Hard Times For Wall Street's "Sell Night" Recruits

In the post-TARP era, "sell night," the Street's annual August ritual of hosting steak dinners and strip-club expeditions, is over

In late July, Goldman Sachs (GS) hosted an exclusive dinner for recent college graduates at a Ruth's Chris restaurant in midtown Manhattan. While the chain steakhouse might have seemed déclassé for veteran Wall Street traders accustomed to 21 or Delmonico's, it was a big draw for bright-eyed recruits who may never know such grandeur. Some even checked the menu online in anticipation.

Once upon a pre-TARP age, late summer on Wall Street meant that top recruits were filling their schedules with company-underwritten evenings at New York's top restaurants. "They would take us to Yankees games, and we thought that was huge," says Allison Levine, a former Goldman Sachs trainee and founder of leadership consultancy Daredevil Strategies. Other firms hired buses equipped with leather sofas, strobe lights, disco balls, and karaoke machines to shuttle invitees to the VIP lounges of exclusive downtown nightclubs. Lincoln Town Cars would take others to the champagne rooms of adult entertainment emporiums Scores and The Penthouse Club. Some could even enjoy a relaxing "booze cruise" on the Hudson or East River. Amid such settings, free-spending senior bankers would pitch the recruits on the benefits of their firm over another.

This time-honored ritual, known as "sell night," provided megabanks and boutiques alike with the perfect backdrop for tendering their professional compact. Senior bankers would offer their firm's prestige and hefty starting salaries—and the implicit promise of future extravagances—in exchange for two to three years of uninterrupted work.

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