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Sg Cowen

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SG Cowen has shifted its strategy of attracting graduates from the top 10 core schools in the states to the next top 15 schools in the top 25. SG Cowen realized that they do not have the brand name and resources to compete aggressively with the other giants in the finance industry. Hence by shifting their attention to the B-listed schools, they would become a relatively bigger player and receive more interests from the top talents in the school. Secondly, SG Cowen send their banking professionals and no human resource professionals to the schools. There is a potential problem as demonstrated by Gregg Schoenberg where he desires Cornell graduates to obtain investment positions in the wall street. Hence there is personal preferences kicking in here which may result in a bias and tainted first round selection. Thirdly, there is the informational interview before the formal interview. Although this filters out the pro-active students from the less initiative ones, this would give an unfair advantage and competitive field to the entire process. Hence SG Cowen might need to consider tweaking the informational interview. On-campus round, it is evident that there is no standardization on the criteria used to benchmark the applicants against one another. Some bankers were tough while others were especially easy and generous. Also, what should be the extent of involvement of the HR department in the hiring during the first-round interview? It seems as though only Rae is part of the selection process. One of the things that SG Cowen had managed to done well is that their CEO Kim Fennebresque is personally involved in the selection process to signal to the potential and current employees of the autonomy and decision making power they would enjoy should they work in the company. And this sets the tone and culture for SG Cowen as well.
It should be clearly established what is

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