JPMorgan is warning junior bankers against taking future-dated jobs with buyout firms — or even sneaking out of job training to take interviews.
On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase’s top investment banking brass sent a memo to incoming first-year IB analysts warning them against participating in the private equity industry’s annual recruiting ritual. This whirlwind affair is known as “on-cycle recruiting” and promises young bankers lucrative jobs at the end of their investment banking analyst programs, which often last two or three years.
In the memo, John Simmons and Filippo Gori, co-heads of global banking, admonished analysts who accept “future-dated job offer” or “a position with another company before joining us” within their first 18 months of employment, saying they will be terminated if discovered.
“You will be provided notice and your employment with the firm will end,” the executives wrote. They said such offers could constitute a conflict for junior bankers working on transactions for PE sponsors who could also be their future employers.
This year’s memo appears to be an escalation of a long-simmering personnel issue important to the bank’s high-profile CEO, Jamie Dimon.
“I think that’s unethical. I don’t like it, and I may eliminate it regardless of what the private-equity guys say,” Dimon told college students at Georgetown University last year.
Last year, the firm warned incoming junior bankers against the practice, but stopped short of saying it would terminate those who participated.
This year’s memo even vowed to terminate junior bankers who dare sneak out of job training to interview with private equity firms, as many did in 2023.
“To succeed in the Investment Banking Analyst Program, your full attention and participation are essential,” wrote Simmons and Gori. “Attendance at all training sessions, meetings and obligations is required. Missing any part of the training program may lead to removal from the program and termination,” they said.
The memo was first reported by ExecSum, a newsletter offshoot of the popular Instagram account Litquidity. A JPMorgan spokesperson confirmed its authenticity to BI.
As Business Insider has previously reported, private equity’s annual recruiting of junior bankers is a frenetic affair that often starts without warning. Young bankers can be asked to drop everything to interview or miss out — resulting in middle-of-the-night interviews or missed vacations and proving a nagging source of disruption for bank bosses.
Dimon has railed against PE recruiting and its impact on his staff. “I think it’s wrong to put you in the position,” he said in the fall, adding: “You have to kind of decide the next career move before you have a chance to even decide what the company is like.”
It remains to be seen how this new rule could impact the future of buyside recruiting. The industry insiders who spoke to BI expressed skepticism over the bank’s ability to enforce the new rule.
“I imagine while some junior bankers will be scared off, many will continue to take the risk,” Anthony Keizner, a partner at the headhunting firm Odyssey Search Partners, told BI on Thursday. “They always saw banking as a stepping stone, and won’t want to be put off starting the next phase of their career.”
A former junior banker who now works in private equity agreed.
“Analysts are going to recruit regardless,” this person said, adding that young bankers will simply “shut their mouths about” it.
In what appears to be an acknowledge of the competitive pressures young people in the industry face, the bank said in the memo that it would shorten its analyst program from three years to two and a half, offering juniors “quicker advancement opportunities within the firm.”
“All the mega funds already fill spots within the first six months,” said the private equity professional, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her job. “They’re not going to wait for JPM analysts.”
