Evaluation of the Hiring Process: SG Cowen - Case Study Example

What is your evaluation of the hiring process used by the firm? The banking and investment banking industry has been historically one of the most profitable industries in the world. Recently there have been changes in the industry that have forced many companies to downsize. SG Cowen is investment banking company that is currently looking for new recruits. The company must select good candidates. Currently labor cost represents 50% of the revenues of the firm. Currently the business environment in the investment banking industry is down. Chip Rae the top recruiter for SG Cowen had to select two candidates from hundreds of potential clients at a job fair the firm sponsored. SG Cowen made hiring decision during the early winter and spring of each year in order to fill all available position prior to the start of the summer. The company would hire associates that lacked a college education. These types of employees would be hired as associates, but they would not be promoted to first year associates until the end of their third year as employees. The company believed that working experience at the bank substituted the knowledge a person that went to school for four years would have. Other candidates were hired as interns during the first or second year of business school and were subsequently given full time employment at the end of their internship the following summer. The hiring process for outside associates begins in the fall when SG Cowen would make company presentations at top business schools such as NYU, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, USC, Washington University, and Notre Dame. SG Cowen would not discard any candidate, thus they were willing to accept application from students from non-core universities around the nation. SG Cowen would often perform informal interviews with candidates in their office prior to the official interview in which the candidate would be evaluated. One of the recruiting strategies utilized by Rae was to assigned team captains to every school in which the company perform a recruiting effort in order to create a familiar point of contact for the students. The team captains were not human resource professional they were usually investment bankers. The highest quality recruiting yield for the company occurred at the Johnson School of Business at Cornell. What is your evaluation of the criteria used by this organization in making hiring decision? SG Cogen utilizes various strategies and criteria in their selection process of candidates. A thing that was disturbing about the criteria process of the bank was that the bank was willing to accept people that had cero college experience as associates. Despite the fact that these employees would not be given first year associate status until the third year I believe that this strategy is completely flawed. It is impossible for a person to learn the business knowledge a college graduate accumulates by simply working for the bank for a few years. These types of hires are people that do not have a long-term future with the company due to the fact that promoting a high school graduate to a higher position would be an irresponsible move that would not be viewed as a good decision by the board of directors or by the shareholders of the company. With the current job market in which they are thousands of qualified college graduates looking for work there is no room for a bank to give a job to a non-college graduate. One of the strategies or approaches utilized by the firm to attract recruits is to sell the company as a boutique firm. In such a firm the employees have a greater chance for advancement due to the fact that the firm has a system that is not bureaucratic. The company in its job fairs at universities utilized the captains to make small presentations to allow substantial time to informally talk and answer candidate’s questions. Some team captains would tell students they could call them and come by their offices for informational interviews. This strategy helps create relationships with candidates. One of the problems with the criteria of giving the captains power is that these employees do not receive any type of additional incentive or compensation for their efforts. There is a high variability in the efforts given by the different team captains. A way to solve this dilemma is by giving the team captains a cash reward bonus for each employee that they successfully recruit for employment. The company uses both open and closed interview at the core schools they are targeting. During their informal interviews with candidates the captains must provide interview notes within the resume or evaluation sheets. During their first contact things such as the clothing of the candidates are important. Also candidates that ask questions regarding the long hours that an investment banker must put in are discarded. During the first round of interviews the candidates cultural fit of the candidate is considered. The end of the recruiting process of the company is regarded as super Saturday. The candidates from the different schools that make it to super Saturday are exposed to five half hour interviews. There are usually 30 bankers present at super Saturday to evaluate the candidates. The candidates that are chosen on super Saturday return for an orientation in April prior to starting their jobs. The company used grid sheets as part of their hiring criteria to be filled out by the bankers in order to make a case for a candidate. The company looks for self-starter; prior experience in entrepreneurship is encouraged. The resume is one of the most important documents that are used as part of the criteria to select a candidate. Which two candidates would you select and why? Out of the four candidates the first person I would choose is Natalya Godlweka. Natalya is an excellent candidate due to the fact that she was the student with the top GPA out of her undergraduate finance class. Natalya is a highly motivated individual that continued her education by entering graduate school. She had the support of her peers due to the fact she was given a job by her school as a teacher’s assistant. Another great attribute Natalya has is that she is bilingual. Actually she is more than bilingual she can speak four languages. Her work references were excellent. The concern of two of the captain of her English being a little slow is irrelevant due to the fact that in the United States diversity is a welcomed asset. I discarded the second candidate Martin Sheet due to the fact he had no business experience. The third candidate Ken Gold stein had an excellent background. A negative aspect of his background was that he had a wife with very young children which created doubt whether he could be willing to work extra long hours and be available 24/7. The fourth candidate Andy Sanchez was a 2nd year MBA student who was a perfect fit for the company. Andy was an entrepreneur that successfully created a $2 million online tutoring business. His undergraduate background was in economics which implies he has excellent analytical abilities. He had a great personality and excellent people skills. Read More