Brand name undergrad business programs aren’t as hot as you might think. This is especially true when calculating the ROI on your degree, according to a recent Bloomberg Businessweek analysis, which found that on average, state school costs are about a third of private schools, while starting salaries lag by just 9%. Further, some schools graduate students who earn just as much as those who graduate from private institutions, including... Read more

Fortune details the selection process of the largest single MBA scholarship fund in the world, The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, which this year awarded nearly $21 million in fellowships to 323 B-school applicants -- mostly underrepresented minorities. Since its founding in 1966, The Consortium has handed out over $225 million in scholarships to more than 6,000 MBA students. This year the Consortium received 980 applications, about half of which... Read more

What will it mean for Bank of America's staff now that the company has made clear it plans to merge its corporate and investment banking divisions? Consolidation often means squeezing out employees, but in this case, probably not so much, says recruiter Richard Lipstein of Boyden Executive Search in New York. Lipstein doubts the latest changes will lead to downsizing and sees them as essentially hierarchical in nature—focusing predominantly on... Read more

Former Goldman head of natural resources Raymond Strong, will join Evercore Partners as a senior managing director. [NYTimes] AIG hired Peter Juhas, a financial institutions specialist at Morgan Stanley who advised the government in its dealings with the insurer on its bailout. [DealBook] ING hired Alain Karaoglan to prepare for the initial public offering of U.S. operations after he helped AIG divest businesses. [Businessweek] Citigroup hired former Citadel senior executive... Read more

Cry me a river, right? According to Fortune, Goldman’s per capita compensation is down 11% to $147,825, as the firm’s first-quarter revenue fell 7% for the three months ended March 31. Meanwhile the bank grew its staff by 7% - meaning there were far fewer funds to go around. Says the magazine: “But if Goldman matches Wall Street's 2011 revenue estimate of around $38.5 billion and pays out the same... Read more

Michigan is giving 400 financial professionals and public employees a crash course in advising troubled municipalities, building an army of emergency managers that may become a model for other U.S. states, according to BusinessWeek. But private sector restructuring advisories should carefully consider before launching into this sector. According to the article, Michigan’s new approach is among state experiments attracting the attention of restructuring executives as corporate work dissipates in the improving... Read more

Be careful what you wish for. That is the message of an analysis by Investment News of the so-called recruiting wars. The publication's survey of firms estimates that the top six companies plan to add a net 2,000 advisers this year, in addition to an estimated 12,000 advisers who could move firms to fill vacancies created by attrition. The article states: “At a time when the total population of financial... Read more

Banks Tell headhunters to find more female execs, while Nomura, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Citi appoint women to senior roles in Asia. In Asia, a string of senior appointments and requests to recruiters to select more women for interviews suggest that banks are starting to make progress on gender diversity. [China] MIDDLE EAST MOLE: Breaking into the hallowed halls of an international investment bank You're convinced of your own prowess; you... Read more

B-schools are revamping their career placement offices to help find jobs outside of traditional Wall Street firms, including start-ups, nonprofits and smaller firms, according to Businessweek: “Once upon a time, B-school grads were happy to land a job on Wall Street or at an S&P 500 company. Now, a growing number are setting their sights on less conventional careers.” Wharton recently designated six staff members to call on small employers,... Read more

The cardinal rule of handling a banking interview if you are gay, lesbian or transgender is as follows: Whatever you do, “Do not come out if the company doesn’t have a policy regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.” So says corporate diversity coach Brian McNaught, whose client list includes Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley and who has been dubbed “the godfather of gay sensitivity training,” by... Read more

JPMorgan Chase paid its CEO Jamie Dimon $20.8 million last year, up from $1.3 million in 2009. [DealBook] BlackRock, named BofA’s global banking president Thomas Montag to its board. [Press Release] UBS hired Stephen Cummings as chairman of its Americas investment banking unit; he was previously head of corporate and investment banking at Wachovia. [DealBook] Canada’s Manulife Asset Management hired Chad Gross, a former VP at Janus Capital Group, as... Read more

Banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are hiring more senior bankers and salespeople in their foreign-exchange operations, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports: “Banks are snapping up Wall Street staffers disappointed by pay that was down some 10 percent to 15 percent in 2010, including bonuses with a higher component of unpopular restricted stock.” Hiring is especially strong in electronic trade-execution platforms, as well... Read more

The disappointingly low number of women in the top ranks of finance is actually shrinking, according to Reuters. Women made up just 15.3 percent of executive and senior level managers in investment banking and securities in 2009, down from 16.4 percent in 2008 and 17.8 percent in 2007. Insiders blame a small hiring pool and the challenges of balancing such positions with a family, which disproportionally falls on women.... Read more

Three areas of the country not usually associated with finance are emerging as financial markets centers - Salt Lake City, Seattle and the Raleigh-Cary region of North Carolina. For example, Goldman Sachs’ second largest office in North America is in Salt Lake City, and the Wall Street powerhouse plans to continue growing there. For job seekers, that could mean additional opportunities in investment research, investment management, compliance, operations, technology, human... Read more

The Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation (SNW) and its wholly-owned subsidiary SNW Asset Management today announced 4 new hires in San Francisco and Seattle and has openings in Fixed Income sales and Investment Management in Seattle and Public Finance in Salt Lake City. As part of its commitment to public finance and expanding its presence in California, SNW has hired Alejandro Caminos as Vice President to start its San Francisco office. He comes... Read more

What do youngsters know, anyway? Well, Generations Y and X know they don’t too much care for financial advisers, and the industry is scrambling to find ways to appeal to and attract customers in this group, according to the Financial News To combat challenges in this demographic -- which tends to be less interested in investing, more risk adverse, and more likely to drop an adviser -- advisories including Waddell... Read more

The great and glorious guide to networking at Goldman Sachs In much the same vein as the Goldman Sachs guide to interview success, it has come to our attention that there is also a Goldman Sachs guide to networking. It’s part of an altogether more comprehensive Goldman Sachs guide to extracting a job offer from a Goldman Sachs summer internship, but could apply to anyone who wants to schmooze their way... Read more

Low-cost portfolio managers that sell prepackaged portfolios such as MarketRiders and Folio Investing are being eyed as the new wave of investing, as such products have attracted more than $3 billion in assets over the last three years, according to Businessweek . These services are designed to tap the market of attract smaller, self-directed investors with monthly fees as low as $10 -- an underserved group, as traditional brokerages... Read more

Jefferies Group is growing by leaps and bounds, with recent news of plans to buy Prudential’s 400-person commodities and financial-derivatives unit for about $400 million, according to the Wall Street Journal which writes: “The potential transaction underscores the ambitions of Jefferies to grow from a securities-industry boutique focused on stock trading into a full-service investment bank that helps clients raise money and trade stocks, bonds and derivatives, where investors and... Read more

Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch named Goldman’s Craig Reynolds as head of its North American interest-rate trading operation. [WSJ] John Nacos left his position as the global head of commercial real estate at Deutsche Bank. [Bloomberg] BlackRock hired former Blackstone executive Edwin Conway to head its $1.1 trillion U.S. and Canadian institutional businesses. [Investment News] J.P. Morgan Funds has tapped a PIMCO executive Lee Black to oversee sales with key third-party... Read more