The bank doubling graduate recruitment, eschewing 80-hour weeks, espousing hybrid work
When students contemplate their ideal banking employer, it's not usually BNY. This is partly because BNY hasn't historically been a big hirer of graduates globally. It's also because BNY is a broad financial services firms rather than an investment bank. - It doesn't offer prestigious jobs in M&A; it does offer jobs relating to custody, operations and investments.
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This year, one of those things has changed. BNY still isn't an investment bank, but it has become a big hirer of graduates.
“We’ve just hired 1,700 analysts across the firm, which is twice our intake of last year,” says Sharyn Jones, BNY's global head of talent. "We’re being very intentional and building a strategic program that we know is differentiated from others."
BNY's "differentiated" program has several things to recommend it. Students join on open-ended contracts and are trained for two years, involving initial orientation and rotations between business lines. There's free craft coffee. There's free tea. But more importantly, there's some remote (hybrid) work and an absence of the kinds of hours associated with the most gruelling jobs in investment banks.
“Most people are in the office three days a week," says Jones. "- Seniors may be in a little more. We are one of the few banks to still offer this. We believe that flexibility is important.”
Two days a week at home may be a boon, but the bigger boon is the promise of working days that don't sprawl into working nights. "We simply don’t have the working hours challenge that investment banks have," says Jones. "You will work hard here, but you won’t be working until the early hours. We wouldn’t have people working 80-hour weeks.”
BNY purports to be building a "high performing but human-centric," machine. Graduates who join even get 12 free confidential care sessions to help with their mental health.
Students appear to be taking note. This year, Jones says BNY received 180,000 applications for its combined intern and analyst positions, which was also double last year's number.
Those students still won't be working in M&A. BNY mostly hires and trains people in jobs like asset servicing, client onboarding, risk and compliance, operations, and engineering, although its markets division has roles in sales and trading, and its investments division has portfolio managers and wealth managers. In Europe, initial orientation doesn't take place in London or Paris, but Manchester and Poland. In New York, some students are orientated in New York; others go to Pittsburgh and Florida.
BNY also doesn't pay the sort of huge pay packets associated with entry level jobs in the front office in good years. But Jones says it doesn't pay badly, either. "“We are absolutely competitive in terms of pay," she says emphatically. How competitive? Jones doesn't say. After seven years, one New York compliance role on BNY's website offers a salary of $81-$155k.
It's not just about salary, though, BNY also offers stock. And it even offers stock to its juniors. "We think this is important: people are given stock from the start of their careers,” says Jones.
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