Making it in I-Banking at JPMorgan

JPMorgan (JPM ) is a leading investment bank with operations in more than 50 countries whose clients include many of the world's most prominent corporations, institutions, and governments. Headquartered in New York, the firm is a popular destination for both undergrads and MBAs seeking internships and employment.

JPMorgan, which merged with Chase Manhattan in 2001 to become JPMorgan Chase, was recently named by Philadelphia based Universum Communications as the 30th Ideal Employer for undergrad business majors, and 47th for all undergraduates (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/4/06, "Hello Mickey.").

Danielle Domingue, head of MBA Recruiting at JPMorgan, recently spoke with BusinessWeek.com reporter Janie Ho about recruiting pointers and possible mistakes that potential employees can avoid. Here's an edited except of their conversation.

How do you position JPMorgan as an attractive investment bank to potential hires?
While our competition would say we're big or disorganized post-merger, we have a powerful global platform which spurs lots of exciting work, diverse clients, areas for growth, especially for MBAs.

Second is our people. MBA hires, many of whom are complete career switchers, are pleasantly surprised because they have a stereotype of what an investment banker is, and our people dispel that. Given the long hours in banking, we hear all the time: "Wow! I can really see working with these folks because they are smart, yet fun and real people."

How fierce is the competition for full-time jobs among MBAs?
Very fierce. It's back to being a student's market, not an employer's market. Students at top schools have about six or seven offers to choose from. For both, summer and full-time, it's extremely competitive. And I don't see that changing for at least the next couple of years. Perhaps in 2009, we'll see a dip again, depending on the economy.

How do you show your dedication to helping interns throughout their careers?
We're at an 80% conversion rate from interns who receive full-time offers to those accepting them. Interns consistently say that their exposure to senior management, clients, people, career track, professional development, everything, will help them make a decision to come here. That's consistent feedback we get, which if we were not doing properly we would fail.

How important are school rankings, like those of BusinessWeek, when recruiting students?
I would say it counts for 35 to 40 percent of the equation for us. Anyone who says they don't pay attention to the rankings quite frankly is not being honest. It is absolutely a piece of the data. When we figure out where we're going to focus our efforts, we probably look at five of six different pieces of criteria, which may include diversity, geography, acceptance rates from the school, JPMorgan banker and alumni support, average performance of incumbent hires from the school and percentage of students interested in finance. (see BusinessWeek.com Top 30 U.S. and Top 10 International Rankings in 2004).

What do recruiters want to learn about potential employees during dinners or events?
I think on both sides, it's very much of an evaluation: Is this candidate not only smart, but are they a good cultural fit? Especially in our business, in corporate finance, it is a client-facing business, so you want to make sure students are very comfortable, or that's the skill set they want to hone and refine.

How much do your potential recruits stress about networking in the hiring process?
I think the student-to-student interaction causes some of the paranoia. Somebody's always saying: "I went down to JP Morgan, and met 30 people." That makes somebody else at the table like, "I've only focused on five or six people. Oh, my God, do I have to go back down?" Networking is the most important thing when you're going to get a job, especially for banking. But if students don't balance it, they will also turn the companies off (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/12/06, "The Art of The Schmooze").

If you're really gunning for one firm in particular, you should make sure you get to one office visit. But you don't have to do 100 informationals and drive yourself crazy.

How can a student make sure that their skills shine through in an interview?

More and more career switchers come to us from the military to advertising to consulting. So when a student enters an interview, depending on their background, there's sort of a different bar of information that you expect them to know. We look for enthusiasm about banking and JPMorgan. Not only "Why banking?" but "Why JPMorgan?" What's compelling to them about our company?

What are the biggest mistakes that students make when interviewing, following up, and meeting for informational interviews?
For interviewing, it's not being thoroughly prepared. Honestly, there have been occasions where our bankers have had to say, "Do you realize you're interviewing with JPMorgan?"

With the follow-up, we expect a certain level of maturity and professionalism. If they were nice to the bankers, but treat the recruiting team like we're subservient, that's not good, either. Some students shoot themselves by neglecting us when we ask for information.

For informationals, some students try to check us off their list and make an appearance so they can say, "Yeah, I went to JPMorgan. I met with 10 people." But their heart wasn't in it. You should seem like you're very grateful for the banker's time, and you genuinely want to find out more about banking and JPMorgan specifically.

What's the most unique professional development program you have?
We do have continuing ed throughout their career here. Not only are external top vendors involved, but also our own senior bankers, who may even teach at top schools on the side, will do continuing ed here.

How does JP Morgan specifically benefit from partnering with minority groups?
If we want garner top talent for investment banking, especially when there are so many career choices, banks need to have a diverse and robust pipeline and talent base. You can't address something like diversity in hindsight; otherwise you will get 5 or 10 years down the line and not make any impact on changes to your population (see BW Online, 6/14/06, "A B-School Boot Camp for Minorities").

You also have initiatives and outreach to the gay and lesbian community?
Yes, we have networking groups, on-campus recruiting for undergrads and grads, targeted events and outreach. Depending on the industry, some candidates may feel more or less comfortable either to apply or to be very open about what their personal situation may be when applying. We've definitely had a huge focus post-merger for the last several years.

What benefit does it bring to JPMorgan in reaching out to GLBT talent?
Social responsibility and being a very accepting workplace in general. If you don't make the efforts to those folks, I don't know that they automatically assume that investment banking is a friendly place to be. So the onus is on us to get the word out there, get the support structure out there so they know that this indeed is a career option.