Choosing between becoming a banker or a private equity analyst is akin to the story of the tortoise and the hare. While junior bankers toil with $80,000 salaries in their early years cultivating the fundamentals of finance that will one day bring them success, their counterparts in private equity can make up to $300,000 per year, owning assets and making big decisions.
The result is a blitz of MBA graduates looking for big names in private equity earlier rather than the less-glitzy promise of a steady career in banking. And as Wall Street continues to swat away threats from private equity to poach young talent, Citi is the latest bank to make changes to retain its junior workforce.
The bank will now transition its analyst program from three years to two years, shortening the six-and-a-half years path from analyst to by a year, according to an internal memo—the contents of which were confirmed to Fortune by a Citi spokesperson. The change also applies to junior bankers currently in their third year, who will be promoted Jan. 1 if they meet performance standards.
Talent poaching has long been an issue that every industry has had to contend with, but it seems to be especially prominent in the financial sector, with some banks requiring loyalty oaths from their junior workers promising they haven’t accepted roles elsewhere in the first 18 months of their tenure. Taking a jab at banks, private equity firms have begun recruiting fledgling analysts earlier and earlier, pulling college students for “coffee chats” and using “on-cycle” recruiting, or a flurry of interviewing and hiring efforts sometimes two years before candidates officially accept a position.
Wall Street’s recurring retention problem
Wall Street has been on high alert about the potential for private equity firms to attract young workers away from banks. While some require the loyalty oaths (which experts warn could backfire through worker resentment of strict policies), others are questioning the young bankers’ “character” for accepting such roles. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called young analysts who take the jobs so early in their career as “unethical,” arguing even junior bankers who have received limited training are often given access to sensitive information before private equity poaches them. In 2025, JPMorgan told incoming graduates that should they accept a future position elsewhere before completing 18 months as JPMorgan, they would be fired.
David Friedland, Citi’s co-head of North America investment banking, expressed a similar view in justifying Citi’s decision to condense its career advancement timeline.
“The reality that private equity is interviewing so early in a banker’s career is very unfortunate and to some extent disappointing,” he told Bloomberg on Monday. “It’s very hard to make a choice to go into another field in the first month you land on Wall Street.”
And that recruitment cycle seems to be arriving earlier and earlier in a new analyst’s career. The executive search firm Odyssey Search Partners found that in 2010, private equity firms would typically begin recruitment once junior bankers had about 11 months of training under their belts. But by 2024, that plummeted to less than a month in.
Banks have made a series of changes to working and hiring conditions in order to combat poaching risks. Last year, Goldman Sachs cracked down on early-career bankers job hopping too soon, reportedly requiring junior analysts to confirm in writing every three months that they had not accepted outside future job offers. Citi also reportedly required a one-time “attestation” from its young analysts.
The rising risks of AI
Some hiring experts doubt whether private equity poaching explains Citi’s move. For one, private equity has been struggling in the last year as a result of high interest rates.Pitchbook reported 33,575 unsold companies in private equity portfolios as of June 30, up from 32,451 companies at the end of 2025, and more than double the 15,923 companies from a decade ago. While private equity hiring has increased in the last year as firms bank on a rebound, some recruitment consultants believe firms will prioritize expertise over youth.
The change also aligns with the rise of AI in investment banking, with some banks–including Citi–ramping up AI adoption to complete tasks like documents review that are typically completed by entry-level workers.
Meridith Dennes, managing partner at global financial search firm Prospect Rock Partners, argued the increased use of AI could make a shortened timeline for analysts more appealing, as it would lower the amount of commitment Citi would need to give young talent.
“You want to retain your top talent who are very analytical,” she told Fortune. “That’s definite. But then I also think AI is replacing people, or the AI tools are working, and there will be impacts and headcount reduction on that.”
One test will be to see how many of Citi’s current third-year analysts are retained in the new year. If not many are promoted, she said, it could signal either a private equity slowdown or that the bank may have found a way to reduce headcount in the AI age.
CEO Jane Fraser announced the potential for sweeping layoffs up to 20,000 roles as the bank works to streamline and cost save, though Fraser has said she’s of the mind that AI will transform jobs more than it will replace them. Last year, Citi began reskilling 175,000 workers on its AI tools.
“I want to stack the odds that we will help our people reinvent themselves,” Fraser said at Davos earlier this year, adding the bank wants staffers to “feel they’ve got a bit of control by having the training.
“Our people should be as much in the driving seat as possible. We’re encouraging our people, saying, ‘Not that AI is going to take your job away, but someone using AI is going to probably be better at your job than you are.’ So, how do we equip you to use [AI tools]?”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
