Why I Left Goldman Sachs (Part II)

Brendan McDermid/ReutersThe Goldman Sachs booth at the New York Stock Exchange in 2010.

As Goldman exiles go, “trailmix8″ is no Greg Smith.

But on Saturday, an anonymous user by that name posted an account of his or her decision to leave Goldman Sachs after five years at the firm.

Trailmix8’s letter, posted on Wall Street Oasis, a popular site for finance workers, was less flashy than Mr. Smith’s I-quit missive, which was submitted as a New York Times Op-Ed article. That piece immediately set Wall Street humming with references to “muppets” and jokes about Mr. Smith’s ping-pong prowess, and eventually led to a reported $1.5 million book advance for Mr. Smith’s tell-all about his time at the firm.

Charitably, we’ll just say that Trailmix8’s letter, written to the forum users of Wall Street Oasis (who call themselves “monkeys”) is not likely to have literary agents frothing at the mouth.

In the letter, the writer describes working in a middle-office derivatives role with Goldman’s asset management unit. Trailmix8 said he quit because “I will be attending INSEAD business school in August and wanted a few months to myself before I start.”

He describes getting a foot in the door at Goldman as a new recruit:

I grew up in Colorado where my dad worked as a Taxi Cab driver and my mom stayed at home to take care of my sister and I. I got into the University of Colorado, but unfortunately after a semester my dad told me that he was no longer able to pay for the tuition/expenses, so in order to stay in school I decided to join the Colorado Air Force National Guard for a six-year contract in return for which they would help me pay for school. With all of the activations and full-time service that the guard asked of me, it took me five and a half years to graduate, but to my luck Goldman came to recruit for their Salt Lake City office for the first time at Colorado. I went to the interviews thinking that this will be a long shot, but after two campus interviews followed by a superday in Salt Lake, I was one of two people from CU to join as full time employees in the operations division in Salt Lake.

While at Goldman, Trailmix8 says, he “did well on the GMAT” — the business school admissions test – got a promotion to associate and a pilot’s license, and spent time coaching high school hockey. He also engineered a transfer to the firm’s New Jersey office, spending a year there before moving on to business school.

And unlike recent reports — Mr. Smith’s included — that have taken aim at the Goldman’s culture and ethics, Trailmix8 insisted that he never saw any untoward behavior.

“Unlike Greg Smith, I actually enjoyed my time at GS,” he wrote. “I really did feel that everything we did that I was a part of was always done with the client as the primary focus and that the teamwork and hard work ethic was always a strong part of the firm culture.”

Source & Image : New York Times