If you want to work for Goldman Sachs, then congratulations on the urge. Unfortunately, though, you are not alone in having it. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people apply for Goldman’s entry level jobs. Almost none of them succeed.
Azfal Hussein did succeed. And he succeeded against the odds. Twelve years ago, Hussein applied for a summer internship at Goldman Sachs in London, where he worked for four years until 2018. Since then, he’s been all about helping other young people into Goldman jobs too.
Hussein has just written a book condensing his life story and explaining how it was that a boy from a London council estate, raised by a single mother, with terrible initial A level results, ended up with a front office job at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in London – even if he didn’t stay much beyond being an associate there.
Like Amrit Singh, the purported JPMorgan credit trader offering students career advice, Hussein stresses the need for a convincing story to validate your Goldman urge. Liking finance, loving markets, liking money, are not enough. You need to be special.
In Hussein’s case, his background was the big differentiator. When Goldman’s interviewers asked him to tell them about himself, Hussein says he told them a story that went like this:
“I grew up in a household of five siblings all raised on benefits (government‐funded income support) in a council estate (government‐funded housing) by my mother, a single parent. Growing up, I always knew I wanted to put on a suit and work in the city, but I didn’t really know what jobs actually existed within the world of financial services. And growing up in a council estate meant that I didn’t have any connections, friends, or cousins working in the industry that I could reach out to. So during my A‐levels I decided to try to learn as much as I could about the world of finance careers as possible, and hopefully when in university secure some experience along the way in order to get some real‐life, hands‐on experience to teach me what I liked or was good at, versus what I didn’t like or wasn’t so good at. When I got to university, I discovered spring week programmes and my strategy was simple. I wanted to get as much exposure to the different areas across the world of finance as possible. As such, in my first year I completed spring weeks across operations, audit, trading, and asset management. After completing these experiences, I realised I was best suited for, and most enjoyed, working in and learning about the world of asset management. It was a combination of the interpersonal nature of the world of asset management and a focus on long‐term client relationships, as well as the level of technical expertise asset management professionals are expected to have that attracted me to focus all of my summer internship applications on asset management. And that’s kind of how I ended up in this seat today.”
It obviously worked. Your story has to give context, says Hussein. It also has to give your interviewer a sense of your strengths and your ability to pursue the things you’re interested in.
The story wasn’t all, though. Hussein also had a system. His book highlights how he systematically built up his CV while he was at university in London, starting with spring weeks in middle and back office roles and an internship at EDF trading, and only then ventured to apply for front office summer internships in his second year.
Hussein ended up working for Goldman’s consultant relations team, which manages the firm’s relationships with investment consultants. Goldman flew he and the other trainees to New York for training and he spent three years working for the firm in London.
The book doesn’t make it clear why Hussein left. But if you want to hustle your way into Goldman, it’s an invaluable read.
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