Morning Coffee: Being a 39 year-old partner at GS may not be a lot of fun. 1st jobs that pay $270k

If you're a partner at Goldman Sachs aged 39, you might think you'll be set for life financially. Maybe so, but you'll have to sweat blood while you're in that partner seat.

Take Adam Savarese, the 39 year-old head of distressed debt trading at Goldman Sachs. Bloomberg says Savarese works around the clock. Before markets open, Savarese reportedly visits the gym with fellow traders. Thereafter, he arrives in the office before anyone else. At lunch, he likes to take juniors out "to talk about the careers." When markets close he stays behind in the office later than anyone else. And in the evenings he's been known to host "dinners and other events for clients." That's not a lot of time to himself.

Like plenty of people in finance, Savarese is clearly a grafter. "“He wasn’t a brainiac but did very well in school because he worked very hard,” the head of alumni relations for his high school tells Bloomberg.

To the extent that Savarese managed to join Goldman Sachs as a partner before his 40th birthday, this work ethic has paid off. More recently, however, things have come unstuck for the 39 year-old: Bloomberg suggests losses in Savarese's division contributed to Goldman's miserable first quarter in fixed income trading (although Goldman insists the structure of its business and its focus on institutional rather than corporate clients was to blame). Aspersions are also being cast upon Savarese's performance at Morgan Stanley, which he left for Goldman in 2015, and where the distressed debt book allegedly performed badly after his departure. Could it be time for a more leisurely pace?

Separately, if you want an entry-level banking job that pays $270k, you need to study an MBA at Stanford Business School. The Financial Times' new ranking of MBAs for finance professionals finds that Stanford MBAs are paid the most. $266k is the average starting salary for Stanford MBAs with finance jobs: 104% more than before they took the course.

Meanwhile:

David Solomon on Goldman's poor first quarter: "Our business is levered to times when clients have a lot of conviction and one of the things that happened in the first quarter was that conviction ebbed.” (Bloomberg) 

You have more chance of supporting a hedge fund than working in a hedge fund. There are 115,000 people working in hedge funds and 275,000 people working in the auditing, legal and brokerage firms that support hedge funds. (Financial Times) 

Jes Staley, post-whistleblowing scandal: “The culture and conduct and character of this bank is deeply, deeply important to me. We’ve made a lot of progress, but it’s a long journey and we are going to continue to push forward that agenda.”  (Bloomberg) 

Credit Suisse's initial earnings release misstated its trading figures. (Bloomberg) 

President Trump wants to increase tax carried interest but to reduce tax on income created at partnerships and other firms. This could mean that hedge fund owners pay proportionately less tax than hedge fund employees.(WSJ)

Deutsche Bank's new CFO is a descendent of the Prussian general Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, as well as Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, who led a resistance group against Adolf Hitler. (Financial Times) 

Nomura's hiring in America and cutting in Europe. It's also turned profitable. (Bloomberg) 

High frequency trading needs high touch relationships. Discuss. (Greenwich) 

Why a standing desk is a bad idea in a busy office. (Quartz) 

When you're an analyst and your boss is a tyrant with a neurotic wife. (WSO) 

Drinking coffee keeps you alive. (NY Post) 

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: working late by gato-gato-gato is licensed under CC BY 2.0.