In 2017, Allison Berger was excited to hitch Goldman Sachs’s 10-week summer season internship program. Berger mentioned she “labored on many vital and sophisticated issues” that summer season, which helped her safe a full-time analyst place with Goldman’s funding banking division. Practically a decade later, Berger is a Goldman vp for world banking and markets.
“I’ve had superb alternatives right here. So many mentors listed here are ladies. My male colleagues have additionally all the time been extremely supportive,” mentioned Berger, including that the skillset she gained early in her profession gave her flexibility to thrive in numerous components of the financial institution.
Berger’s expertise is a typical one at Goldman, which is taken into account one of many world’s main funding banks. Each summer season Goldman hires about 2,500 to three,000 summer season interns who’re assigned to numerous divisions together with funding banking, engineering, and gross sales. The Goldman internship is taken into account a feeder to getting a everlasting job on the funding financial institution; a majority of summer season interns sometimes get employed as full-time analysts.
Candidates, nonetheless, face a lot of competitors for the summer season positions. For the 2025 internship class, the financial institution acquired greater than 360,000 purposes, a 15% enhance from 2024’s program and up 300% since 2018 when David Solomon turned CEO. In actual fact, it’s tougher to snag a Goldman summer season internship than it’s to get into Harvard, one of the crucial selective universities. For the Class of 2025, Harvard accepted 2.58% of candidates, whereas candidates for Goldman’s 2025 summer season internship class had a 0.7% likelihood at getting picked.
“We view the campus pipeline as a essential component of the longer term management of the agency. The Goldman Sachs internship offers college students with the chance to roll up their sleeves and contribute on to shopper tasks, collaborate immediately with world colleagues and develop the abilities to construct a profitable and lasting profession,” mentioned Jacqueline Arthur, world head of human capital administration and company & office options at Goldman.
Roughly one-third of Goldman’s most up-to-date associate class began as summer season interns. Some present highly effective Goldman executives who started as interns embrace Marc Nachmann, world head of asset & wealth administration; Kim Posnett, world co-head of funding banking; Kunal Shah, co-head of Goldman Sachs Worldwide and co-head of fastened revenue, forex and commodities or FICC; and Carey Halio, world treasurer and a member of GS’s administration committee.
Having Goldman on a resume may lead to impactful careers outdoors the financial institution in finance, personal fairness, or almost some other subject. Outstanding examples embrace Amanda Baldwin, CEO of hair care model Olaplex (Goldman intern class of 1999) and Crimson Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun (2009 and 2010). Then there’s Jon Winkelried, the CEO of personal fairness agency TPG, who additionally began off as a Goldman summer season intern.
Goldman on faculty campuses
Goldman takes campus recruiting critically. All through the varsity yr, Goldman’s administration committee, led by CEO David Solomon, sometimes visits schools across the nation to tell candidates in regards to the alternatives. The funding financial institution employed from greater than 475 colleges for its 2024 internship class, down from over 500 schools for the prior yr.
Goldman targets Ivy League colleges but in addition many different universities. Earlier this yr, Solomon visited a number of colleges in Texas together with Southern Methodist College, Texas Christian College, The College of Texas at Dallas and Paul Quinn School.
This yr’s crop of interns started working at Goldman earlier this month as a part of the 2025 summer season class. The funding financial institution is at present recruiting for the Class of 2026. Candidates sometimes apply of their sophomore yr for internships that happen in the summertime between their junior and senior years.
Notably, Goldman interns obtain the identical wage as junior analysts ($110,000 to $125,000 for funding analysis analysts in New York Metropolis), although that quantity is prorated for the summer season and there are not any bonuses.
The competitors for a Goldman internship is open to candidates all over the world and, whereas it could appear that these with a serious in finance or economics might have an edge, that’s not essentially so, Arthur mentioned. Goldman appears to be like for qualities like nice communicators or college students with a variety of experiences, she mentioned. The funding financial institution seeks interns which are “open to evolving and making an influence” and who’re additionally not afraid to fail, she mentioned. “They need to be capable of take dangers,” she mentioned.
Berger recommends that candidates take the time to study and perceive funding banking and Goldman, and whether or not that “matches in along with your private profession abilities,” she mentioned.
It additionally doesn’t damage, after all, for candidates to have a honest curiosity in being a part of Goldman, Arthur mentioned. “Have genuine ardour,” she mentioned.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com