[countrybama24]

SSG is only "mildly impressive"? By what metric? Those positions put you squarely in line for mega fund private equity jobs. If thats par for your course, you must be in some pretty rarified air I guess.

The merits of those candidates is debatable, but the prestige of those positions really isn't.

[MathsOX]

Mildly impressive in the spectrum of potential jobs, not just jobs at Goldman. Plenty of folks in the SSG leave to jobs one-off kids go to immediately after undergrad. This, of course, is all a function of your perception of the prestige of buy-side vs. sell-side (more aptly, how rarified does your position in the sell-side now have to be to get into decidedly less rarified fields in the buy-side).

You should also be cognizant of the makeup of the SSG and how it's needing to, unfortunately, evolve. It's far from a homogeneous group. The trading arm has needed to be completely restructured after Volcker came into full effect in July. Trading distressed debt is hard enough when you can take quasi-prop positions, now it's a fundamentally different business and many top traders have fled to the buy-side. I believe the only area that's truly insulated and routinely profitable is MSI, which, yes, I'd be inclined to suggest is a prestigious role. However, that's a small segment of the SSG.

I'd reverse your final sentiment. In my experience, the merits of those in the SSG are usually top notch (just pick the best of the S&T/IB pool), the prestige is debatably if your broaden the discussion. One of the best young members of the SSG just left to go back to school to learn how to code.

Also note that by context for impressiveness in the OP was, for example, to go work at a hedge fund in Mayfair right out of Oxford (perhaps, for example, at Chris Rokos' new fund as he's a maths Oxford alum).

[countrybama24]

Sure, I just wanted to clarify that "mildly impressive" in this context referred to "the relative prestige of that job within the spectrum of potential positions available to high performers and the sons and daughters of the ruling class at a small handful of the most elite universities worldwide." This is quite a bit different than what one would normally associate that phrase with.

[MathsOX]

That's fair. Would say that, in my experience, there wasn't much explicit nepotism at GS. If there was it'd be a case of someone's son getting good freshman/sophomore internships at small private equity shops, which made them a pretty sure merit-based bet getting into GS.