Becoming A Partner At Goldman Sachs

Inside
Goldman’s headquarters, where 69 people today achieved one of
Wall Street’s most coveted titles.

Goldman
Sachs

• Goldman Sachs named 69 partners
  today. 
• Naming partners is a carryover
  from the firm’s history as a private partnership and there is a
  deliberate process for selecting the firm’s most senior
  leaders. 

Earlier today, Goldman Sachs
named a new crop of partners, one of the most
coveted titles on Wall Street.

This year, 69 people earned the
honor, the smallest class in more than a decade. Women made up
26% of the class, the most ever.  

Joining this elite group comes
with a nice paycheck and numerous perks. Partners usually get a
salary of $950,000, access to a special bonus pool and an
opportunity to invest in fee-free investment funds.
 

Making partner is a carryover
from Goldman’s history as a private partnership, which ended with
its May 1999 public offering.

The process of making partner
hasn’t changed much over there years. You have to run a
significant business or have made the firm a lot of money,
according to current partners. Inside Goldman, some people even
talk about their partner trade or the business platform they
created.

This summer, after being crowned
as Lloyd Blankfein’s successor, incoming CEO David Solomon
instructed his colleagues to slightly alter their approach.
Solomon, who became CEO Oct. 1,

told the people making the
selections they should consider at least three
characteristics

: give
preference to execs who hold revenue-producing roles, place
people on the list only if they have a real shot of making the
cut and ensure women execs get a fair shot at making the final
list.

With those changes aside, here’s
everything you need to know about becoming a Goldman
partner:

1. It happens every two years:
   Partners are selected every two years in an
   extremely secretive process.
2. Potential candidates are identified in the
   summer:
   The firm
   doesn’t explicitly tell the candidates. It’s not a surprise,
   though. Candidates generally have an idea if they’re being
   considered.
3. Candidates are vetted through an intense process called
   cross-ruffing:
   The
   term cross-ruffing comes from the card game bridge.
   Cross-ruffing is when current partners and other Goldman
   employees engage in a series of lengthy conversations on
   whether a candidate deserves to be made partner. The
   candidates, however, are not interviewed, and they are blind to
   who is interviewing and who is being interviewed.
4. The selection committee looks for folks who’ve made an
   impact at the firm:
   Employees talk about the trade that made
   them partner, or the business they built from scratch that
   generated a lot of revenue for the firm. The committee wants
   leaders and people who embody
   
   the firm’s business principles
   and standards
   
   .
5. Solomon will personally call you with the great
   news:
   Solomon calls
   the employee to let him or her know that he or she has made
   partner. As you can imagine, folks will probably be anxiously
   waiting by their phones.
6. Those who didn’t make the cut are told:
   For many who didn’t make it, it
   can be a major disappointment. But they will also get feedback
   so they can work toward making partner in a future cycle.
   Goldman has already started telling people that they didn’t
   make the cut.   
7. Current partners are forbidden from congratulating the
   new partner class right away:
   The current partners will find out who made
   the cut in the morning, too. However, they can’t say
   “congratulations” until the list is released to the entire firm
   (usually around noon ET). The idea is that they don’t want to
   accidentally say something before the person has received that
   very special phone call.
8. Making partner is supposed to be an incredible
   feeling:
   
   One former partner told
   eFinancial News
   
   :
   “Don’t tell my wife this, but being made partner was the
   greatest moment of my life.”
9. Your day-to-day doesn’t really change:
   After two or three days of
   congratulations, you get back to normal. While your day-to-day
   doesn’t really change, the firm expects more of you. You’ll be
   in partner meetings. You’ll sit on committees. You’ll also
   probably make some campus recruiting trips.
10. Being a partner means getting a boost in your base
    salary:
    One of the
    biggest benefits of being a partner at Goldman is the lucrative
    paycheck.
11. They get a nice chunk of the bonus pool:
    In addition to the base salary,
    a portion of the bank’s bonus pool is divvied up among the
    400-plus Goldman partners.
12. There are special investment opportunities,
    too:
    Partners are
    given access to investment opportunities not available to other
    employees.
13. The number of partners in a class isn’t set:
    Historically, the number tends
    to fall between 1.5% and 1.9% of the full-time Goldman Sachs
    employee population.
14. Age doesn’t matter:
    Age isn’t a parameter. Performance is what
    is important. However, the firm would look at the time someone
    has spent in a role.
15. Vice presidents can be made partner:
    While the committee usually
    taps managing directors, there have been instances in which a
    VP has made it.
16. You can go through the process more than once:
    If you don’t make partner, it
    doesn’t mean you won’t have another shot. Timing is everything.
    You might make it the next cycle or the one after
    that. 
    
    
    

Best of luck to the new
partners!

— Julia la Roche contributed
to an earlier version of this story.

Get the latest Goldman Sachs stock price here.