How Citigroup's Early ID program is using mentors to fast-track diverse candidates to nab hyper-competitive internships

• Recruitment for Wall Street’s summer internships are beginning earlier.
• As a result, diverse candidates might be excluded from landing offers. 
• Citigroup’s Early ID program engages with diverse candidates through a 5-week program. 
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

In the fall of his sophomore year at Lehigh University, William Pemberton, a finance major, started looking for internships. 

He wanted to land an internship in the summer of 2019, prior to his senior year, so he started looking more than a year out, in the fall of 2017. Like other students, he knew that successfully finding a job in financial services meant he needed to be proactive.

During his research, Pemberton came across Citigroup’s Early ID, a five-week virtual recruiting program that helps diverse candidates gain access to educational resources on financial services, and get their foot in the door with the global bank.

The program is segmented into five specific tracks, each one focused on a different constituency: Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, women, and veterans.

While not an official internship, the program offers mentorship and the eventual opportunity to be fast tracked for an internship in a variety of departments at the bank, including markets, consumer services, and human resources.

Citi first piloted Early ID in 2017 and it’s already attracted interest from thousands of applicants every year.

In 2020, the Early ID program for Citi’s banking, capital markets, and advisory division, which includes investment-banking services, received 1,100 applications and accepted 300 participants. Across all divisions of Citi, the program received nearly 4,000 applications, enrolling 860 people.

Citi offers the program through its campus recruiting network, which encompasses more than 300 colleges.

There’s no set limit on the number of candidates Citi can accept for its Early ID program, said Melissa Salerno, a Citigroup senior vice president and talent acquisition lead for the banking, capital markets, and advisory group.

As for Pemberton, he was accepted into the program’s 2018 spring cohort. The program then helped him land an internship at Citigroup for the summer of 2019.

In 2020, Pemberton joined Citi as a full-time analyst within the investment bank’s global power and utilities division. He also became a participating mentor for the next generation of candidates enrolled in Citi’s 2021 Early ID program, which began in February. 

“It was really a turning point for me professionally,” Pemberton told Insider, speaking about his experience in the program. “You’re allowing minorities and people of color and people that associate with different affinity groups that wouldn’t traditionally be found on Wall Street to develop a professional network.”

Citi’s Early ID program teaches its participants both soft and hard skills

The Early ID program provides participants with exposure to a variety of training and educational tools to help them sharpen their knowledge of financial services, Salerno said. 

Participants are given a mentor, whom they call weekly. The bank links mentors and mentees based on common interests, like if they share an alma mater. For example, Pemberton’s mentor, J.R. Devita, a senior healthcare investment banking associate at Citi, is also a Lehigh alum. 

Through the program, students get access to a number of learning and development tools including webinars that teach them about analyzing financial statements or understanding the stock market. They also have training sessions on refining elevator pitches and excelling during behavioral and technical interviews.

Pemberton said students also get access to video presentations from Black leaders and other voices from diverse groups like LBGTQ+ individuals, women, and veterans, who offer their perspectives on career development in finance. 

A stepping stone to landing a full-time internship 

Citi’s Early ID program doesn’t guarantee employment, but it does enable candidates to build their professional network within the firm and skip some of the waiting that comes with an internship application. 

About 25% of enrolled Early ID students receive internship offers at Citi. Of that group, up to 95% of interns went on to receive full-time offers at the firm, the company told Insider.

Candidates who have their mentors’ support are fast-tracked to the interview phase, where they have three rounds of interviews before receiving an internship offer. 

Still, not all candidates will reach the finish line, Salerno said. Some naturally drop off to pursue other career opportunities.

“Sometimes they go through it and say, ‘You know what, investment banking is not for me, but I’m really interested in markets,'” Salerno said. 

Wall Street has been making efforts to reach more diverse candidates

Citi’s initiative is part of a broader push on Wall Street to hire diverse students.

Internships, a key pipeline into Wall Street firms, can help companies seed future generations of leadership.

There is still a stark lack of diversity in senior leadership at Wall Street firms. One study from the US Government Accountability Office found that minorities comprise fewer than 15% of senior-level leaders in financial services. At Citigroup, 29% of its 2020 managing director class was composed of women, Bloomberg reported.

Citi is not the only financial services firm to create a program to boost diversity.

JPMorgan has an Advancing Black Pathways career pathways program. And Credit Suisse has worked with schools like the University of Pennsylvania to run trainings like its five-week “Discovery Boot Camp,” which is aimed at enrolling students of Black, Latinx, and Native American descent. The program prepares college students for a career in finance by helping them master the fundamentals of investment banking and understanding global and capital markets.

There’s also large diversity recruiting networks such as SEO Career and Management Leadership for Tomorrow.

For Pemberton, Citigroup’s Early ID program had a pivotal impact on his career.

He still remembers when he met Devita, his mentor, for the first time in New York City.

He had just completed his 2018 super day, where candidates field multiple interviews with different teams in the same day. Rather than extend his hand for a handshake, Pemberton leaned in to give him a hug.

“Those five weeks I spent with the firm, albeit virtually, was really a turning point for me professionally,” Pemberton recalled. “Not only had I really learned what investment-banking was all about, I also developed a big brother.”

Learn more about the financial services industry.

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