JPMorgan is ramping up hiring of investment banking analysts and associates. The bank recently restricted the working hours of its junior employees and reported a 31% jump in transaction fees. The fourth quarter is typically a slow hiring period for investment banks.
Thank you for registering!
Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed on the go. Download the app
By clicking “Sign Up”, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You can opt-out at any time by visiting our settings page or by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email.
The much-anticipated recovery in investment banking has not yet fully materialized, but that hasn’t stopped the nation’s largest banks from adding staff.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is in the midst of an off-cycle hiring spree for young investment bankers, according to people familiar with the bank’s hiring efforts and online job boards. The bank recently introduced parameters to protect analysts and employees from burnout, and reported a significant increase in trading fees.
JPMorgan has posted about nine new roles for investment banking analysts and associates on its website in the past two weeks, adding talent to teams advising financial institutions and healthcare companies on mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets. I’m looking for. This department provides advice regarding IPOs.
The bank is also aggressively hiring more junior bankers to join its M&A team, which works with experts in the field of mergers and acquisitions, said a person recently asked to recommend talent to the bank. This person requested anonymity to protect relationships within the bank.
Industry headhunters told Business Insider that online job postings tend to have limited visibility into investment banking hiring, as much of Wall Street’s hiring is done through internal referrals and internal and external headhunters. He said there is. In fact, JPMorgan’s careers page recently posted two positions for internal recruiters at the investment bank, presumably to help recruit more bankers.
A JPMorgan executive with knowledge of the bank’s hiring efforts said the increase was a result of overall growth and deal flow, not the bank’s new policy to protect junior bankers from burnout. Wall Street dealmakers just had one of their brightest quarters in three years, and JPMorgan was a big beneficiary. The company’s investment banking fees jumped 31% year over year in the third quarter.
Related articles
The executive also said the bank is hiring at all levels of investment banking this year. JPMorgan’s website lists two vice president positions on its M&A team, in addition to senior positions in its investment banking division.
What makes this hire unusual is its “off-cycle” timing. The pipeline for early career investment bankers is highly structured and systematic. Banks hire new first-year analysts every summer, usually in July. But landing that job typically requires a summer internship with a prospective investment banking employer, a process that often begins during your sophomore year of college. The associate pipeline is similarly disciplined and consists primarily of former analysts who have been promoted or are direct hires of MBAs. Offseason hiring from other banks is not unheard of, but tends to be limited.
JPMorgan recently announced that junior bankers will be limited to 80 hours per week, with some key exceptions. A human resources department was also created to specifically oversee the welfare of junior bankers.
100-hour work weeks are prevalent in a high-pressure industry, and the death of a Bank of America associate in May sparked fresh outcry over working conditions for junior bankers.
That same month, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank’s executives were evaluating news of the deaths and asking themselves, “What can we learn from this?” Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on JPMorgan’s new policy, the bulge bracket bank’s boldest yet, to alleviate concerns about the industry’s harsh work culture.
The hire comes as years of stalled deal negotiations have made investment banking jobs even more competitive than usual. One headhunter in the investment banking industry, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said bank hiring was “painfully slow” in the first six months of 2024. However, in the past month or two, he has seen a significant increase in the number of customers seeking to hire bank employees.
“The horizontal hiring market in the fourth quarter is typically one of the weakest markets,” the recruiter said. “But companies are taking advantage of increased trading activity.”
