Goldman Sachs is reportedly planning to grill junior bankers about their loyalty

The investment bank will reportedly require its junior analysts to confirm every three months that they don’t have other jobs lined up for the future.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the report said Goldman Sachs' oaths would be intended to prevent talent poaching from private equity firms, especially as new analysts start training for their roles.

This method of recruiting new analysts for future positions at other firms before they start their roles isn’t new to investment banking. It’s called “on-cycle recruiting” and typically begins in June every year — but not this year, the Financial Times said. 

In June, JPMorgan $JPM Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the company would fire new recruits if they already had other jobs lined up. New recruits were told that they had to complete the first 18 months at the investment firm before accepting future jobs, otherwise they’d be terminated. Since Dimon’s announcement, no firms have started their on-cycle recruitment process, FT reported.  

In September 2024 at a conference at Georgetown University, Dimon told a group that this recruitment practice “puts us in a bad position, and it puts us in a conflicted position. You are already working for somewhere else and you’re dealing with highly confidential information.”

Some people took to social media to comment on the investment bank’s reported plans for loyalty oaths, with one person calling it “irony overload” and another questioning whether this could lead to a rise in sign-on bonuses.

Goldman Sachs declined Bloomberg’s request for comment.