Goldman Sachs interns: woke, liberal, living off their parents

Do you have the right mindset to be an intern at Goldman Sachs? As someone who worked (full-time) at Goldman for a few years noted here earlier today, getting ahead at ‘the firm’ is about more than just scoring top grades in exams. You also need to be the right kind of person, and this year’s barometer of Goldman interns’ opinions suggests the kind of person that is.

Goldman interns are a curious combination of socially conservative and issues-alert. 97% think they’re going to own a house and 92% think they’re going to have a family. But 83% want a carbon tax to tackle climate change. And 85% want to legalize cannabis for recreational use and 48% (59% in the U.S.) think it should be legalized for recreational use as well. 72% (76% in EMEA) think there should be another Brexit referendum in the U.K.

Goldman’s summer 20-somethings like fancy travel and takeout food. – They prefer staying in hotels to an Airbnb and the highest proportion (38%) said they were likely to eat a takeout meal that night, possibly because they were on the Goldman internship and anticipating a Seamless delivery.

Worryingly for Goldman, a big proportion of its AI-interviewed new generation don’t plan to stick around. 60% said want to be entrepreneurs. They value caffeine over water, rarely meditate and don't see simply sitting on a beanbag as a valid form of relaxation, which might come as news to anyone redesigning technology offices. They're the embodiment of contemporary contradictions - they prefer books to screens and don't believe their data is secure, but they have four hours+ per day in screen-time, which they seemingly weren't bothered about.

What Goldman’s new intake also weren’t was especially troubled about the problems of a growing population in a world of finite resources (a combination that could be posited as people worse off than themselves). Only 9% said ‘resource constraints’ would have 'the most profound global impact' in 10 years time, with far more (42%) voting artificial intelligence as the change agent for their generation. They also weren’t entirely self-sufficient – even though they earned protated salaries of around $77k during their Goldman internships, said 65% said they were still using 'someone else's service' (ie. a parent's Netflix or cell phone account).

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash

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