Case Sg Cowen
THE RECRUITMENT DILEMMA AT S.G. COWEN S.G. Cowen is an investment bank that is active on Wall Street and that focuses its recruitment activities on the last 15 schools of the top 25 US business schools. After having established a coherent strategy, Rae (head of recruitment) sent S.G. Cowen bankers to recruitment events on universities’ campuses to recruit for Super Saturday. Thirty students that had passed the on-campus rounds were invited to the major recruitment event ‘Super Saturday’ at S.G. Cowen, New York. The thirty candidates had 5 half-hour sessions with bankers and were rated on the criteria of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘fit’. The aim of this event was to find 15 candidates suitable to the job and during the hiring meeting 13 spots had been allocated, leaving 2 spots for 4 candidates in the ‘maybe’ category. The question remained to whom to allocate the remaining 2 spots.
After having performed a job analysis, two main evaluation criteria were used by S.G. Cowen in making hiring decisions. These criteria are “entrepreneurship” and “fit”. Concerning entrepreneurship, I think this is a suitable evaluation criterion, as investment bankers should be able to make fast decisions without asking their superiors what to do. Entrepreneurship is an ability that covers this requirement. On the other hand, the requirement of having been an entrepreneur is too
Vince de Ruiter – 341219vr specific in my opinion. People may have the qualities required without having been an entrepreneur. I consider an assessment to be more a suitable measure for “entrepreneurship”. The other criterion is “fit”, by which is meant the human element that matches the company. This is a very good criterion, as the course textbook shows that people who fit the job and company are more likely to identify with their job, which ultimately leads to an increase in productivity. Thus, the criterion of fit is critical for both employee and employer to help determine future success. After the
After having performed a job analysis, two main evaluation criteria were used by S.G. Cowen in making hiring decisions. These criteria are “entrepreneurship” and “fit”. Concerning entrepreneurship, I think this is a suitable evaluation criterion, as investment bankers should be able to make fast decisions without asking their superiors what to do. Entrepreneurship is an ability that covers this requirement. On the other hand, the requirement of having been an entrepreneur is too
Vince de Ruiter – 341219vr specific in my opinion. People may have the qualities required without having been an entrepreneur. I consider an assessment to be more a suitable measure for “entrepreneurship”. The other criterion is “fit”, by which is meant the human element that matches the company. This is a very good criterion, as the course textbook shows that people who fit the job and company are more likely to identify with their job, which ultimately leads to an increase in productivity. Thus, the criterion of fit is critical for both employee and employer to help determine future success. After the