Case Study: SG Cowen's Recruitment and Hiring Process Evaluation

This case study examines the recruitment and hiring practices of SG Cowen, an industrial firm, focusing on their associate program. The analysis evaluates the effectiveness of their multi-stage process, including informational interviews and campus recruitment, in identifying top candidates. It compares the approaches of different bankers and assesses their alignment with Chip Rae's strategy of targeting top business schools. The study delves into how SG Cowen evaluates candidates based on factors such as skills, personality, and cultural fit, using interviews and employee referral programs. The evaluation also highlights the importance of commitment, maturity, leadership, technical skills, work ethics, and interpersonal skills in the selection process. The document suggests improvements to enhance the evaluation methods and provide more opportunities to assess candidates' skills beyond resumes and single-day assessments.

Question and Answer
Question 1. Evaluate the effectiveness of SG Cowen’s recruiting and job search process. To
what extent do they result in finding the best candidates for SG Cowen?
Answer 1. SG Cowen is an industrial firm looking for an associate program recruitment. The
students were educated about the company and the advantages for being in the company. The
process was followed by the three stages. Each stage holds the key decision point. Informational
interviews are the first stage. The presentations were given to the students and the interested
students then visit the office of SG Cowen and personally interact with the bankers. This process
is not evaluative; the main points were the interest of the candidate in the company if the
candidate is a self-starter, pattern of success in the past life. Many other decision points were
about the positions to be filled or available positions, targeted core schools. Summer internship,
promotions and hires are the main topics of SW Cowen's hiring. A number of interview rounds
and the interviewers are all the questions of planning stage so as for the start of the recruitment
process. For the evaluation process, the SG Cowen hires the candidate of three kinds for the post
of Associate. First is the one having experience of three years but don't possess any business
school education. Second are the one who came as a summer intern in the firm. Third are the one
having the business school education. This they call a Talent pool and provide the SG Cowen
with the best firm or candidates. All these are selected who have proven themselves and their
cultural fit.
Some informal interviews were conducted in which the business school students were
selected only on the basis of their skills but not on the basis of their personality. Second is the
campus round in which the students with efficiency and satisfactory results were selected. Next
is the collective decision-making process in which the process is more qualitative than

quantitative. Evaluation of a candidate for the job search is on the basis of their commitment to
the firm, maturity and judgment skills of the candidate, leadership quality, technical skills, work
ethics and the interpersonal skills.
Question 2. Compare and contrast how the different bankers approached finding the best
candidates. To what extent is their approach aligned with Chip Rae’s strategy?
Answer 2. Bank recruiters use many different approaches to find and recruit the best candidate.
They hired the candidate with the right attitude and skilled for training. Attitude refer to the
person's thoughts and manners. The attitude can be positive or negative reflected by the behavior
of a candidate. Behavior based questions in an interview depict the idea of the attitude of a
person. Some recruiters think that skills can be gained but the attitude is self-built and is difficult
to find a candidate with a positive attitude. These days recruiters are smart and think that the two
pages of resume don't really define the quality set of an individual, so they actually ask for the
future perspective and innovative ideas at the time of hiring process. The time investment into
the candidate's life also reveals about the likes, perspective and overall performance of the
candidate. The social sites are helpful for this term. The employee referral programs also help to
get the best output regarding candidature. Employees already working at some place have more
knowledge about profits and retentions. Recruiters collect the information related to the job
postings and databases used.
Rae strategy was to hire the one from the top 15 core schools among top 25. Employees
from top business schools have a big brand name, recruiting budgets and having much hiring
needs which mean they get the best student interest. Students of these top schools are much
loyal. Rae scheduled a presentation in the schools with the interview dates. Rae managed the

presentations with various questions to be answered by the team captains. Who are we, what do
we do, what are our new steps and why are we different from recruiters; these questions shows
the interest of the students in the company. Team captains were put into the pressures and were
also asked to present a presentation so as to get to know about their perspectives and efforts.
Chip Ray was more into selecting the students for the first round then only they enter the office
for the next round of the recruitment.
Chip Rae and bankers recruitment process aligned with the above-stated strategies.
Question 3. How effectively did Chip Rae and SG Cowen evaluate the background and personal
factors in the hiring and selection process? What changes would you suggest?
Answer 3. Chip Rae and SG Cowen evaluate the background and personal factors in the hiring
process very effectively. They worked on different factors such as skills, personality, attitude etc.
to hire the employee with all the qualities best for the business. Informational interviews were
conducted in which the presentations were given so as to know about the business goals and
strategies. This presentation helped the candidature to think of the industry and only the
interested candidates may attend the next procedure in the office. A number of positions in the
office and the students from core schools were mainly targeted along with the summer interns
because as per their ideas hiring their own past employees or interns will build up a sense of faith
and loyalty among the employees and new joiners. The people hired were either the core top
business school students or the summer intern or the last three years employees working in the
firm. All these are known for the fact that they have already proven their cultural fit for the
industry. The campus selection was also the procedure in which an efficient and satisfactory skill
set and attitude were selected. The positive attitude of a person is reflected by the manners and

behavior of that person to other employers or members in the same firm. Interviewers ask
questions, so a to check their replies in positive or negative attitude. They are practically judged
as per their resume; future perspective and innovative ideas are asked. Today, recruiters also
keep a check over the lifestyle of the candidate by using the social sites approach. Employers
referral programs also play a better part in the job posting. Employes already working at some
place are more knowledgeable than the fresh starters. If the recruiters select the employes from
top business schools they will get greater brand tags and recruiting budget which leads to extract
the interest of candidates in their company. A table is maintained by them in which various
factors were put into the consideration. Those factors are the commitment to the firm that is how
much the candidate is committed to its work and firm; the maturity scale is also measured that is
how much a person is clear during the judgment or decision taking time. Interpersonal skills,
leadership qualities and technical skills are also of great concern. These all include the
communication skills and presence of mind of a candidate, how much initiative or motivated a
person is? And accounting, prioritizing according to that firm is also included in the hiring and
selection process. Work ethics are also important in the hiring process.
Chip Rae and SG Crown included all the major factors in the hiring process but the only
suggestion I can make is that the like the candidate is not judged with the resume. Likewise, a
single day may not judge the skills so rounds of judgment should be increased by providing more
opportunities.