SG Cowen, is a boutique investment bank, was born in July 1998. With the purpose of being competitive in investment bank industry, SG Cowen is to attract the highest-quality professional associates among top schools and some from outsides. As other firms in winter and spring every year, SG Cowen again is in hiring process to fill a new class of associates. After hiring process, there are two spots remaining out of four people in the “maybe” category. Chip Rae, and the director of recruiting with 30 bankers are having difficulties on making the final decision.
Based on the various opinions and feedback from interviews, the issue to address is that how to decide which two should be selected rather than others. The criteria used by SG Cowen in making hiring decisions are good. As considering the current high competitive situation in investment banking industry, and in order to recruit talent for long term. It is fairly important to select candidates who are more interested and commitment to firm. Moreover, bankers need to use their judgment and be maturity to make decisions by themselves, since SG Cowen is a bank of high autonomy.
Because SG Cowen is dealing with exposure of clients, the interpersonal skills are essential as criteria in hiring. Based on the information given in case, the firm needs people go-getters and self-driven. Therefore, leadership should be considered. And candidates with well technical skills are highly needed. Lastly, due to the small size of SG Cowen, employees have to be flexible and highly motivation. All in all, I think these criteria in evaluation form are good in all extends. Considering all these four candidates, from my point of view, Ken Goldstein and Andy Sanchez should be selected.
Since both of them are culture fit with the firm and own sufficient business skills as well. Moreover, both of them are commitment to firm. Lastly, based on their work experience and own entrepreneurship separately, they can reasonable to exploit with clients by their good social skills. The reasons why did not choose Nataly are culture unfit and weak social skills. Since from the interview, Nataly was stiff and felt uncomfortable during small talk, which would be usual working situations with clients.
Besides, Nataly’s English is less than perfect, which will influence in smooth of working with colleagues. Martin is not selected mainly based on its insufficient business skills and work experience. Furthermore, since his long time in army, he would be less creativity. Another reason is that he involved in many recruiting events, which means SG Cowen is not his first choice. All in all, Ken and Andy not only have skills as what other two candidates have but also have better interpersonal skills as well, which can leads to a better performance to firm.
By considering overall, benefits of selecting them overweight their defeats. The negative hiring experience I had is that I were applying for an internship in China Construction Bank, there were 20 candidates and only 2 internship spots were available. During the interview, interviewer was asking several questions. However, when questions about what our bank culture is were asked and the reason chooses to apply here. I had no idea about its company culture and what reasons. Therefore, the most important indicators of selecting candidates are culture fit and loyalty.
