Next week, a select group of Goldman Sachs employees will receive one of the most coveted titles in finance: partner at the iconic Wall Street bank.
Goldman promotes its top talent—including traders, investment bankers, wealth managers, and professionals in tech and compliance—to partnership every two years, typically in early November. Achieving this role is a rare honor within the firm, where only a few of the roughly 45,000 employees are chosen. The partnership, once an exclusive club for leaders who invested their own capital in the firm, now has between 400 and 450 members, a number CEO David Solomon has kept intentionally lean.
“It’s the pinnacle of a career,” says Paul Argenti, a former Goldman advisor now teaching at Dartmouth. “Everyone’s trying to get there—it’s the top of the pyramid.”
The selection process, known as “crossruffing,” is exhaustive. Partners from across the firm interview potential candidates, gathering extensive feedback from colleagues on each nominee’s performance and character. These reviews, meant to avoid bias, are shared with a partnership committee, which conducts final assessments before selecting the new partners. “There’s always a tough debate over the last few spots,” recalls a former Goldman partner. “Plenty of qualified people still don’t make it.”
Important role inside the company
The partnership role holds significant influence within the company. Partners can sway major policies, influence CEO decisions, and help shape the bank’s strategy. They lead teams managing millions, sometimes billions, of dollars and sit on powerful internal committees. Exclusive benefits include a partners-only bonus pool, unique investment opportunities in Goldman’s funds without fees, and a dedicated wealth-management team. Philanthropy also plays a role: partners can direct funds through Goldman Sachs Gives, which has donated $2.5 billion to over 10,000 nonprofits.
Being a Goldman partner opens doors beyond the bank as well. “People attribute integrity, business acumen, intelligence, and teamwork to Goldman partners simply because of the title,” a former partner shared in Financial News.
Observers expect this year’s class to be heavy on investment bankers, given a 45% jump in profits last quarter driven by dealmaking, with investment banking fees up 24% year-over-year. Solomon, who has been gradually shrinking the size of the partnership to increase its exclusivity, admitted just 80 new partners in the last round. Insiders anticipate a similar number this year, perhaps slightly higher, given a “backlog of business” in the firm.
Underrepresented groups are expected to receive attention, following recent efforts by Solomon and Goldman leaders to address diversity within the upper ranks.