Productive workplace with ample learning opportunities
Head of Audit - India Capital Markets Internal Audit Function for Business and Technology Audits
1. The role entails planning, organizing and delivering global audit programs related to relevant technology and business controls;
2. Providing business and technology subject matter expertise in audit scoping meetings and other phases of audits;
3. Monitoring business risk profile, regulatory requirements and industry developments;
4. Developing audit plan for the year;
5. Participating and leading internal incident/fraud investigations;
6. Reviewing audit reports, discussing issues with senior management and ensuring that the actions plans are appropriately tracked; and
7. Ensuring Capital Markets audit plan is on track and audits adhere to the quality requirements.
Key Achievements -:
1. Establishing Bangalore office as Centre of Excellence for certain types of audits;
2. Establishing Bangalore office as the largest Capital Markets audit team in Asia and recruiting right talent to build audit expertise in complex areas like Model Risk, Capital Adequacy, Basel norms, Credit, Market and Liquidity risk;
3. Establishing Data Analytics team in Bangalore to aid in audits by performing in-depth data analysis;
4. Establishing Continuous Monitoring metrics to be monitored by the department for risk based audit planning; and
5. Leading and managing GLOBAL audits comprising of auditors across different regions from India or by traveling to other locations.
Chief o
I worked in Investment Management Division - Private Wealth Management Operations department for Middle Office - Client Service for HNI clients.
In my Senior Associate Client Service relationship management role I obtained immense exposure in Senior Management interactions, Trading front office desk/Wealth Management Professionals/ Investment Professionals in Europe, Americas and Asia.
Primarily involving business planning and issue resolution for high net-worth client portfolios, portfolio accounting, funds, managing assets, resolving issues related to tax, asset servicing, treasury, cash management, market pricing, reconciliation, performance, risk analysis, controls, client reporting, trade management/booking, settlements, regulatory and compliance requirements, etc. in various global markets and jurisdictions.
Moreover, my previous roles in GS as team lead manager for Central Accounts group provided me the opportunity to develop my project and people management skills. Also allowed me to improve my networking and communication to become an effective manager and liaise with global counter parts and functional teams. My primary role earlier was to design presentations for prospects, ensure smooth client on-boarding and compliant documentation for corporate and individual accounts and maintain client service standards/client relationships.
Overall fabulous work culture and ethics in the firm. Most people in your division are always willing to help and work as
ProsFabulous work culture and ethics. Wonderful place to work and gain experience.
ConsNot all teams have similar management styles and thought leadership., Learning and growth may be limited in some divisions/areas.
Goldman Sachs always recruits open minded about who can encourage and carry forward Goldman’s inclusive culture. This makes every day at work a new challenge which ensure you are always ready to deliver your creative best each day managing complex demands from both external & internal clients.
My day starts during the drive to work on my BlackBerry. Looking through emails from the day before to see if global counterparts had reached out for. At work each minute is precious once all regions are online. Queries & its complexities evolve every day so there is nothing that is taken for granted. Investigation and interpreting information becomes a major part of what my team does. Managing optimum utilization of resources, multitasking, involvement strategic projects and ensuring its progress, bench marking performance and most importantly Management Reporting are every day tasks.
My team is a diverse pool of people from different backgrounds who add value to the overall accomplishments of the division. Bright, energetic & creative bunch.
My Management team fits this description of those who make a bit more effort keeping the best interests of clients in mind, nicer to deal with, tolerant towards those they don't readily identify with and always committed to doing the right thing.
Long work weeks and unforgiving hours at times may be seen as a negative but my learning has been that this environment makes you gauge my best qualities and also the same within the people
- Responsible for all intercompany monitoring, reconciliations and reporting which are used to facilitate
transactions between a GS Company and its affiliates through independent cash and stock reconciliations.
- Managing work specific risk by monitoring and preparing daily and weekly reports to ensure transparency to the Management which includes forecasting.
- Handled the cash Management process liaising with the GS internal treasury team to make sure the cash inflows are reconciled to the GS books and records
- Analyzing the presenting statistics of Business volumes and achievements to the senior management on a weekly basis.
- To monitor and validate positions from which we are due to receive or pay coupon/dividend to clients.
- Was involved in developing and testing of strategic technology and implementation of new process initiatives to ensure adequacy in controls to mitigate financial, regulatory and reputational risks for the firm.
- Organizing calls with the market agents/clients to discuss payments.
- To closely monitor balances and assign them to relevant teams and substantiate on a daily basis.
- Reconciling the balances in case of cash discrepancy
- Respond to Internal and External inquiries and queries and concerns from Clients and providing solutions.
- To handle day to day work challenges confidently, adjusting to multiple demands, shifting priorities, ambiguity and rapid change.
Working at Goldman Sachs provided me with a great level of diversity, culture, knowledge and international exposure. I gained sufficient knowledge on trading of listed derivatives, market volatility and client-relationships. My first project at Goldman Sachs, taught me the importance of networking and communication. The job role allowed me to interact with individuals globally and get a better and more clear-cut understanding of how multi-national corporations operate. I had a consistent career growth from Analyst Level 1 to Level 2. However after the second year I made a conscious decision to continue with my higher education and specialize in accounting. My time at Goldman Sachs allowed me to build my character and gave me some real life experience.
The management style was less formal and therefore made managers easily approachable regarding any and all concerns. Although working in a team can sometimes prove to be challenging, we were able to work together efficiently and communicate effectively.
The hardest part of the job was the work-life balance. As my first job it was challenging at first, however you soon learn to adapt to the situation. By my second year I had a great rhythm and was able to tackle this challenge.
The most enjoyable part of the job was that it challenged me and kept me motivated. The job kept me on my toes and I welcomed any additional responsibilities.
This review is from a technology infrastructure perspective. (not business).
GS is a very good employer and if its money you want , then look no further as GS is the place for you.
There is one tradeoff though.... you should be a puppet to bend, bow and sway to the whim and fantasy of "managing directors" and executives.
If you are the type of person who will do anything to make an MD happy, then again, this is the place for you.
Frequent reorgs will ensure that the new MD may not have much clue. and will happily embark on fancy projects which are bound to fail
From a technical perspective, GS does not value technical knowledge or depth. instead they care about how much time you spend on "buttering" the managing directors and building your image. This has led to a culture where even senior employees spend all the time building their inflated "personas" and "image" in front of senior management rather than focus on technology or projects.
GS is also a place which also a place where you have to excessively advertise your work and yourself. The work itself does not speak for itself. This means that you have to be very outwardly and advertise your work as much as possible. This does not work well for everyone.
This also leads to a culture where people spend a lot of time advertising themselves.
Typical day at work - Friday excitement! I love working on fridays. Mainly because the weekend is approaching. For employees working 5 days with 10/12 hours spent on an average at office, this is most desirable working day. On a given friday, the first half of the day is spent reviewing/completing critical requests which have come in post log off on thursday. The next half is pent on spending on team activities like knowledge sharing sessions, team lunch/tea break and completing requests with the that day's ETA.
What You Learned - Team Work, the most essential component in an organisation. Communicating with clients/stakeholders on the progress/completion of tasks or projects. Leaving on time. Making everything is set for the next.
Management - Most Supportive
Your Co-Workers - Thought me about team work. Most helpful when required. Fun to work with.
The hardest Part of the job - People and management make it easy, hence nothing
The most enjoyable part of the job - More than the work, its the people I work with that make my job enjoyable. No matter how tough or monotonous your work is, when the team provides you a comfortable work environment.
ProsSubsidised cab fares, organises sports tournaments, good quality of food, take good care of their employees
Highly productive and challenging workplace - Goldman Sachs
Great place to work and learn more about how a financial market and banking industry works, good work culture.
One of the ''most sought after'' companies that people wish to get a place in. Good salary packages and incentives
Decent amount of politics, but expected of a big company.
I work in the Risk and Control space having experience with the audit and the books and records team performing various reconciliation functions, supports and designs various new business flows ; also involved in performing certain managerial or review tasks for the team being a technical specialist,
In my stint of 4.5 years with the firm, have learnt innumerable number of things relating to the capital and financial market- various products in it ,investment banking methods with sound interaction with the clients and various other external counterparts.
Gained expertise in Microsoft excel and PowerPoint presentations having involved myself in various global presentations.
Gained a good team management skill set too.
ProsGreat brand, good company to start your career, immense knowledge gain
ConsVery long hours and stressful work environment
If you are a person looking come home by 7 pm, have a nice dinner with your family and catch 9pm prime time television, Goldman Sachs is not the place for you. However, if work-life balance is not your top priority, there can be no better place to work than GS. GS is absolutely the best place you can ever hope to work for in the industry. When you are surrounded by a bunch of brilliant, motivated and incredibly hardworking bunch of people, you have no choice but to raise your game.
GS challenges to be better every single day. The work is hectic, unforgiving and a lot of fun too. You want to change something? Done, as soon as possible. Does it involve a tech budget? No problem. A year at GS is equal to 2 anywhere else. There is no onshore offshore culture and every GS employee has the same voice regardless of where you work from. The management is focussed and know what they want. You have ample opportunities for career development and GS has an incredible 360 degree review system which ensures no single person can make or break your career. Its quite the experience in itself and need I say, the yearly bonus is quite infamous.
• Conduct Yearly Performance Development Reviews for team as required.
• Train Team members with various market products and applications related to process and development.
• Take ownership for review and sign-off of team deliverables including:
o Daily Cash and stock or position Custody reconciliation, Cash projection.
o Postings, cash flows, FXs and Trade booking.
o Income and expense accruals including fee calculations.
o Monthly and quarterly financial statements or Client reports.
o Daily and Monthly Net asset valuations (NAV).
• Involved in setting up new accounts, restructure and termination of fund accounts/separate accounts.
• Daily and monthly MIS reporting to higher management all the team’s activities.
• Review audit and compliance with defined checklists, procedures and controls.
• Detailed Knowledge of SunGard’s InvestOne enterprise accounting system and Bloomberg.
• Strategic verification system (Internally built reconciliation system).
• Knowledge and hands on experience in SWIFT messages like MT535 and MT950.
• Review the entire procedures regularly and ensure new processes are documented.
Working at GS is quite competitive and exciting for people with A type personalities. Independent of being in a line or a project role, you will gain access to senior managers and as part of the culture, it is highly recommended to setup recurring catch ups with these to ensure they are aware of your progress and discuss your career plan.
I would have to say that the best part of working at GS is the quality of the employees. GS truly does their best at selecting the best of the best, and then motivate them to cross network into other teams. There is also a lot of incentive into internal mobility so that even if you start in one Business Unit, you can move around and try other positions in other teams and become a more rounded employee at the firm.
Sadly, during my time at GS I have seen a many number of brilliant employees leave due to the lack of work life balance which the firm itself struggles with getting correct. While the firm constantly remind people of the importance of wlb, the managers seem to not follow through and are quick to remind employees if they feel they are taking too many of their vacation days in a row. Many years, I had rolled over 15 days of vacation because it would have not been in my best interest to use these days as work is always busy.
The firm has now reduced the number of days you can roll over to incentive employees to use these days but the management behavior has not changed and so now employees are losing vacations days that ar
4.0
Reconciliation Specialist | Draper, UT | 11 Sept 2019
A great place if you're an extrovert
The environment is great for someone who is an extrovert. The seating is an open floor plan. Do not expect to have any sort of privacy or be spared of everyone's discussion of their weekend plans/events. The place can get really loud at times with no regard for people's individual need for a more quiet and productive environment. At times there is no clear management and management does not get to finish everything that they are supposed to do since they are spread so thin. One manager with 15 employees who have questions but the manager is on calls more than half the day. You have to park your questions and wait until they are available.
There are a lot of advancement opportunities for the right type of person. You have to be ready to kiss up to people you would never talk to just so they can give you a helping hand to get you into a position that you are already overqualified for. Even if you have the right degree and the right amount of experience, you won't get very far if you're not willing to network, network and network some more. Every phone call is a networking opportunity (that is how it is presented). Even in your own department, you have to speak up. If you don't speak up, you're considered borderline mentally disabled. In one of the company's videos, I heard that GS is a meritocracy and it could not be further from the truth. People in higher positions literally do not have the appropriate academic background to be in those positions, but they got there through
ProsAmazing benefits
ConsNot for people who like working alone in peace and quiet
So I started on day one and went around to meet my team and shake some hands. The VP over my team who sat literally 4 desks down from me wouldn't shake my hand or even acknowledge that I was alive.
After going to lunch my first week with some of my team, I was informed that she takes about 6 months to warm up to somebody and doesn't really want to hear from you until then....REALLY!? How crazy is that! I am a millennial, not in that I am entitled and lazy, but more in a way that I think a collaborative team approach is going to be preferred to the hierarchal team setting that she was obviously sustaining. So from week 1 of the job I felt that I was in a toxic environment.
Goldman makes all employees work ridiculous hours for, not great pay, they always told us that they would make up for it in our bonus, I'll get to that in a minute. Mandatory 50 hours, no biggie, but then they would call you to come in on Saturday and Sunday to work so you would be putting in lots of hours for really poor pay.
At a team meeting the executive came on and informed us that there would be no bonuses that year, a woman sitting next to me, literally started crying, because she had put in so much work and so many extra hours thinking it was all going to pay off, but they told us the load of bullock of how the company is struggling and they wouldn't be able to pay out, but then you read in the annual report the great bonuses that the C suite got. Was really perplexing.
I hope that th
3.0
Senior Administrative Assistant | New York, NY | 23 Sept 2014
High Pressure Dynamic Environment
Senior Administrative Assistant to Five Managing Directors and Senior Management: 2007 to 2011
• Scheduled high level meetings within and outside of Goldman Sachs, including, but not limited to, Senior Management, SEC, Federal Reserve Bank;
• Screened calls for the Managing Partner and other Managing Directors;
• Distributed minutes/reports to various committees for weekly Executive Meetings;
• Compiled slides and combined them into a PDF format, ensuring accuracy in the placement of all pages within the report; upload reports to SharePoint, Federal Secure Zones and SEC sites;
• Organized complex travel reservations, visas, cross-border training modules, expense reporting, petty cash;
• Reconciliation of attendance for New York and London offices;
• Update and confirm funds the Company would be reporting at the Onshore and Offshore quarterly board meetings by registering funds into an Excel spreadsheet;
• Recruiting support, including lodging and travel for candidates, organizing interviews, and meals;
• PowerPoint Presentations;
• New employee provisioning;
• Supplies and equipment maintenance for the Department;
• Organize, on a company-specific site, classes for the Career Development Committee which includes a monthly learning series;
• Possesses the ability to work proficiently in a high pressure and volatile environment;
• Perform a wide range of confidential administrative tasks including answering and directing calls, emailing, faxing, written correspon
Enjoyable work experience that enabled me to develop myself as a person.
A good company to work for who demanded a high standard of work though out my tenure.
I was able to progress through the company from Carpenter to Building fabric supervisor.
With a team of seven engineers under my guidance.
During this time I completed various training courses and achieved high level security clearance to enable me to fulfill my job specifications.
Typical Day:-Organizing work, liaison with helpdesk, managing co-workers and building team spirit and achieving SLA targets whilst trying to make work fun?
Learning Points:- Time management/team building/Qualifications and training courses/managing team members and introducing fun into the workplace?
Management:- Interface between senior management and the team/
Looking after needs of my 7 team members(training and day to day working)
Co-Workers:- Helping development and mentoring and supporting individuals. Arranged team social events.
Hardest Part of Job:- Keeping up ever increasing standards required by company.
Most Enjoyable part of job:- Working with people and dealing with special project, that I could really get my teeth into and the satisfaction of a job well done?
ProsA great team to work with/ Bonuses for a job well done.
ConsTraveling to Central London on a daily basis which created long days
Questions And Answers about Goldman Sachs
How are the working hours at Goldman Sachs?
Asked 18 Jun 2017
Best and flexible
Answered 3 Mar 2018
Good and acceptable
Answered 11 Jan 2018
What are the perks offered by Goldman Sachs?
Asked 5 Apr 2017
Bonus and hike every year with promotion
Answered 4 Mar 2019
Best renumeration in the industry
Answered 3 Mar 2018
Does Goldman Sachs require background check? What kind of background check does Goldman Sachs do and how long does Goldman Sachs take to complete a background check?
Asked 31 Mar 2017
Yes, 2-3months
Answered 2 Oct 2018
Extensive background check for 30 days
Answered 21 Mar 2018
How often do you get a raise at Goldman Sachs?
Asked 12 Dec 2022
Yearly
Answered 3 Feb 2023
Yearly...fixed raise...but no job security
Answered 14 Jan 2023
How long do they take to roll offer letter after positive feedback for interview and discussing compensation?
Asked 20 Apr 2018
It takes a month at least for the procedure to undertake till you on-board.
Discussion of compensation will happen once you clear the interview.
Answered 27 Feb 2020
Due to multiple round of interview and approval process, it takes around 45 days to roll out offer
