You don't have to move jobs to succeed

Loyalty is not a word often associated with investment bankers. The stereotypical banking career involves plenty of moving between employers, usually in search of more money and faster promotion.

But for an industry known for its mercenary free agents, investment banking employs a lot of what headhunters despairingly call lifers.

They are people who have spent most, if not all, their careers with the same firm. Having worked their way up through the ranks, they are usually fairly senior. They are frequently among a bank's most prized employees and, in most cases, they have no intention of going elsewhere.

Nigel Glaister, chief administrative officer at Lehman Brothers in London, last week celebrated 20 years with the US bank. He said he is perfectly happy where he is: "Everyone gets telephone calls from headhunters, but I have never seriously considered anything else. I have been able to satisfy all my career aspirations here."

Many other Lehman employees are equally monogamous. Glaister shared his celebratory bash with 50 colleagues who had spent 10 years with the bank. Another anniversary event is planned in six months' time. Glaister said every year at least 80 people celebrate spending a decade with Lehman.

Morgan Stanley is known for inspiring similar levels of loyalty. James Hickman at Russell Reynolds, a search firm, said working for the US bulge-bracket bank is seen by some as a way of life rather than a job: "If you go to Morgan Stanley and you fit, the chances are you will spend most of your career there."

Jonathan Chenevix-Trench is one of those who fitted. He joined Morgan Stanley as an analyst in 1984 and now runs the global foreign exchange and interest rate business. He said: "I was asked in my interview how long I was planning to stay at Morgan Stanley. I remember saying I would like to stay a couple of years and then reassess what I wanted to do. Twenty years later, here I am."

Most banks are endowed with at least a handful of lifers. Goldman Sachs has more than its fair share, including Lloyd Blankfein, its president, who has been there for 20 years. An example at JP Morgan is John Mayne, joint head of Northern European debt capital markets, who joined 17 years ago. UBS boasts some long-serving former SG Warburg bankers, such as Lord Roll of Ipsden, a senior adviser, who joined as chairman 30 years ago and is 97.

Precisely what transforms a normal job into a lifelong mission with the same employer is open to question. However, it probably involves a combination of satisfying internal job moves and a lot of restricted stock and options.

Chenevix-Trench started in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley before moving to fixed income. He said the bank has gone out of its way to keep him engaged: "Managers want to keep you interested. If they see you getting bored, they will scratch their heads and think of what challenge they can give you next."

At Lehman, Glaister said he has done five jobs during his 20-year tenure. "I joined in the finance group, then headed operations and went on to become chief administrative officer in equities. I had a couple of years on secondment to a cost-reduction programme and then took up the role I do now."

Neither Glaister nor Chenevix-Trench mentioned restricted stock or options as an inducement to stay but it plays a significant role in persuading people to remain for years with their employer - after all, that is the point of them.

Paul Tapp, a consultant at Longbridge, a search firm, said people who have been with the same employer for a long time can be hard to entice away because moving would mean forgoing stock built up over years of bonuses: "Few new employers will buy you out for considerable amounts in cash," he said.

Spending a long time with the same employer can become self-perpetuating: "The longer you stay with one firm the more stuck and institutionalised you become," said Tapp.

One long-serving banker agreed that the more faithful you are to one boss, the less attractive you are to others. "By staying in one place for a long time you are seen as less marketable. The telephone rings far less frequently with calls from headhunters nowadays," he said.

Many bankers succeed by moving from one employer to another. John Studzinksi and John Mack spent years with Morgan Stanley before moving on to HSBC and Credit Suisse First Boston respectively.

Nevertheless, Chenevix-Trench and Glaister said there were advantages in long service. Glaister said: "Once you've established credibility it will move with you internally. There is no need to re-establish yourself."

Chenevix-Trench said job-hoppers rarely got a chance to let their talents shine: "It takes a long time to get to know a firm so that you can do your job at the best possible level. If you hip-hop between firms in a few years it can be debilitating. You are unlikely to be able to optimise your abilities."

He said the financial benefits to be obtained from moving jobs were mostly illusory: "Usually you will move somewhere else for a premium, only to see higher pay adjusted down to the business norm a few years later. It's better to assess which is the best platform on which to exercise your talents. If you're good, we believe that in the medium to longer term you can earn as much or probably more here as anywhere else."