Investment Banking
Goldman Sachs Application Guide
The most competitive graduate scheme in investment banking. Every stage of the process, the questions Goldman Sachs actually asks, and the prep that gets candidates through, in one place.
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The firm
About Goldman Sachs
The business today
Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm. At its core, the firm operates as a financial intermediary, connecting institutional capital with the entities that need it to grow, acquire other businesses, or manage risk. Rather than a traditional high-street commercial bank, Goldman operates almost entirely in the institutional, corporate and ultra-high-net-worth ecosystems.
The firm makes money through four mechanisms: financial advisory fees on M&A and restructurings, underwriting spreads on equity and debt issuance, market-making and financing spreads inside Global Markets, and management plus performance fees collected by Asset & Wealth Management.
Goldman employs roughly 45,000 professionals worldwide, with the European operations anchored at Plumtree Court in London. In 2025 the firm topped the global M&A league tables, advising on approximately $1.48 trillion in transactions and capturing around 32% market share.
Why people apply to Goldman Sachs
Complete surrender of personal scheduling predictability, sudden weekend work, regularly 85-hour weeks. Goldman no longer leads the street in starting base salaries for incoming analysts, elite boutiques such as Centerview, Evercore and PWP deliberately outbid the firm on base. Candidates choose Goldman for long-term capital, the institutional network, over initial base pay.
Candidates do not apply to Goldman Sachs for lifestyle or comfort. They apply for career acceleration. The firm provides exposure to complex transactions that shape global markets, working on a $10 billion cross-border acquisition inside Global Banking & Markets gives a first-year analyst deeper exposure to senior corporate executives than an entire early career spent at a mid-market boutique.
The internal learning curve is structured. Analysts learn standard modelling protocols, presentations and market execution methods, and the market then assumes a Goldman-trained analyst possesses elite work ethic, analytical rigour and the ability to operate under institutional pressure. The institutional stamp is what candidates are buying.
Divisions inside Goldman Sachs's Investment Banking
Global Banking & Markets, Investment Banking
Day-to-day
First-year analysts spend ~70% of their time in Excel and PowerPoint. Building valuation models (DCF, comps, precedent transactions, LBO run-outs), cleaning data, formatting pitchbook slides, running Public Information Books on target corporates. Junior analysts manage deal logs and ensure presentation layouts comply with branding guidelines.
Interview style
Highly technical. Deep understanding of accounting mechanics, enterprise vs equity value, free cash flow calculations, advanced valuation theory.
Extreme difficultyGlobal Banking & Markets, Global Markets
Day-to-day
Trading-floor hours. Analysts arrive by 06:45. Sales analysts monitor news feeds, compile research briefings for institutional clients, price structured solutions, take orders. Trading analysts manage risk logs, monitor capital allocation, check trade-booking workflows, execute under senior oversight.
Interview style
Macro awareness, asset valuation logic, risk management instincts, mental maths agility, live market pitches.
Extreme difficultyAsset & Wealth Management
Day-to-day
Researching macro trends, evaluating third-party asset managers, quantitative portfolio optimisation, materials for client investment committees. Wealth-management analysts support advisors with portfolio reviews, liquidity drawdowns and wealth structuring proposals.
Interview style
Portfolio theory, asset allocation strategy, macroeconomic principles, client-facing communication.
High difficultyEngineering, Technology and Strats
Day-to-day
Writing, testing, debugging code. Traditional engineering uses Java, C++, Python or React. Strats sit with trading desks and design pricing algorithms in Slang, Goldman's proprietary language, and SecDb, the unified global risk database.
Interview style
Technical: mandatory HackerRank screening, CoderPad sessions, live whiteboarding of data structures and algorithmic optimisation.
High difficultyFederation, Operations, Controllers, Compliance, HCM
Day-to-day
Operations analysts manage trade lifecycle settlement and reconciliation. Controllers ensure financial books match regulatory standards. Compliance analysts monitor AML and market abuse directives. Hours are predictable, typically 08:30 to 19:00.
Interview style
Behavioural, competency-driven. Tests risk aversion, execution accuracy, project management and stakeholder management.
Moderate-high difficultyTry it now
Score your CV against Goldman Sachs's sift
Goldman Sachs talent acquisition screens thousands of CVs per cycle. Most are read in under 30 seconds. The candidates who get to interview have CVs that signal commercial relevance fast, in the format Goldman Sachs expects.
What Goldman Sachs looks for in a CV
Quantified impact
Numbers in every bullet: deal size, team size, percentage uplift, revenue managed. "Led a team" is filler, "led a 6-person team that delivered £400k of revenue" is a signal.
Named firms and deals
Goldman Sachs recruiters skim for brand names they recognise. Name your prior internships, the deals you observed, the clients you worked on. Specifics beat generic descriptions.
Industry-relevant language
Use the vocabulary of the investment banking world: DCF, comps, LBO, league tables, deal flow. Generic "analysed data" reads as not-yet-in-the-industry; the right terms read as ready.
Tight, structured layout
One page max. Reverse-chronological. Three to five bullets per role. No long paragraphs, no dense blocks. The skim test decides the read.
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The application
How Goldman Sachs hires
4 stages, real interview questions, the criteria that decide it, and the moves that separate offers from rejections.
The process, stage by stage
- 1
Online Application
Opens ~August (summer analyst) or October (apprenticeships). Rolling.Tailor your CV to the specific division. Goldman sees thousands, generic CVs don't pass screening.
- 2
HireVue Video Interview
Sent within 24-48 hours of application5-6 questions, 30s prep, 2 min per answer. Behavioural + motivational. No retakes, practise with the trial option first.
- 3
Assessment Centre
August-November. Response within 48 hours.2-5 back-to-back interviews with pairs of interviewers. More technical than HireVue. Division-specific knowledge tested.
- 4
Offer
Rolling basisVerbal offer 1-2 weeks after assessment centre. Formal offer 2 weeks after verbal.
What Goldman Sachs asks at each round
HireVue
- Why Goldman Sachs? Why this division?
- Walk me through your CV.
- Tell me about a time you showed leadership.
- Describe a time you worked under pressure.
- What do you expect from an investment banking internship?
- Tell me about a time you influenced a decision.
First Round
- Walk me through your resume, what's relevant to this role.
- What do you know about our recent M&A activity?
- Why investment banking, not consulting or PE?
- Tell me about a deal you've followed recently.
- Describe a time you solved a complex problem.
Assessment Centre
- Walk me through a DCF.
- How would you value a company?
- Tell me about a deal Goldman advised on recently.
- What's happening in markets that concerns you?
- If you had £1m to invest, where would you put it?
- Tell me about a time you worked with someone difficult.
- What makes a good pitch book?
What Goldman Sachs looks for
Commercial awareness
Follow the FT, know Goldman's recent deals, have a view on markets. Not just headlines, they want depth.
Structured thinking
Use frameworks (STAR, MECE). Goldman interviews are fast, rambling is the #1 reason candidates fail assessment centre.
Genuine motivation
"Why GS?" must be personal. Reference a deal, a person you spoke with, a specific event. Generic answers are instantly obvious.
Resilience under pressure
Assessment centre is 3-5 hours of back-to-back interviews. They test whether you maintain composure across the day.
Team orientation
Goldman's culture emphasises lean teams and collaboration. Evidence of working with others, not solo heroes.
Intellectual curiosity
People who read beyond the job description. Ask smart questions. Think about the division, not just the firm.
The edge: what separates offers from rejections
Specific moves most applicants skip. None of them need talent, only preparation.
- 01Reference a specific Goldman deal in your "Why GS?", go beyond their #1 M&A ranking
- 02Attend Goldman events (My GS Events) and name-drop people you met
- 03Know the difference between IBD divisions, M&A, ECM, DCM, leveraged finance
- 04HireVue: keep answers under 2 minutes, use STAR, practise with trial recording
- 05Assessment centre: prepare 3-4 anchor stories that demonstrate multiple competencies
Prep, stage by stage
Drill each Goldman Sachs round
Dedicated pages for the four rounds Goldman Sachs runs. The Pack covers all four end to end in one purchase.
Psychometric Tests
SHL, Cappfinity, Watson-Glaser and more, in the exact format Goldman Sachs uses.
HireVue
Real Goldman Sachs questions, identical timer, scored on six competencies.
Live Interview
Conversational mocks tuned to Goldman Sachs's style, with follow-ups.
Assessment Centre
Case work, technicals, group exercises. Full-day rehearsal.
Deeper intel
Inside Goldman Sachs
The deals, the positioning vs peers, the day-to-day, and what has shifted at Goldman Sachs in the last year. Everything you need for the "why this firm?" answer.
Recent deals and mandates
Capital One / Discover
$35bnLead adviser to Capital One on an all-stock acquisition to own a primary payments network.
Synopsys / Ansys
$35bnA complex cash-and-stock semiconductor and software deal, showcasing TMT-sector strength.
Kellanova / Mars
$36bnOne of the largest consumer-sector deals of the year, advising Kellanova.
Reddit IPO
$748mLead-left bookrunner, pricing at the top of the range with a directed-share programme for users.
Arm Holdings IPO
$5.2bnLead bookrunner on the largest US IPO in recent years.
How Goldman Sachs compares with peers
Goldman sits in a rarefied tier with JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, but its pitch is distinct. Where it is genuinely stronger than its bulge-bracket peers is pure-play M&A advisory and execution on complex, cross-border megadeals, particularly in TMT and the AI-infrastructure wave.
Against JPMorgan and Bank of America its weakness is a smaller balance sheet: it cannot always lean on huge corporate-lending relationships to win mandates. Against elite boutiques such as Evercore, Centerview and Lazard, which sell conflict-free advice, Goldman counters that modern megadeals need the financing and market intelligence only a full-service platform provides.
A day in the life of a first-year analyst
- 09:00Arrive and action the VP markups left overnight on the pitchbook slides.
- 12:00Deep modelling: comparable-companies analysis, Capital IQ data pulls, profile updates.
- 17:00Seniors return from client meetings and a fresh wave of requests lands.
- 20:00Dinner ordered to the desk, then back to iterating the deck.
- 00:30Final version sent. On live deals a 02:00 finish is common. Same again tomorrow.
What has changed at Goldman Sachs
- Stephan Feldgoise and Mark Sorrell have consolidated leadership of Global M&A.
- David Solomon has refocused the firm on Global Banking & Markets and wealth, winding down the Marcus consumer push.
- After bottom-decile headcount cuts in 2023, hiring stabilised through 2024 and 2025; 2026 graduate hiring is disciplined and skewed toward AI-infrastructure, Tech and Healthcare coverage.
- The five-day in-office mandate is strictly enforced.
Pay & culture
Working at Goldman Sachs
What they pay
Graduate
£75-85k base (50-80% bonus on top)
Internship
~£55,000 pro-rata
Perks
| Firm | Comp | Hours / week | Exit options |
|---|---|---|---|
| J.P. Morgan | ~£65K / ~£95K total | 65-75/week | Very strong |
| Morgan Stanley | ~£65K / ~£90K total | 70-80/week | Strong |
| Barclays | ~£50K / ~£75K total | 60-70/week | Moderate |
| Citi | ~£60K / ~£95K total | 65-75/week | Strong |
What working at Goldman Sachs is like
- Long hours, typically 70-80 hours/week for junior analysts in IBD
- 5 days in office, returned from hybrid
- Lean deal teams, juniors get more responsibility early
- "Apprenticeship culture", learning by doing
- Strong internal mobility between divisions
- Meritocratic promotion, performance-based
- Saturday working restrictions for analysts
- Goldman Sachs University, hundreds of online courses
Where Goldman Sachs analysts go next
Private equity
Mega-funds such as Blackstone, KKR, Apollo and Carlyle recruit on-cycle within months of an analyst starting; upper-mid-market funds such as Cinven, Permira and Advent also hire heavily in London.
Hedge funds
Multi-managers such as Citadel, Millennium and Point72, and event-driven or activist funds such as Elliott and Third Point.
Corporate development
In-house M&A and strategy roles at technology firms such as Google, Meta and Stripe, and healthcare firms such as Pfizer and GSK.
Startups and business school
Founding or joining high-growth startups, or moving on to HBS, Stanford GSB, LBS or INSEAD.
Timeline
When Goldman Sachs programmes open and close
By programme. Use these dates to plan applications across the cycle and submit early on rolling lines.
| Programme | Opens | Closes | Assessment | Offers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Week / Insight | Late August | Early January | September - January | October - February | Fast-track interviews on the final day of Spring Week for summer-internship offers. |
| Summer Internship | Early July | Early November (rolling) | July - November | September - December | 10-week execution with mid-term and end-of-summer performance reviews. |
| Off-Cycle Internship | Continuous | Continuous | - | - | Filled against immediate headcount needs. Conversions depend on individual performance and team headcount. |
| New Analyst (Full-Time) | Early July | Late October (rolling) | July - November | September - December | Limited direct hiring, most analyst slots fill from prior summer interns. |
| Degree Apprenticeship | September | Early January | October - February | January - April | Multi-year programme based in London and Birmingham. |
FAQ
Goldman Sachs application questions
How hard is it to get into Goldman Sachs?
Extremely difficult. The overall global acceptance rate for campus programmes, summer internships and full-time analyst lines, typically sits between 0.5% and 1.5% of total submitted applications. Core revenue divisions like Global Banking & Markets receive tens of thousands of applications for a limited number of regional slots, making it one of the most selective graduate recruitment processes globally.
What grades do I need to secure an interview?
In the UK market you typically need to be on track for or have achieved a First Class Honours or an Upper Second Class (2:1) undergraduate degree. Goldman has removed strict minimum UCAS tariff cut-offs to encourage a broader applicant pool, but a strong A-Level (or international equivalent) record is expected.
Does Goldman accept candidates from non-Russell-Group universities?
Yes. The early-stage CV selection process uses blind screening tools that hide candidate name and university to focus on academic performance and experience. High-performing students from non-target institutions can and do secure offers, though they often need to demonstrate exceptional achievements, distinct leadership experience or strong finance-competition performance to stand out in later rounds.
What is the offer conversion rate at each stage?
Year-to-year statistics are internal, but historical applicant data points to: Online Application → Psychometric (~25% advance); Psychometric → HireVue (~15-20%); HireVue → Superday (~10-15%); Superday → Offer (~5-10%).
Can I apply if I missed the deadline?
No. The firm maintains strict application timelines via the portal and systems close at midnight on the specified date. Because front-office roles run on rolling recruitment, positions can fill before the official close, early application is materially advantageous.
Does Goldman sponsor visas for graduate hires in the UK?
Yes. Goldman regularly sponsors Skilled Worker Visas for qualified international candidates joining full-time graduate or investment analyst tracks at Plumtree Court. Candidates must clear UK Home Office criteria; internship parameters can differ depending on the student's current right-to-work status.
How many people apply to Goldman Sachs campus programmes each year?
Globally, the firm receives over 100,000 applications annually for combined summer internship and new analyst roles. This scale of interest reinforces the need for polished CV presentation and distinct commercial awareness throughout the funnel.
What is the retention rate for first-year analysts?
First-year attrition typically sits around 10-15%, often driven by voluntary transitions to other opportunities or lifestyle adjustments. By the end of the standard two-year analyst cycle, roughly 50-60% of the cohort exits to the buy side or corporate roles; high performers are offered direct promotion to Associate.
What is the appropriate dress code for the Superday?
For both in-person sessions at Plumtree Court and formal virtual interviews, strict professional business attire. Men: well-fitted dark suit (navy or charcoal), conservative tie, plain dress shirt. Women: professional business suit, pantsuit or formal business dress.
Can I reapply if my application is rejected?
Yes, but you must wait until the following academic recruitment cycle. There is a strict one-application-per-cycle rule for campus positions: if you are rejected for a summer internship or graduate track, you cannot reapply for another role within that same annual cycle.
How does Goldman use AI in candidate screening?
The firm uses structured digital screening within the HireVue and portal systems to analyse video transcripts for keyword clusters, core competency indicators and communication clarity markers. High-scoring profiles are then routed to human HR teams for secondary review.
Do recruiters screen candidate social media accounts?
Yes. The firm uses comprehensive corporate compliance and background screening before finalising any formal offer. Publicly accessible accounts (LinkedIn, Facebook, X) may be reviewed for behavioural compliance, professional alignment and regulatory risk flags.
How important is networking before applying?
Networking does not guarantee an interview because of automated early screening. But building genuine professional connections with current analysts or associates provides useful insight. Referencing those conversations and specific team insights inside portal responses helps demonstrate strong, well-informed motivation.
What is the conversion rate from Spring Week to Summer Internship?
Typically between 50% and 75%. Fast-track interviews are held during or immediately after Spring Week, allowing high-performing insight students to lock summer-internship offers before the general public application cycle opens.
What is the conversion rate from Summer Internship to Full-Time Analyst?
Historically between 60% and 80% across core front-office divisions. Full-time offers are extended on consistent execution, teamwork and performance reviews across the 10-week summer programme.
How not to fail
Mistakes that cost candidates Goldman Sachs offers
Specific failure modes the firm screens out. None of these need talent to avoid, only awareness.
- 01Referencing outdated business strategies. Mentioning the expansion of Marcus or consumer retail credit as a primary growth driver during interviews. That strategy has been unwound; referencing it demonstrates poor commercial awareness.
- 02Failing basic three-statement accounting drills. Being unable to explain how a £100 depreciation charge flows through the income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet. Technical errors on foundational mechanics often result in immediate rejection in front-office interviews.
- 03Delivering monotonous or over-rehearsed HireVue responses. Reading pre-written answers from notes posted behind your screen. HR screeners easily spot the lack of natural cadence and eye contact.
- 04Individualistic arrogance during Superdays. Talking over other candidates in panel environments or presenting as a solo operator. The firm values a collaborative partnership model; overconfident personas are systematically filtered out.
- 05Submitting a multi-page or unstructured CV. Exceeding the strict single-page CV standard. Creative layouts, complex graphics or multi-page profiles are filtered out during the initial automated sift.
- 06Lacking depth on "Why Goldman Sachs". Giving generic answers about prestige and deal flow. You must reference specific strategic initiatives, financial shifts or current league-table performance to show genuine motivation.
- 07Weak technical knowledge on asserted experience. Listing a complex valuation method or transaction on your CV but being unable to explain its core components under cross-examination by an MD.
- 08Losing composure under stressful questioning. Becoming defensive or visibly frustrated when an interviewer deliberately challenges your logic or pushes on a technical error.
If you are rejected
What to do next
If you receive a rejection at any stage you cannot submit another application within the same annual cycle. The firm operates a strict one-application-per-cycle rule across its global student and graduate lines. You become eligible to reapply when the next academic cycle opens the following summer. Goldman does not provide individualised feedback for early-stage rejections due to applicant volume; limited qualitative feedback may be requested following a final-round Superday performance through your designated HR coordinator.
Elite US boutiques
Evercore, Lazard, PWP, Moelis. Distinct recruitment schedules, emphasis on deep technical ability and advisory focus.
Continental bulge bracket
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Barclays. Often run staggered application windows that extend later into the academic year.
Big 4 Lead Advisory
Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG. Joining the M&A advisory or transaction services arms provides fundamental training that supports lateral transition.
Mid-market boutiques
Rothschild & Co, Jefferies, Houlihan Lokey, HSBC. Secure a front-office analyst position, build a deal sheet over 12-18 months, apply as a lateral experienced hire when Goldman fills immediate headcount needs.
Goldman Sachs Pack
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Intervyo is not affiliated with or endorsed by Goldman Sachs. Process details are sourced from past applicants, the firm's published guidance and our own research; verify timings on the firm's official careers site before applying. Last updated 21 July 2026.
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