While eFinancialCareers has previously written about how to become a quant and the lifestyle of a strat at Goldman Sachs, we've now got a chart breaking down how Goldman's Global Markets division (referred to as sales and trading in other banks) sees its spectrum of strat talent.       

Per the chart below, Goldman sees strats in the Global Markets division as sitting on a spectrum between coding and quant. Their Algo or Core Strats are responsible for programming, infrastructure, high-volume coding and the trading platforms. Data Strats, as the name suggests, look at big data and machine learning. On the quant side of the spectrum, Trading Strats are busy pricing derivatives, heding risk, modelling assets and developing trading tools. Then there are the Sales Strats responsible for generating ideas and structuring trades. They do what is broadly referred to as financial engineering which top quant programs like Carnegie...

You have a job interview with JPMorgan. Congratulations. Now it's time to get to work. 

Before you venture into an interview with the bank you need to familiarize yourself with what you might be asked. To facilitate this, we have listed every single publicly recorded JPMorgan interview question from recent history below. If you don't know exactly why you're applying for that job, can't value a company with your eyes shut (if you're applying to IBD) and don't know what happened in the market yesterday (if you're applying in S&T), don't bother. Similarly, if you're applying for a junior tech job, questions about programming languages always seem to come up and you'd be foolish not to be prepared.

One of the psychic costs going into a career in banking for PhDs is the knowledge that your old academic mentor probably thanks you are a sell-out and a disappointment. This cost is, of course, usually offset by the tangible benefit of a load of money, but wouldn’t it be wonderful for science types if there was a way to pull in an investment banking salary but still have the old professor thinking you were putting your learning to good use?

For experts in environmental science and energy policy, it seems like there is. As well as making basic salaries between $175k and $350k, (and possibly up to 7 figures if you can get into private equity investing), advising banks on climate risk and green energy gives off good vibes, according to people like William Boos, an associate professor at Berkeley.

If you're trying to put together a CV that will get you a front office job in an investment bank, there are some words you must not use. For example, anything along the lines of 'contributed,' 'supported', 'assisted' or 'helped' is bad news because it suggests you weren't entirely responsible for your accomplishments. But which words fall at the other end of the scale? Which words, when used on your CV, will actually secure you a job in an investment bank?

Listed below are approximately 80 'CV power words' which will enhance your resume. Most are verbs, some are adjectives. All exude activity and achievement and are part of the vernacular in the finance sector.

Day in the life: Serena, Real Estate Management Associate at Blackstone, London

Serena graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Land Economy. Having completed an internship in the investment banking division of UBS in her penultimate year, she joined Blackstone’s London office as an off-cycle intern in 2018. She became a full-time analyst in 2019 and was promoted to associate in 2021.

If you’re proving you’re losing. There are few better examples of the truth of this old politician’s adage than when a financial firm’s human resources department start pulling out charts to demonstrate that employee attrition is not materially different from normal levels. That’s apparently what happened at Carlyle Group a few months ago, and in retrospect, this should have been seen as a real red flag for the CEO, Kewsong Lee, who resigned this week.

The official statement suggested that his departure was just a matter of not being able to agree numbers on a new contract, (apparently the board didn't even want to talk about a requested $300m over five years) but “people with knowledge of the matter” seems to have started talking pretty quickly about serious underlying tensions with senior employees and the founding shareholders. And that’s what anyone could have workout quickly if they'd known about the attrition charts.

Do you really need to write a cover letter when you're applying for a job in an investment bank? These days, it's surely all about the skills in your CV - who's got the time to read that extra blurb saying how perfect you are for the role?

Recruiters working with experienced hires certaintly don't have the time. Most of the banking recruiters we speak to treat the cover letters (or 'cover emails') they receive from experienced candidates as an irrelevance. "For experienced roles, we rarely look at cover letters," says the CEO of one London-based financial services recruitment firm. I just go for the CV," agrees another. "I look at the CV and then I phone them. - If the CV is relevant, I'll get everything that would have been in the cover letter from that call." 

Competition for finance roles is beyond fierce, and with 71% of UK based international students hoping to stay and work here, how can you become a future UK finance professional? The advice below could make a big impact on your chances of success, but be warned, you may need to exit the comfort zone.

First things first, you must be well organised. Procrastination is a deadly enemy that will kill your chances of success. Be aware of what you need to do, and when. Think about how to evidence the knowledge and skills your course develops to show employers you are a strong candidate. Pre-arrival preparation is crucial, including researching job application deadlines, application methods, work visa options and which clubs and societies provide the best return in terms of skills development, exposure to valuable contacts and UK student networking opportunities.

When the industry goes through tough times, smart bankers take the opportunity to reassess the merits of franchises which they might otherwise have ignored in favour of the familiar and resume-friendly bulge-bracket names. When layoffs are in the air, the attractions become clearer of working for the universal banking arm of a well-capitalised national champion. People also start looking for CEOs who might have something to prove, and who might therefore be tempted to invest a bit of money in building up market share when the competition are cutting back.

For example, Andrea Orcel’s Unicredit, which set out some fairly aggressive revenue targets earlier in the year, and where Richard Kendall (overall head of CIB) and Sam Kendall (head of advisory & capital markets) have just given a joint interview confirming that they won’t be using current market conditions as an excuse to back away from them. Their plan is partly to change the product mix –...

Corporate development professionals are employed within corporates (companies) on strategy and in-house M&A work. Whereas banking can involve weeks of 80 hours+, corporate development roles are generally a lot less punishing. 

"Everyone wants a job that pays a load of money and offers good work-life balance," says Andy Pringle at search firm Circle Square. Corporate development just might be the answer. 

This doesn't mean you can earn as much in corporate development as in banking. First year banking analysts on Wall Street are now on salaries of $110k+, while London banking analyst salaries mostly start at £70k. Banking salaries are easily doubled (or more) with banking bonuses. In corporate development, by comparison, bonuses are usually only between 40%-80% of salary. Salaries have been increasingly, though: Pringle says some London corp dev roles will pay £85k salaries in year two to attract junior bankers. In the US, Square, the...

Daniel Koh didn’t set out to work with biofuels. It just kind of happened that way. As a student at Singapore Management University, Koh says he applied for 40 jobs in banking and only one in commodities trading. He got the commodities trading job and his career pivoted in a totally unexpected direction.

“Working in commodities has completely changed my perspective on life,” says Koh. “Commodities are linked to everything from geopolitics to agriculture, climate and politics.”

It's HSBC results day and more than two years into the bank's program of 35,000 job cuts there are signs that the pace of extraction has slowed but that all the previous cuts at the bank were a fine idea. 

While other banks (Deutsche Bank) have cut some of their targets in light of inflation, HSBC today increased its return on tangible equity goal to more than 12% from next year, up from 10% currently. It also avowed its intention of renewing dividend payments from 2023. 

Daniel Sparks, former head of Goldman's mortgage business, Michael Swenson, an MD in Goldman's mortgage business, and Joshua Birnbaum, a former star structured products trader all made their pitches for why 2007 was such a wonderful year for them - and why they ultimately merited an enormous bonus.

Go heavy on the superlatives

Don't just think good: think great, exceptional, outstanding, or unutterably awesome.

"We didn't just survive - we excelled," said Dan Sparks.

"On the leadership front I performed exceptionally well over the past year," said Swenson. "My ability to assess and manage the risk in the rapidly changing mortgage market has been another tremendous achievement."

Wherever possible, claim personal responsibility for team outcomes

The secret here is to make it clear that you're a team player whilst emphasizing that the team's achievements were almost entirely attributable to you.

Dan Sparks had a go at this, saying,...

I'm a portfolio manager with a long only investment fund. My parents are first generation immigrants to the UK. My father worked in a factory; my mother was a housewife. No one in my family went to university, nor did any of my friends growing up. Where I come from, you left school, and you got a job. People needed the money. 

I had no idea about financial services jobs as a teenager. I was at a standard comprehensive school and banking to me meant retail banking. But when I was 17 one of my A level teachers encouraged me to attend a one-week economics summer school at Cambridge University organized by the Sutton Trust and my life changed. 

JPMorgan isn't commenting, but a post on the Litquidity Instagram site says first year analyst bonuses at JPMorgan are on a par with first year analyst bonuses at Morgan Stanley, with top ranked analysts receiving £30k ($37k) on top of their £70k salaries.

One JPMorgan executive director confirmed that junior bonuses this year are comparatively low. On Wall Street Oasis, people purporting to be JPMorgan first year analysts in the US can be seen complaining that lower/mid-tier bonuses for first years are $20k-$35k, that mid-tier bonuses are $40k and that top tier are $60k to $70k. The numbers are variously described as a disappointment and an insult. 

The complaints follow suggestions that analyst bonuses at UBS and Bank of America were pretty good this year. Financial News reported yesterday that Bank of America bonuses were 75%-100% of base salaries for first years, compared to 30% at Morgan Stanley. Similarly, UBS is thought to have been...

In most situations, working for Goldman Sachs is going to be far more lucrative than working for Walmart. However, there is an exception: if you're a developer, then joining Walmart may actually be quite a good option.

Working as a technologist for Walmart has far more kudos than working for Walmart doing anything else. Known as Walmart Labs, the grocery chain's technology division employs an array of big names from across the technology industry, including several who once worked for GS.

Credit Suisse is rebuilding its London equity research team. And it's said to be paying more in the process.

The Swiss bank is understood to have recruited Adithya Metuku, a technology media and telecoms (TMT) analyst who spent nine years at Bank of America to its London team. Metuku, who has been on gardening leave, arrives on Monday.

Accounts for Rothschild & Co. the half year to June 2021 have been released today. They suggest that now is a good time to work for the rarefied bank. 

Rothschild spent €693m on compensation in the first half of this year, up 33% on pay in the first half of 2020. When this is averaged across its 3,797 employees for a full year, it works out at €365k ($430k) per head.  Last year, average compensation at the bank was €305k.

It's not an easy time to be a French bank in your home country. As U.S. banks build out their Paris offices post-Brexit, competition for French talent has intensified, and although French banks have hiked their salaries, they've been trumped by recent increases at American competitors. 

"The trouble with the French banks is that they were already paying below market," says one Paris headhunter. "They increased their salaries around two months ago, but then the Americans increased their salaries too, and now they're behind again."

Nomura appears to be rebuilding its Hong Kong capital markets operation  as it looks to rebuild after a slew of departures.

Earlier this month, it re-hired Matthew Cheung as head of Greater China equity capital markets