Purpose and values
To be the world's most exceptional financial institution.
- Values
- Client service, partnership, integrity, excellence
- Principles
- 14, from 1979
- Founded
- 1869
- Culture
- Apprenticeship, in its words
Why Goldman Sachs? how to answer it
Goldman Sachs's interview preparation guide asks candidates to familiarize themselves with its Business Principles and the core values that define its culture, so why Goldman Sachs is where that reading shows. A strong answer names the division you want, ties it to one value or principle in the firm's own words, such as client service or rather be best than biggest, and proves it with something you did. Keep it near a minute. For a first pass, Soreno, an AI voice interview practice app for consulting and finance candidates, has a free why this bank question page showing what a strong answer covers, no sign-up.
Updated
- What it asks you to read
- Business Principles and core values
- Its interview preparation guide (undated)
- Values
- Client service, partnership, integrity, excellence
- Purpose and Values page
- Business Principles
- 14, written in 1979
- Still foundational, per the firm
- Answer length
- Near a minute
- Our advice
What does Goldman Sachs say it stands for?
Goldman is unusual in putting a 1979 text at the center of its culture. Everything here is from goldmansachs.com, read on November 3, 2026. Pick one value or principle that your own story can carry.
Investment banking, by its own page
Rankings shown with their Dealogic periods.
- M&A advisor
- #1, Dealogic 2024 to 2025
- Global investment bank
- #1, Dealogic 2000 to 2025
- Global ECM
- #1, Dealogic 2020 to 2025
- Its tagline
- Enduring partnership
The four valuesFrom Purpose and Values
Its purpose line says the firm is united by these four shared values. Each has one sentence on the page.
Client service
A service mindset
Earning clients' trust and exceeding their expectations by understanding and overdelivering on their goals.
Partnership
The strength of the collective
Collaboration first, and a culture of teamwork and belonging in the pursuit of professional and personal growth.
Integrity
The highest ethical standards
Accountability, transparency and vigilance, and learning from experience.
Excellence
Nothing less
Exceptional performance and superior results for clients, shareholders and communities.
Business Principles that make strong answers6 of 14
The firm says its then co-head wrote 14 principles in 1979, and that more than four decades later they remain foundational to its culture. These six give a candidate the most to work with, in our view.
Principle
Our clients' interests always come first
The first principle. It adds that if the firm serves clients well, its own success will follow.
Principle
Rather be best than biggest
From the principle on the quality of its work: if it came to a choice, the firm would rather be best than biggest. A clean hook for why Goldman over a larger bank.
Principle
People, capital and reputation
Its assets, and it says that if any is diminished, reputation is the hardest to restore. Strong for an integrity story.
Principle
Teamwork in everything
Team effort often produces the best results, and there is no room for those who put personal interests ahead of the firm and its clients.
Principle
Move ahead rapidly
It offers people the chance to move ahead more rapidly than at most other places, and advancement depends on merit.
Principle
Never denigrate other firms
Its competition principle says the firm must be a fair competitor and never denigrate other firms. Useful to remember when you're asked why not another bank.
The divisions, so your answer can name oneFrom Our Firm
Its prepare page encourages you to learn about all of the opportunities before you choose, since the same skills may fit several divisions. These are the student-facing businesses most candidates ask about.
Investment Banking
Advice and financing
Investment banking services for corporations, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, asset managers and governments.
FICC and Equities
Sales and trading
Insights, analytics, platforms and client service with a commitment to sales and trading execution.
Asset Management
Investing across asset classes
Investment management across all major asset classes for institutional and individual clients.
Wealth Management
Advice for institutions and individuals
Advice, investing and execution across public and private markets.
Two sample answers and a weak one (ours)Banking, markets
Soreno wrote these for invented candidates. The people, clubs and conversations are made up. The Goldman facts in them come from the pages above.
Investment Banking
A junior from a campus consulting club
"I want to advise companies at the moment they decide what they will become. Last spring our campus consulting club worked with a family-owned packaging maker weighing a sale, and the hardest part wasn't the valuation. It was helping the owners trust the advice. That's why one line in your business principles stuck with me: that if it came to a choice, Goldman would rather be best than biggest. Your banking page ranks the firm first in M&A advisory on Dealogic's 2024 to 2025 deal volume, and from talking to a vice president at your info session, I learned analysts are in the room for the hard conversations early. That apprenticeship is what I want, and I'd bring the patience that sale taught me." Length: 124 words, around 50 seconds out loud.
Why it holds up
A principle, a fact, a person
The principle is quoted correctly and tied to a real experience, the ranking is stated with its source and period, and the conversation is something no other candidate can say.
FICC and Equities
A math major applying to a desk
"I want a job where the problem changes every morning. As a math major I ran our club's options trading game for two years, and the weeks I learned most were the ones when my model stopped working. Goldman's business principles say complacency can lead to extinction and ask people to anticipate clients' changing needs. That's the mindset I'd want around me on a desk. A strategist I spoke to at your markets event told me the juniors who do well are the ones who come in with a view and change it fast when the client tells them something new. I'd like to be that analyst." Length: 107 words, around 43 seconds out loud.
The weak version
Why it falls short
"Goldman is the most prestigious bank on Wall Street and the brand opens every door afterward. I want to work with the smartest people in finance." Prestige and exit value say nothing about the work or about you, and every top bank could hear the same line.
From Goldman Sachs: purpose and values, Goldman Sachs: history, Goldman Sachs: our firm (careers), Goldman Sachs: investment banking and Goldman Sachs: prepare.
What the interviewer listens for in why Goldman Sachs
Goldman publishes no rubric for this question. Its interview guide says the goal is to learn about you and calls the interview a two-way conversation. Here is our reading of what that means for this answer.
You read what it asked you to read
The guide tells candidates to familiarize themselves with the Business Principles and core values. Naming one correctly, in context, shows that.
- What interviewers listen for
- One principle or value, quoted or paraphrased accurately.
A division, not just a firm
Its prepare page says final rounds typically run two to five interviews for campus hires, depending on the division, and its interview guide says you'll likely meet several people in the group you're interviewing for.
- What interviewers listen for
- Why this division, in one sentence.
Team before self
Its principles say there is no room for people who put personal interests ahead of the firm and its clients.
- What interviewers listen for
- A story where the team's result mattered more than your credit.
Someone who wants to learn
Its student and careers pages describe an apprenticeship culture with early exposure to leaders and clients.
- What interviewers listen for
- What you want to learn, and from whom.
From Goldman Sachs: interview preparation guide (undated PDF), Goldman Sachs: prepare and Goldman Sachs: purpose and values.
Four beats of a why Goldman Sachs answer
Our structure. About a minute out loud, built from the firm's own words and your own story.
Beat 1
The work you want
What you want to learn in your first years, in the division you applied to. One sentence.
Why investment banking?Beat 2
One value or principle
Choose the line from the values or the 14 principles that your story actually proves. One, explained, beats four, listed.
Beat 3
The proof
A short story where you acted that way. Its guide says interviews tend to focus on real-world problems and how you have navigated, or would navigate, work situations, so make it real.
From Goldman Sachs: interview preparation guide (undated PDF).
Beat 4
A person and a close
Something a Goldman person told you that the website can't, then what you'd bring to the team.
Coffee chat questions
Our structure. Goldman Sachs publishes no format for this answer.
14 follow-ups to why Goldman Sachs
What tends to come after the first answer, in our experience. Our wording, with what we'd count as a strong reply.
Testing your reason
Is it about Goldman, or about any top bank?
Why Goldman and not Morgan Stanley or JPMorgan?
What you want from Goldman, with no knock on the others. The firm's own principles say never to denigrate other firms, so that is the standard. Practice it, see a model answer
- “Where else are you interviewing?”
- “If both made offers, how would you choose?”
Why Goldman and not a boutique?
Name what the platform gives your division, such as working across products and clients, and why that matters to you now.
Which of our Business Principles means most to you?
One, by its words, with a short story. Know that there are 14 and that they date from 1979.
Why this division?
What it does as far as you know, why your skills fit it, and that you looked at the others first, as the firm suggests.
Tell me about a deal or trade you followed.
One you can explain in two minutes: who, why and what happened next. Practice it, see a model answer
Testing the fit
Does the reason match the person?
Walk me through your background.
In order, each step chosen for a reason, landing on why Goldman and this division now. Practice it, see a model answer
Why banking and not consulting or private equity?
Reasons about the work that hold at any bank. Keep Goldman for its own answer. Practice it, see a model answer
You don't have finance experience. Why should we take you?
Its interview guide says no finance experience is needed. Show how fast you've learned and what you'd bring from where you've been.
How do you keep up with the markets?
Two habits and one story you're following now. Practice it, see a model answer
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Growing inside the division. The principles talk about moving ahead on merit, so ambition is fine if it's about the work. Practice it, see a model answer
Stories behind the principles
One story each, under two minutes.
Tell me about a time you put the team ahead of yourself.
Teamwork in everything. What you gave up, why, and what the team got. Practice it, see a model answer
Tell me about an ethical dilemma.
Reputation is the asset its principles call hardest to restore. The choice, what it cost and why you'd make it again. Practice it, see a model answer
Tell me about a time you found a better way to do something.
Creativity and imagination. The old way, your new one and the result in a number.
What questions do you have for me?
Its guide calls the interview a two-way conversation. Ask about the interviewer's own work, never something the website answers. Practice it, see a model answer
Mistakes in why Goldman Sachs answers
What we see most often.
Prestige as the reason
The brand is why everyone applies. It tells the interviewer nothing about you.
Talking down another bank
Goldman's own principles say never denigrate other firms. An answer that does reads badly on two counts.
Exit opportunities
Saying the name opens doors later answers a question about leaving, not joining.
A ranking with no source
If you cite a league table, say whose data and what period, as Goldman's own page does. A wrong number costs more than none.
Listing all four values
Four words in a row sound memorized. One value, shown in a story, sounds like you.
Talking for three minutes
About a minute, then let the follow-up come. Interviewers on a long day stop listening.
Read before you answer, page by page
In this order. Then talk to people about what the pages can't say.
Read 1
Purpose and Values
The four values and all 14 principles. Mark the two your stories can prove.
Read 2
Your division's description
One sentence for each, on the careers Our Firm page. Know the one you applied to and the one next to it.
Read 3
History
Founded in 1869. The firm credits itself with the first price-to-earnings ratio, initiating the investment banking business and reinventing the modern IPO with technology. One line is enough.
From Goldman Sachs: history.
Read 4
Life at Goldman Sachs and Students
How it describes its apprenticeship culture, plus short quotes from its own analysts. One analyst on the Students page calls it a heavy apprenticeship culture where everybody's there to help.
From Goldman Sachs: life at Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs: students.
Then
Process and practice
Our Goldman guide covers the video interview and final rounds. The summer analyst program runs nine to ten weeks.
Goldman Sachs interview guide
Answer why Goldman Sachs out loud
Soreno's AI interviewer asks why Goldman by voice, then pushes: why not Morgan Stanley, which principle, why this division. It scores the answer and shows what to fix. Soreno is not affiliated with Goldman Sachs.
Questions people ask
How do I answer why Goldman Sachs?
Say what work you want, tie it to one Goldman value or Business Principle, prove it with something you did, add what a Goldman person told you and close on what you'd bring. About a minute.
What are Goldman Sachs's core values?
Client service, partnership, integrity and excellence. Its purpose is to be the world's most exceptional financial institution, united by those four values.
What are the Goldman Sachs Business Principles?
Fourteen principles written in 1979 by the firm's then co-head, which the firm says remain foundational to its culture. The first is that clients' interests always come first.
What does rather be best than biggest mean?
It's from the principle on the quality of the firm's work: though busy, Goldman would, if it came to a choice, rather be best than biggest. It's a good hook for a why Goldman answer if your story is about quality over volume.
Can I say Goldman is number one in M&A?
Only with its source. Goldman's investment banking page ranks it #1 M&A advisor on Dealogic's cumulative announced deal volume for 2024 to 2025. Say that, not just number one.
Do I need finance experience?
No, per Goldman's interview preparation guide, which says its people come from all types of backgrounds, experiences and industries.
How long should my why Goldman answer be?
About a minute, in our experience. Our banking sample is 124 words, about 50 seconds spoken.
When was Goldman Sachs founded?
In 1869, according to its history page.