, is becoming cultural. Generative AI is changing what it takes to be a software developer and how to stand out as a junior banker, especially as banks begin dispatching autonomous AI agents. The technology is even changing roles in the c-suite.

From supercharging productivity via AI-powered search engines to figuring out the best way banks can realize a return on their AI investments, here's what we know about how Wall Street banks are embracing AI.

JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is a "tremendous" user of the bank's generative AI suite. We have the story of how he and other execs use AI at the bank.

• JPMorgan's AI rollout: Jamie Dimon's a 'tremendous' user and it's caused some 'healthy competition' among teams
• JPMorgan is making a big bet on AI. Here's how its private bankers are using it.

Dimon also laid out his vision for how America's largest bank will win the AI battle against fintechs through data. Meet the leaders of that mission.

• Jamie Dimon says he's out to win the AI arms race. See who he's put in charge of this critical mission.
• JPMorgan's Lori Beer just added 2 new tech leaders to her ranks. Meet the team behind the bank's AI future.

Mary Erdoes, the boss of JPM's asset- and wealth-management business, used these slides to outline how she wants to get her people ready for the "AI of the future."

• Here's how JPM boss Mary Erdoes wants to use AI to eliminate "no joy" work

Manuela Veloso has been focused on AI for decades. The former head of machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, Veloso has been JPMorgan's head of AI research since 2018. She broke down seven main challenges her team is trying to solve with AI for the bank.

• JPMorgan's head of AI research Manuela Veloso breaks down 7 areas she's looking to apply the cutting-edge tech

Goldman Sachs

Goldman's top partners and CEO David Solomon are eager to see AI rev up their businesses. From realizing internal productivity gains to capturing more business as clients look to raise money in anticipation of AI development and acquisitions, here's what the top echelon is expecting.

• How AI will shake up Goldman Sachs, according to top partners and CEO David Solomon
• Inside Goldman Sachs' plans for AI, from helping non-tech workers do more with software to streamlining how code is documented

There is no AI without data, and there is no data strategy at Goldman without its chief data officer, Neema Raphael. Raphael gave BI an inside look at how his roughly 500-person team melds with the rest of the bank to get the most out of its data.

• Meet Neema Raphael, the data whiz key to Goldman's AI ambitions who's overseeing the bank's army of engineers and scientists

AI's impact has ripple effects that go far beyond technology. Goldman's chief information officer, Marco Argenti, predicts that cultural change will be critical to getting the bank to 100% adoption.

• Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti says Wall Street's 'next big wave' in AI will come down to culture, not just technology

Many dollars are being spent on Wall Street's AI ambitions. But how do you measure the return on the investment? Argenti offers some tips on the calculus that can help firms prioritize where to invest.

• As AI usage ramps up on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs CIO details how the bank analyzes return on investment for the tech

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley wants to turn employees' AI ideas into a reality. Here's an exclusive look at that process.

• Morgan Stanley has 30 AI projects in the pipeline. Here's how the bank sources employees' ideas for inspiration.

Morgan Stanley's wealth division is getting an AI facelift. See how the technology is transforming the jobs of the bank's 16,000 financial advisors.

• Morgan Stanley is betting on AI to free up advisors' time to be 'more human.' Nearly 100% of advisor teams use it, and here's how.

Thanks to its partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Morgan Stanley has ramped up its AI efforts. The exec in charge of tech partnerships and firmwide innovation opened up about how it all started.

• Morgan Stanley's new innovation head lays out his plan for more OpenAI-type partnerships
• A Morgan Stanley exec breaks down how the bank courts tech partners like OpenAI

Citi

Citi's top tech executive, Shadman Zafar, outlined the bank's four-phased AI strategy and how it will "change how we work for decades to come."

• A top Citi tech exec breaks down the 4 phases of the bank's AI strategy that will impact everyone from operations to wealth and product

Bank of America

Bank of America's chief experience officer, Rob Pascal, details how the bank's internal-facing AI assistant helps bankers collect, record, and review client data. Here are all the ways it's helping employees be more effective and efficient.

How Bank of America is using an AI-powered tool to help its bankers prep for client meetings more efficiently

AI hits the investment bank

Investment bankers are hopeful that corporate America's obsession with AI could kick off a new era of mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs. From execs stepping into recently created roles to accommodate the sector to industry veterans launching their own AI-focused M&A-advisory firm, meet 11 investment bankers poised to lead Wall Street's AI revolution.

• Wall Street is gearing up for an AI shopping spree. Meet 11 bankers poised to come out on top.

We spoke with four of those AI bankers about why 2025 is going to be all about AI pickaxes and shovels rather than pure-play AI deals.

• The deals 4 tech bankers think the 'AI arms race' could drive in 2025

AI could save junior bankers time by automating tedious tasks known all too well by Wall Street's youngest ranks. But it can also make it harder to break into the industry by shifting the skills required for entry.

• How AI will change the job of the junior banker and raise the bar to entry

A former Goldman Sachs managing director built an AI-powered networking tool to spur dealmaking. The budding startup, Louisa AI, already has a few clients, including Goldman Sachs, Insight Partners, and a global exchange.

• See the pitch deck that helped a former Goldman Sachs exec raise $5 million for an AI-powered networking startup that feeds deal ideas to bankers.

Here's how former investment bankers left their Wall Street jobs to build an AI startup to solve junior bankers' woes.

• See the pitch deck that helped former investment bankers raise a $7 million seed round for their generative 'AI consigliere' to bankers and analysts

• 2025 is expected to be a robust year for mergers and acquisitions as well as IPOs.
• Consequently, some investment banks are bulking up on hiring, industry recruiters say.
• Here's a look at which firms are staffing up and what sectors are seeing the most action.

When John Weinberg, the chairman and CEO of the elite boutique investment bank Evercore, sat down for a fireside chat in December at an annual Goldman Sachs conference, he revealed that his firm had been ramping up hiring.

"Most of the time, you don't really do much recruiting in November or December," he told listeners — adding that this year had been different. "If you could see my schedule, you'd see that virtually every day I am speaking with and recruiting" new talent, he said. "You could probably anticipate that our recruiting efforts will increase, not decrease."

Weinberg isn't the only Wall Street dealmaker for whom recruiting is top of mind. According to industry headhunters, hiring across the Street has been gaining steam.

"We're probably up 60% to 70%," Kevin Mahoney, a managing partner in the global financial-services practice at Christoph Zeiss Partners, told Business Insider in December. "We haven't been this busy in a long time," he added, saying he expects 2025 to be "bonkers" in terms of hiring volumes.

After several years of lackluster deal activity, Wall Street is finally starting to see signs of a thaw in mergers and public offerings. A cocktail of lower interest rates, pent-up demand, and expectations for a friendlier landscape under a Trump presidency has left many dealmakers across the Street feeling bullish about the prospects for 2025. Robert Stowe, the head of Americas equity capital markets at Barclays, told BI that he predicted some $50 billion in initial public offering volumes in the US next year. That would be a roughly 20% increase from 2024's just over $41 billion worth of IPO volumes in the Americas, as recorded by the deal-tracking firm Dealogic.

BI got an update on the latest investment-banking hiring trends from three top Wall Street headhunters: Mahoney; Meridith Dennes, the managing partner of the firm Prospect Rock; and Brianne Sterling, the head of the investment-banking recruiting practice at Selby Jennings.

Dennes said the industry's "musical chairs" could start to spike in about January or February after bankers receive their bonuses. Many, she said, have gotten early hints about their bonus numbers this year and are privately grumbling.

"Bonuses are not coming out as strong as we expected them to be, and I think the reason is because there's been so much hiring at the senior level and at the MD level," she said. "A lot of that compensation pool may be spoken for."

So, with moves on the way, which sectors will see the most activity? Here are a few key trends the headhunters say are worth watching in 2025.

The hot sectors

Banks big and small are already dialing up recruiting for their technology, media, and telecommunications teams, known as TMT in Wall Street parlance.

One reason, Mahoney said, is that those sectors are popular acquisition targets for financial sponsors. Indeed, private-equity firms are itching to deploy the billions they've raised from limited partners — but have been waiting for interest rates to decline.

"Something that I think will be interesting within the tech space, as well, is how teams are looking at staffing and positioning" for AI deals, as well as deals for cryptocurrency and digital-assets companies that may consolidate over the next year, Sterling of Selby Jennings said.

Tech has been a major area for banker movement, said Dennes, who also named healthcare, restructuring, industrials, consumer retail, and financial institutions as hot. Among some of the early findings of Prospect Rock's annual compensation survey, bankers in tech and restructuring displayed the highest levels of dissatisfaction with pay.

"Now, if they're not really paid," Dennes said, "they're going to want to jump — and there's opportunity for those folks to jump."

Tech dealmakers on the move

Union Square Advisors, a boutique technology-focused investment bank in San Francisco, has onboarded a series of dealmakers recently, including tapping Terry Jackson — who previously worked at JPMorgan and Bank of America Securities — as a managing director. The firm also hired Todd Meadow to pitch in with sponsor coverage and brought on the banker Chris Appaneal to focus on software for governance, risk, and compliance.

Houlihan Lokey, a midsize firm long respected for its prowess in restructuring and distressed deals, has also been growing its wallet share in tech to win competitive M&A mandates.

In the spring, the bank appointed Ryan Lund as a cohead of US technology. It's been deepening the granularity of its software coverage with subsequent hires, as well — like Nana Kyei, a managing director who joined from Jefferies this fall and focuses on education tech. Geoff Rhizor joined the tech team in San Francisco in late summer; his coverage, in part, intersects with the fintech group.

Barclays has also emphasized hiring managing directors focused on tech and healthcare deals, a company spokesperson told BI. Rob Patterson, who serves as head of data and information platforms coverage within tech investment banking, came over from Morgan Stanley. And the bank appointed David King, a former top-level banker at Bank of America, as global head of technology mergers and acquisitions last summer.

Big banks are staffing up

Some banks have already initiated widespread recruiting plans for juniors.

JPMorgan Chase, for instance, was engaged in a vigorous off-cycle recruiting spree for junior investment bankers as deal flow picked up speed in the fall, according to industry sources and postings on its job board.

Goldman Sachs' careers portal recently displayed roughly a dozen openings for junior bankers in New York, San Francisco, and London. Vacancies included analyst and associate positions in coverage groups like financial institutions, entertainment banking, TMT, and industrials, as well as product-focused functions like equity capital markets.

Bankers need fresh blood: 'Send them our way'

The last time there was an M&A boom during the pandemic, in 2021, many banks were caught unprepared and understaffed, resulting in complaints from overworked junior bankers.

Wall Street employers now say they won't make the same mistake twice — and many are eyeing boosting their junior ranks in preparation, the recruiters said.

Dennes expects an emphasis on associates and midlevel vice presidents to help juggle the ins and outs of executing the manifold deals coming down the pike. "Experienced bankers are always in demand," she said. "Anyone who has closed a couple of deals and is able to train junior staff is very valuable."

Dennes' firm, Prospect Rock, is working on filling four analyst roles, six associate roles, and two VP roles, postings on its website showed. Still, she doesn't see 2025 hiring following the same frenetic pattern it did during the earlier pandemic-era M&A boom.

"In 2021, you just needed bodies — more horsepower. This is very different," she said. Now, banks are markedly more vigilant in emphasizing quality over quantity. "Nobody wants a 2021, 2022 redo," she added. "A lot of those hires were not strong."

Some senior dealmakers are already worried about short-staffing. A managing director at a Wall Street bank told BI he was confident that 2025 would deliver a volume of work comparable with 2021 levels, if perhaps not the same soaring valuations.

"Part of the conversation that we're going to have to think through is augmenting the team at the midlevel" to handle execution, he said. In this hiring market, though, "it's almost impossible" to find impressive associates or VPs, he cautioned. "Send them our way — because it's hard."

Are you an investment-banking insider, or do you have knowledge of industry moves on Wall Street? Get in touch with these reporters. Reed Alexander can be reached via email at [email protected] or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at 561-247-5758. Emmalyse Brownstein can be reached at [email protected] or via Signal at 305-857-5516.

Correction: December 20, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated Meridith Dennes' role at Prospect Rock. She's the firm's managing partner, not one of its managing directors.

• A federal court struck down a rule requiring Nasdaq-listed companies to disclose board diversity.
• Legal experts say the ruling won't likely impact Goldman Sachs' board diversity mandate.
• Since 2020, the investment bank has only helped take public clients with diverse boards.

Wall Street's board diversity initiatives are not dead — yet.

On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Nasdaq's efforts to push companies that want to list their stock on its exchange to diversify their boards or explain themselves. Nasdaq has said it will not appeal the decision. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which approved the Nasdaq rule in 2021, has said it is reviewing the decision.

Companies could continue to feel pressure to diversify their boards, however, from other stakeholders including shareholders and even Wall Street banks.

In 2020, David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, a top underwriter of initial public offerings, announced that the bank would start requiring the clients it helps take public to have at least one diverse board member. In 2021, the bank upped the requirement to two diverse board members, including at least one woman. It has also tasked one of its rising stars with a new role helping corporate clients find diverse board members.

Goldman declined to comment on its board diversity initiative, but legal experts say that the Fifth Circuit ruling should not impact the investment bank. That's because Wednesday's ruling, agreed to by 9 of the circuit's 17 judges, centered on the Securities and Exchange Commission's right to approve the Nasdaq's diversity rules.

The judges said the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 gives the SEC the authority to prevent fraud and promote competition — not enforce diversity disclosures.

Ann Lipton, a professor at Tulane University's law school, however, said that the ruling could still have a chilling effect on banks whose policies are often informed by federal standards.

"If those standards appear to be shifting, investment banks may alter their policies to conform," she said in an emailed statement.

Wall Street has historically been made up of mostly white men and remains so to this day. Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020, more bank CEOs have begun personally setting goals to increase diversity at their companies, including at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Some Wall Street's diversity initiatives, however, have been walked back in recent months in light of an influential court ruling that significantly changed the way college campuses can use affirmative action in their admissions process. Bloomberg reported in March on investment-bank recruitment programs originally geared toward minorities that have been quietly opened to everyone.

In January, Goldman told Fortune that it had taken public 300 businesses that adhere to its diversity standards. Last year, the Goldman executive tasked with helping clients identify diverse board members told BI that she had helped facilitate 99 placements since her role was created on the heels of the bank's new diversity mandate.

"Demand was there and supply was there, there was just a market mechanism problem," Ilana Wolfe told BI at the time. "I'm most proud of being able to be that link."