Apollo Freezes Young Banker Hires, Echoes Dimon’s Caution

In response to bank criticism of young recruits accepting offers that were made in the future, Apollo Global Management informed potential investment-banking prospects that it would neither interview nor give offers to the class of 2027 this year.

Apollo outlined its reasoning in a letter to applicants on Wednesday, stating that the company thinks recent graduates should take the time to further their business knowledge early in their employment. Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo, stated that he concurred with recent complaints that the hiring process for young candidates had begun too soon.

The recruiting decisions at Apollo are among the most important to the company's operations, according to the letter sent by Nicole Bonsignore, head of human resources, and David Sambur, co-head of private equity. In light of this, Apollo will not conduct official interviews or make offers to the class of 2027 this year.

Banking Sector is Cautious  About Losing Talented Employees

For over ten years, tensions have been building over private equity firms hiring junior investment bankers. Banks have tried to find a middle ground between taking action to keep its young, brilliant staff from leaving and not upsetting them or the buyout companies, which are frequently some of their largest customers.

In a speech at Georgetown University last year, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., expressed his disapproval of the practice of junior bankers accepting a second position with a private equity firm prior to beginning their first position at a bank. Dimon went on to say that this puts us in a difficult and conflicted situation. "I just don't like that you are already employed by someone else and that you are handling extremely sensitive information from JPMorgan," he continued.

According to a letter reviewed by a media house, JPMorgan warned recent grads that they would lose their jobs if they accepted offers from other companies before beginning work at the bank or within the first 18 months of their employment.

When someone says something that is simply true, Rowan stated in an emailed statement, "I feel compelled to agree with it." "Bank CEOs and others have expressed what many of us have been thinking: It is not beneficial for students or our industry to ask them to make career decisions before fully understanding their options, as recruiting has been getting earlier and earlier each year."

Race to Grab Fresh Talent from the Wall Street

In recent years, the competition to get new talent from Wall Street has intensified. After earlier attempts failed, private equity companies seeking to hire for their 2024 associate classes were obliged to conduct a second round of recruiting in 2023.

Only a few weeks after they started work in 2022, numerous buyout businesses began contacting banks' first-year trainees in an attempt to outperform rivals. However, tensions had existed for a long time before that.

Following employee complaints, Morgan Stanley dropped its 2013 attempt to prevent first-year bankers from speaking with recruiters for outside companies.