Goldman Sachs’ Global Head of Human Capital Management on Insights From Our Interns

Goldman Sachs’ Global Head of Human Capital Management, Jacqueline Arthur, discusses the recent release of the annual Goldman Sachs Summer Intern Survey and the firm’s approach to attracting and retaining high-performing individuals as the fall recruiting season progresses.

How do you think about building your candidate pipeline for roles at Goldman Sachs?

Jac: At Goldman Sachs, our client-centric mindset permeates everything we do – it’s a commitment to delivering the best service to our clients.  When we look for candidates to join the firm, our priority is to identify exceptional individuals who will want to make a positive impact for the clients they serve, whether internally or externally, as a member of our highly motivated and engaged teams around the world.  

Importantly, we look for candidates who will bring a wide range of unique backgrounds and experiences, and therefore cast a wide net in our recruiting efforts.  We saw over one million applications globally in 2022 for roles at the firm, and more than 260,000 applications for our summer internship program in 2023 – demonstrating the firm’s position as an employer of choice.  From our summer, campus and experienced hire recruiting efforts, to initiatives such as our Returnship Program and Neurodiversity Hiring Initiative, we are connecting with incredible people year-round who are interested in exploring career opportunities with us.  

Tell us about Goldman Sachs’ internship and campus programs, and what makes them unique.

Jac: Goldman Sachs is one of the very best places to build an impactful and rewarding career, and our summer internship and campus programs are designed to provide rich opportunities to learn about our businesses, build relationships with colleagues across divisions and regions, and contribute to meaningful projects.  Our goal is to help our new joiners experience our culture first-hand and explore all that the firm has to offer – from our focus on driving results and executing with excellence in a team environment, to our commitment to giving back through programs such as Community TeamWorks, our annual global volunteering initiative.

We also place a strong emphasis on coaching and feedback as part of our apprenticeship culture – all of our interns receive feedback to guide their professional growth over the course of their summer program, and our campus hires become integrated in our Three Conversations at GS framework as they progress in their Goldman Sachs career, with a goal-setting check-in, a mid-year touchpoint and year-end discussion. 

We’re also interested in listening to and learning from our people, whether they have just joined or been with the firm for many years. Our biannual Pulse Survey is a helpful conduit to hear from our people on all aspects of their experience at the firm and actions we can take to support our workforce’s evolving needs. In addition to asking our interns about their summer with us, we are now in our eighth year of a survey that focuses specifically on how they see the world, and how they think about the future. 

Why did you decide to conduct this survey, and what did you find most interesting in the results?

Jac: While our interns are with us for 9 to 10 weeks, the program flies by and we always wish we had even more opportunities to tap into their ideas and perspectives.  With the survey, we’re able to learn more about their views on a range of topics – from the impact of artificial intelligence, to what they look for in a job.  We also take this opportunity to ask some fun questions, and this year did not miss the chance to ask them if they planned to watch Barbie and/or Oppenheimer.

I enjoyed learning about their positive outlook for artificial intelligence, with 81 percent sharing they believe AI will have a net positive impact on society and 86 percent using AI in their personal lives, primarily to do research.  Everyone is focused on the opportunities – and pitfalls – associated with the technology, and our interns’ positive outlook aligns with my own cautious optimism.  We will all need to identify and manage to the risks that arise and set appropriate guardrails, but I appreciate the desire to learn more about where solutions can help our people find new ways of doing things and better serve our clients.  

Over the years, we’ve also seen their interest in climate change and geopolitical tensions as having a profound impact on the world around them. Another point that stood out to me was what they value most about in-person connectivity.  Over the years, we’ve learned that 99 percent of respondents to this survey believe relationships are best-formed in person, but this year we wanted to put a finer point on this data as we’ve moved past the pandemic – what types of interactions are most beneficial to have in-person.  We deeply value in-person collaboration at Goldman Sachs, and feel our culture of apprenticeship can answer to the 87 percent of respondents who shared that in-person work is very important to receive coaching and training from those around them, as well as to form spontaneous connections. 

How are you incorporating the findings into Goldman Sachs initiatives and programs? 

Jac: In my role, I work with leaders across all of our businesses who are focused on developing thoughtful and deliberate strategies to manage our talent and create opportunities for our people to thrive at the firm and outside of work. Among other findings, I was interested in the different comfort levels the respondents had discussing mental health with those around them, whether that’s at school or with friends and family. 

At Goldman Sachs, we continue to provide best-in-class benefits for our people, while ensuring they can focus on their physical, mental and financial health.  I am particularly passionate about growing our mental health initiatives, including scaling our Mental Health First Aid program globally and driving openness on this important topic.  More than 500 Goldman Sachs colleagues globally are now certified as MHFAiders – an internationally recognized certification – and we are now focused on training another 500 colleagues to reach 1,000 MHFAiders by the end of 2024.  We offer an Employee Assistance Program to our people at all times, and see how important it is to provide support year-round, in addition to during periods of heightened uncertainty as we are seeing now. The Israel-Hamas war continues to affect millions of innocent civilians across Israel, Gaza and the broader region – and its impact reverberates around the world, weighing on all of us. It’s critical that we support one another, and MHFAiders complement our firmwide programs by providing on-floor support.   

Beyond that, when I’m asked about my role leading HCM, I and many of my colleagues often come back to this – no matter how cliché: it’s all about the people and the firm’s culture.  We share a passion for achieving results, driving our strategy forward to better serve our clients, and pursing excellence in everything we do.  It’s wonderful to see the emphasis our interns place on what they do and with whom they work as their top two choices when assessing future job opportunities. 

Finally, what surprised you?

Jac: I thought we’d see more podcasters, but maybe that’s because I love a good podcast. The “This or That” section is always fun too – I side with the world travelers, small gatherings, coffee drinkers and butter cohort!