Mike Mittleman Career Coaching November FinTech Monthly Newsletter
Published: Tue, 02/22/22
Mike Mittleman Career Coaching
November FinTech Monthly Newsletter
Note: We have 2 new sections: “Employee Longevity at Top Wall Street Houses” and “Do You Know What Happens to Your Resume When You Apply Online?”
Overview
We track people movements from the top 10 largest investment banks to the top 40 largest FinTechs. See the appendix for a company list.
October people moves totaled almost 200 professionals, a 40%+ increase over the September tally of 140. Although we note that October had 5 weeks of data compared to September’s 4, the weekly pace bounced back to levels we saw during the summer. Most market and funding indicators point to a continuation of this trend going forward.
Columbia Business School saw at least 4 MBA alums hired by FinTechs in October. (Not that I am a proud alum.) University of Chicago’s Booth and Northwestern’s Kellogg were next with 3 alums each (I’m not an alum). FinTech attracts Ivy’s but not as many as you would think. It’s a lot easier to pivot to FinTech without the fancy names on your resume!
Employee Longevity at Top Wall Street Houses
Ever wonder if one Wall Street house does a better job keeping its professionals vs another?
We investigated and found a lot of variabilities. Goldman has an average of 3.5 years while Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse have an average of 5.5 - 6 years.
Deutsche Bank comes in closer to 6.5 years and Barclays closer to 7.
Why is Goldman so low? We can only speculate that the Marcus recent hirings may have skewed the results lower. Or, maybe pros are speeding their transition to cash in their “Goldman halo” earlier than in the past. Will Goldman pros continue to turn over faster?
Bye Bye Banks
In October, we tracked 200 professionals who made a move from the top 10 investment banks to the top 40 FinTechs. This pace is on par with a weekly average of about 40 professionals over the past several months.
As we have come to expect, all top 10 investment banks were represented. JP Morgan led the way with a whopping 55+ professionals going to 15+ different FinTechs. Bank of America and Goldman Sachs followed with 35+ and 25+ moves to FinTech, respectively. UBS and Barclays had the fewest departures with less than 5 each.
Hello FinTechs
PayPal held pole position with 34 total hires in October. Coinbase was a close second at 30. Stripe, Square, and Robinhood picked up 15+ professionals each.
3 FinTechs- Affirm, Brex, and SoFi- hired 8+ professionals this month while a total of 27 FinTechs made a least 1 hire from a top 10 investment bank.
Job Role
We observed hiring across all 12 job role categories we cover. IT professionals were the most in demand at 20%. Finance and Sales were close behind at about 15% each. Legal roles came in at 10+% and Product Management had a decent showing with 10%.
Coinbase was the top employer for Sales and Legal positions with 10+ and 5+, respectively. PayPal hired the most Finance pros with about 10.
Location, Location, Location
Over 55 cities saw FinTechs hiring Wall Street pros this month. NYC led the nation again with 55 hires. San Francisco clocked in next with 35. Charlotte and Chicago led the rest of a very scattered field with 8 and 6 hires, respectively.
Coinbase hired 15 in NYC and was joined by 15 other hiring employers in October. PayPal hired most in San Francisco with 9, alongside 10 other employers picking up new talent. PayPal also hired people in 20 cities nationwide- effectively doubling next in line Stripe and Square.
Hiring companies in Charlotte included AvidXchange and Credit Karma among others. Chicago saw hiring by Chime, Toast, and a few others.
Seniority
Over 60% of total hires were for senior-level positions. Mid-level hires were just under 30% and junior-level hires came in at 9%. Senior-level hiring has been consistently strong and trended even higher this month. Entry-level hiring is still significant however many of the candidates are not coming from the top investment banks we monitor.
Stripe and Coinbase made double-digit hires for mid or senior-level positions. PayPal stayed on top this month for senior-level positions with 20+ hires.
October Capital Raising Activity
With $6.5 billion raised in October by 30+ companies, the market continues unabated. GoodLeap, Deel, and FTX raised $800MM, $425MM, and $400MM respectively. 15+ companies that raised capital did so at a unicorn valuation ($1 billion or more).
Most interesting to this author is Masterworks which allows fractional interest in art investing. You could own 1/1,000 of a Michelangelo! Try that out as an opening line when company comes over.
Do You Know What Happens to Your Resume When You Apply Online?
Summary
What happens to your resume after you apply online? The answer should shock and anger you. I authored this article to help you understand how the online job application job process works in real life.
It’s a game as Michael Douglass quotes in Wall Street, “The illusion has become real, and the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest.”
In this piece, we will discuss:
• Stats to prove our point
• Whether job postings are for real jobs
• The step-by-step online application process-corporate perspective
• A better way to control your job search
The Numbers
Just check out the statistics below that prove what happens to your resume after you apply online:
• 75% chance the job never existed for those applying online
• Of the 25% authentic job postings remaining, 99% of applications are never read by a human
• Of the 1% of the 25%, 90% chance it is read by a junior HR member
Let’s do the math: 25% x 1% x 90% = a really, really, low number. With these odds, do you now understand why you get ghosted?
1. What is the current state of FinTech funding?
2. How does US FinTech funding compare with Asia and Europe?
3. What is the average FinTech deal size?
4. Who are some of the top active FinTech investors?
Answers appear at the end
Quiz
How many FinTech M&A exits have occurred YTD in 2021?
A. 303
B. 587
C. 664
D. 702
Answers appear at the end
The End
Q&A Answers
1. 2021 YTD funding is over $90 billion, almost twice the 2020 total
2. 2021 funding in Europe is almost half of the US total and Asia is lagging slightly behind Europe
3. $32 million in 2021 and the median size is $5 million
4. Tiger Global Management, Coinbase Ventures, and Accel
Top 10 Investment Banks and Top 40 FinTechs we follow:
Investment Banks: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, and JP Morgan.
