Citi shortens its analyst program to two years as Wall Street fights private equity for young talent

Choosing between becoming a banker or a private equity analyst is akin to the story of the tortoise and the hare. While junior bankers toil with $80,000 salaries in their early years cultivating the fundamentals of finance that will one day bring them success, their counterparts in private equity can make up to $300,000 per year, owning assets and making big decisions. 

The result is a blitz of MBA graduates looking for big names in private equity earlier rather than the less-glitzy promise of a steady career in banking. And as Wall Street continues to swat away threats from private equity to poach young talent, Citi is the latest bank to make changes to retain its junior workforce.

The bank will now transition its analyst program from three years to two years, shortening the six-and-a-half years path from analyst to by a year, according to an internal memo—the contents of which were confirmed to Fortune by a Citi spokesperson. The change also applies to junior bankers currently in their third year, who will be promoted Jan. 1 if they meet performance standards.

Talent poaching has long been an issue that every industry has had to contend with, but it seems to be especially prominent in the financial sector, with some banks requiring loyalty oaths from their junior workers promising they haven’t accepted roles elsewhere in the first 18 months of their tenure. Taking a jab at banks, private equity firms have begun recruiting fledgling analysts earlier and earlier, pulling college students for “coffee chats” and using “on-cycle” recruiting, or a flurry of interviewing and hiring efforts........

© Fortune