The most satisfying job in finance. Why Goldman hired an underwear executive

Surprise! Much as it may sometimes seem that a career in investment banking is about as much fun as an all-cabbage diet, that isn't the case. Most people like their careers in the industry: they have no regrets; but some people have fewer regrets than others.

Bloomberg reports that 70% of investment bankers aged 35 to 45 have no regrets about their choice of career and would do it all again if they could. This compared to 56% of quants and 68% of traders. So, maybe IBD isn't such a bad choice of career after all.

Longer term, however, trading looks like the most satisfying career of the lot: only 17% of traders aged 45+ said they had regrets about their choice of job, compared to 30%+ in other professions.

Among the minority of investment bankers with a hypothetical interest in reorienting their careers, the most popular alternative was medicine. This, "shows that even though they’re working in finance, there is this altruistic side, they want to help people,” said Jessica Lee, a director at recruitment company Options Group, who conducted the survey.

Separately, Goldman Sachs is hiring. But it's not hiring the sorts of people you might expect. Reuters reports that the bank has recently hired Dustin Cohn, the former marketing officer at underwear company Jockey International to run the branding for its new online lending business. As that business expands, it's also looking for engineers, data scientists, operations staff and customer services professionals. The latter suggests that it may even be possible to work for a Goldman Sachs call centre.

The Problem At Credit Suisse (Financial Times) 

 Where Thiam's strategy falls down: Wealthy people want lots of investment banking services — they are rich and they want to become richer. If you want to be big in one, you have to be big in the other. 

Thanks For The Promotion (Reuters) 

The head of global FIG syndicate at BNP Paribas was only promoted in April. And now he's off.

Poaching Wars (New York Times) 

Perella Weinberg is suing some former employees whom it says tried to poach its entire restructuring team for a whole new firm.

Where to Work Now (Bloomberg)

Sentient Technologies: the new hottest place to work on Wall Street.

RBS Backlash (Financial Times) 

RBS and its former directors, including Fred Goodwin, who was chief executive, are being sued for £4bn by thousands of shareholders claiming they were misled into signing up to the £12bn rights issue months before the bank’s near collapse.

Keeping Employees Trim (Telegraph) 

Subsidized Fitbits for all at Barclays.

Men Vs Women in Law (SSRN)

Male lawyers bill ten percent more hours and bring in more than twice the new client revenue than do female lawyers.

Quote of the Day:

“If we make it a top priority we will crack it.. It’s like defeating ISIS,” banks are hiring ex-army people as compliance professionals.