JPMorgan has issued a stern warning to incoming analysts, stating they will be fired if they accept another job offer within 18 months of joining, reinforcing CEO Jamie Dimon’s view that such behavior is unethical. The policy, targeting a growing trend among U.S. grads, aims to protect the bank from conflicts of interest and confidential information leaks, while also making internal career advancement more attractive.
Wall Street veteran Jamie Dimon has made his opinion clear: Grads accepting an analyst role at JPMorgan but intending to leave for private equity within a few years is “unethical.”
And a few months later, JPMorgan has told incoming graduate employees if they accept future-dated roles they will be fired.
An email sent by Filippo Gori and John Simmons, co-heads of global banking at America’s largest bank, welcomed new grads starting this summer with a stern warning: “If you accept a position with another company before joining us or within your first 18 months, you will be provided notice and your employment with the firm will end.”
The reasoning was clear, to get on at the financial giant “your full attention and participation are essential.”
Continuing its no-nonsense outline to junior talent, the memo adds that training sessions, meetings and obligations are mandatory—if they are missed then, again, the individual may be let go.
The email telling recent graduates they would be let go if they secured a further job was only sent to new employees in the U.S., Fortune understands, largely because the issue of talent accepting future roles is more of a problem stateside than in other geographies.
While the memo didn’t explicitly state where these future-dated positions may be offered, the boss of the bank with a market cap of some $730 billion has made his thoughts on such a phenomenon clear.
“I know a lot of you work at JPMorgan, you take a job at a private equity shop before you even start with us,” Dimon told a crowd of undergraduate business school students in September 2024. “I’m going to say something a little different, okay, because I didn’t talk about character. The most important thing about people’s character, I think that’s unethical. I don’t like it.”
Of course, the statement and subsequent action risk ruffling feathers with PE, which accounts for a significant chunk of JPMorgan’s business.
But Dimon maintained that the practice of junior analysts gaining a basis of experience with JPMorgan before jumping ship exposed the bank because the staffers may have confidential information or insight.
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