For recent college graduates, one of the most coveted jobs on Wall Street is the Blackstone analyst role. Competition is fierce for a position that has helped launch countless careers, including that of Jon Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, the executive who is expected to take the reins from cofounder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
This year, Blackstone had 169 first-year analyst positions available and received applications from 62,000 candidates worldwide, Schwarzman said during a July 20 conference call to discuss BX’s second quarter earnings. This translates to a selection rate of less than 0.3% and means that getting an entry-level job at Blackstone is 12 times as tough as getting accepted to Harvard, Schwarzman noted. “I doubt I would be able to be hired today; not sure that’s a great thing,” he said during the call.
