Recruiter Q&A June 27, 2006, 7:09AM EST

Goldman: An Open Mind on Recruiting

Liberal arts major? We don't mind, says campus recruiter Janet Raiffa. Interests can be just as important as financial skills in hiring

by Julie Gordon

While many investment banks target finance majors, Goldman Sachs (GS) mainly recruits at Ivy League and other top schools that do not even have business programs. Academic performance and demonstrated interest are more important than course of study. So is a candidate's ability to mesh with a potential team of co-workers.

"Liberal arts majors are creative thinkers. We understand that your college education should broaden your horizons and not just focus on a career," says Janet Raiffa, co-head of U.S. campus recruiting for Goldman (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/26/06, "A Liberal Take on Hiring").

	Janet Raiffa Goldman Sachs

Raiffa herself studied English as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College. For the past seven years, she has been recruiting at Goldman and before that recruited MBA candidates for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

She recently spoke to BusinessWeek.com reporter Julie Gordon. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

Why does Goldman bring candidates in several times for interviews?

It is not meant to be a torturous process. It is meant to solicit buy-in from the people that a student is working with because we feel it's very important to have consensus on someone. But we definitely are trending away from the 15 interviews of the past.

Why are you heading away from that?

We hear from candidates that it's not a competitive practice. Our summer internship process is greatly expedited from years past because students will get multiple offers and we want to make them offers in a timely manner. The internship is where they're going to prove their match for the job. It doesn't make sense to over-interview somebody for the summer.

How many interns get full-time offers?

We have a goal that over 70% will receive offers (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/08/06, "No Passport to Success").

Is it correct that when a candidate is hired, that person goes into a specific desk or group versus a general division?

Yes. We don't have a general pool, like a consulting firm.

Why?

It's training. It's because several divisions have multiple weeks or months of training. It's because they're fulfilling the needs of particular businesses and our businesses are very varied. Most interns or most people coming into the firm are doing it because they want a particular experience. Students who are interested in banking are not necessarily focused on operations. Students who want sales and trading are not necessarily interested in investment management.

Are there any challenges in hiring liberal arts majors?

One of our challenges in recruiting is to attract liberal arts students to show them there's opportunity for them in banking and also to prepare them for the interviews. A lot of students who are finance majors who read the Wall Street Journal every day and follow CNN just have a better grounding in finance. So a lot of our recruiting job is aimed at leveling the playing field.

How can non-business majors gain skills they might not have learned in school?

I think it's not so much skills as interests. An English major can read the Wall Street Journal and have an idea of what stocks they would buy or what deals are in the news.

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