“Students of MSc Global Finance had a successful visit to Goldman Sachs on the 11th December 2013. Upon arrival at the Fleet Street branch, we were led to a conference room on the 7th floor of the River Court building where the students enjoyed a bird’s eye view of the landmarks of London and refreshments.

Mr. John Brennan, a managing director who worked for Goldman Sachs for over 9 years, introduced us to the business structure of this top investment bank and its global influence across various countries and regions. Mr Brennan also provided students an insight into the career progression within Goldman Sachs, which would help our students prepare their future career in finance. After the presentation, students enjoyed a tour around Goldman’s trading floor and facilities.

Although we were not permitted to take photos inside this prestigious bank, the students were thoroughly impressed by the whole event and many of them have gained an insight into the innards of an extremely successful multinational investment bank for the first time. We believe the purpose of the visit which is to enhance postgraduate students’ experience while they are studying at the Westminster Business School has been successfully achieved.” ” Dr. Jiayi Balasuriya, Module Leader, Behavioral Finance

The MSc in Global Finance aims to give students a comprehensive view of the financial world. The students of the ‘Behavioral Finance’ module of the Westminster Business School Global Finance MSc were accompanied by the two lecturers of the module, Dr. Jiayi Balasuriya and Dr. Kristina Vasileva for an educational visit to Goldman Sachs.

The Goldman Sachs, the Fleet Street building is completely anonymous, it has a lot of security, including a complete ban on photography.

We were accompanied to a meeting room on the 7th floor, which has stunning views of the City. We had a full view of the trading floors beneath us as well.

We met Mr John Brennan, who is the Managing Director of the Financial Investment Group within Goldman Sachs, and he gave us a presentation on ‘Investment Banking’. We learned all about the structure of the company, what makes them unique and what it takes to work in such a place. We learned about career progression in the finance world and how it is structured within Goldman. He also spoke about practical aspects of the work, as well as generally about modern banking, investment banks and their role in the financial markets from the point of view of the practitioners.

We learned the two key business principles that Goldman Sachs operates on;

i) “Our clients’ interests always come first”

ii) “We constantly strive to anticipate the rapidly changing needs of our clients and to develop new services to meet those needs”

After the presentation, we were given a tour to the trading floor. Contrary to the general public opinion on what a trading floor sounds like, the traders there were quite calm and focused on their work. While touring the building we had the opportunity to see and hear about all of the facilities that are available to the employees there and which include a dentist and a doctor.

At the end, we walked around an art Deco era room which once housed the Daily Express. This is an area that is open to the public only once a year.

It was a very useful and insightful visit that gave us the opportunity to get an overview of an institution such as Goldman Sachs, its structure and motivated us further, for a career in the finance world.
Written by  Muhamad Ariel Maseri & Srividya Narayanan
Course Representatives, MSc Global Finance 2013

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