By 8:30 a.m., they were already lined up in the lobby of 200 West Street in downtown Manhattan.
Antsy with anticipation, the wide-eyed college students eagerly awaited their turn to be handed the ID badges that would open the doors to a summer of work at one of the most storied financial institutions in the world.
Outside, two students asked a stranger to snap a photo of them in front of the building. They grinned in their suits, side by side, before heading inside to join the queue. Around the corner, other interns were filing out of a nearby hotel,which Goldman owns and uses to house summer trainees.
It was Monday, June 10, the first day of Goldman Sachs' 2024 summer internships at its Manhattan headquarters. The morning was windy and chilly on the island's lower West Side, and the interns were dressed more formally than some of the full-timers — slacks, blazers, heels, ties, loafers, and tote bags all around. Gusts of wind blew the young men's ties and tossed women's hair as they walked together in groups, asking each other where they went to school.
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Under the cheery mood, there was a palpable excitement —and some jitters. While any internship is important, those on Wall Street can be the most direct route to scoring an entry-level job in the industry after graduation. At the end of the summer, the bank will offer interns who do well a job to return full-time as entry-level analysts after graduation. And this year's class has already moved mountains just to get in, as demand for summer jobs at top financial firms continues to skyrocket.
For the first time ever, the Wall Street firm peeled back the curtain on some of its intern events, giving Business Insider an exclusive look at the first few days of training and festivities at its New York City headquarters. From the Goldman Sachs-labeled cookies to the letter CEO David Solomon sent to this summer's cohort offering advice, here is what it was like for the rising college seniors who made it into Goldman's 2024 summer internship program.
Inside Day One
Wall Street, by some estimates, has never been a more coveted career destination for college students than it is now. Goldman Sachs received a record 315,126 applications for its 2024 internship program, up severalfold from the 53,107 applications it received a decade ago. This year, it accepted 2,700 of those applicants, for an acceptance rate of less than 1%. JPMorgan Chase also accepted less than 1% of its intern hopefuls this year after receiving close to half a million applications, as BI has previously reported.
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About 1,000 of Goldman's roughly 2,700 global interns are in New York for their first week. Most will stay here for the rest of the summer, while some will go to offices in other cities like Dallas, San Francisco, and West Palm Beach.
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From the start, they are assigned to the division where they will work over the next 10 weeks. Within some divisions, like interns rotate teams throughout the summer. In others, like the investment bank, interns spend their summer on one team.
Day 1 began with basics like how to access their Goldman email account and log into their company dashboards. By Tuesday morning, the interns received a welcome letter from Goldman's CEO offering some words of advice on how to make the most of the program. The email, a copy of which was obtained by BI, included 5 guiding principles, including "don't be in a hurry" and "bring people along." (See a full copy of the email further down.)
"Never underestimate the power of the collective," Solomon said. "Take the time to listen to the perspectives of those around you and encourage the free flow of ideas to achieve stronger outcomes."
After breakfast, the interns were divided into groups to hear from the leaders of their division. Students in the asset and wealth management division, for example, heard from partners and group heads like Will Bousquette, Jean Altier, and Lou D'Ambrosio, who led sessions like "Introduction to AWM" and "The Culture of AWM" on Monday morning.
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Before they even got Solomon's letter, the interns were instinctively taking opportunities to make connections. Before heading into their first training sessions, the interns could be seen socializing over catered breakfast in an alcove of the Goldman lobby —sipping coffee, drinking mini orange juices, nibbling on fruit, and munching on bagels. In the ladies' restroom, young women were exchanging words of encouragement: "We got this!" one said to another.
For lunch, the bank served sandwiches and wraps and displayed chocolate-covered cookies emblazoned with the Goldman Sachs logo for dessert. Some interns took their brown bag lunches to common areas of the lobby to socialize, while others towed them to an affinity group networking meeting upstairs.
Their first-day itinerary ended at about 7:30 p.m. following a 6:00 reception at the Sky Lobby on the 11th floor, which houses conference rooms and a cafeteria and has been called the building's "living room" by its lead architect.
The rest of the week will holds keynote speeches from leaders of the firm like Dan Dees, co-head of global banking and markets. And the students, depending on their team and division, are also socializing off-site at places like City Vineyard, a restaurant on the Hudson River.
See Solomon's full letter to interns below:
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Are you a young Wall Street professional with an experience to share? Contact this reporter at ebrownstein@businessinsider.com, or SMS/Signal/Telegram at 305-857-5516.
