Application Process

Completing an application is your first step towards a career with Goldman Sachs.

The more we know about you, the better we can match you with a suitable opportunity. Before you begin, consider reviewing the following areas of our Web site, which offer insight on our firm and areas of business:

New Associate

Training

Reward

Diversity

In addition to completing our online application, it is important that you comply with any application procedures and requirements your graduate school may require. You should also review our Key Dates for regional guidelines.

Prepare to provide the following information on your application:

• Contact information
• Education history
• Language skills
• Exam results
• Work experience
• Honors, certification, technical skills, and other skills
• Motivations for applying to Goldman Sachs

Additional requirements

• Language Skills. There are specific language requirements for some of our European and Asian offices
• Exam Results and Supporting Documentation. If you are studying in a European country, you may be asked to submit grade transcripts (Austria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia, Spain, and Switzerland). Please be sure to include these documents, otherwise your application will be incomplete
• Work Experience. Be sure to indicate all of your prior relevant work experience, and indicate how your experiences and achievements demonstrate your potential to succeed at Goldman Sachs
• Motivations for applying. In the cover letter portion of the application, you will be asked to provide examples of the qualities you would bring to Goldman Sachs and describe your motivations for applying.

Review your application

You can apply for up to two divisions and two locations. Make sure all information on your application is factual and complete before you submit it. Our recruiters, interviewers and managers rely on this information throughout the recruitment process. When we review applications, we look for an outstanding, compelling combination of academic achievement and active involvement in clubs, sports or vocational activities.

Apply Now

What to Expect

Your first interview with us will be with the regions and/or divisions you selected on your application.
Interviews are typically held on campus or in our offices with up to two Goldman Sachs professionals from the same division. In this first interview, we will focus primarily on your past experiences and accomplishments as well as your general suitability for a particular area of the firm. It’s also an opportunity for you to learn more about us.

You may be interviewing with more than one region or division, therefore you may receive two separate invitations to interview in a second-round process.

What We Look For

Throughout the interviewing process, we look for several characteristics in all our candidates. We look for individuals who can balance competition and teamwork, intensity and integrity, intellectual curiosity and leadership potential. We’ve summarized some additional characteristics below.

• A passion for excellence: We share a determination to achieve excellence in every project we undertake.
• Belief in the power of the group: Our environment is collaborative. We actively solicit ideas from one another, act on consensus wherever possible, and ensure that all team members get the credit for a job well done.
• Integrity: Trust — both personal and professional — is the heart of our business. Once you are part of our team, we expect you to maintain the highest ethical standards and maintain fairness in everything you do.
• Leadership: We expect team members to demonstrate leadership qualities — taking initiative to think a problem through in a different way, going the extra mile for a client or colleague, and taking the long-term view whenever possible.
• A desire to be challenged: We constantly work to find new and better ways of doing things for both our clients and our firm. We look for people with motivation and a desire to be at a place where your intellect is challenged to the fullest.
• The drive to make your mark on the world: We want to know about the ways in which you have challenged yourself to excel, where you have served as a team leader or an active team participant, and instances in which your innovation and creative thinking have generated successful outcomes. To do this, you'll need a strong sense of purpose and motivation – one that you can bring to your work every day.

How To Prepare

• Before your first interview, learn as much as you can about Goldman Sachs, our culture, and the areas in which we do business.
• Because you will be applying for a specific division or region within the Goldman Sachs organization, we will want you to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of those particular areas of focus.
• If you are applying from an advanced degree program, we will want to learn about particular coursework, projects, and internships that you may have undertaken, and how those experiences have shaped your understanding of the world of finance.
• If you are applying for the new associate position with several years of work experience, we will want to understand how your experiences in the field have challenged and prepared you to take the next step in your career.

In the second and any subsequent interviews, you will meet with individuals from the specific divisions for which you have applied. These interviews will be more technical in nature. We will look for you to possess competence and working knowledge of the basics of the particular area to which you are applying.

We will continue to assess your compatibility with the firm's culture and test your knowledge of the industry.

If your interviews are successful and we feel you would make a positive addition to the Goldman Sachs team, we will extend an offer to you. During the interview process we will explain the particular timelines and deadlines.

Broadly speaking, we generally let candidates know of their status within 48-72 hours of the conclusion of the interview process. The Goldman Sachs recruiter will communicate next steps and the appropriate response time.