Finance: Citi is going after one Ivy League school to win rare talent (C)

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One of the biggest hurdles banks face in their quest for successful innovation is finding and hiring talent with skills in new areas like blockchain technology, analytics, and cybersecurity. As a way to overcome this hurdle, Citi has announced a collaboration with Cornell Tech, the prestigious university’s graduate campus that focuses on business and computer science.

Citi has leased office space in The Bridge building on campus, which is also home to startups and entrepreneurs, where it will house 70-80 employees from Q1 2018.

The bank will engage both faculty and students. Citi will offer staff and students the chance to work alongside bank employees, developing products and services for Citi’s customers, as part of Cornell Tech’s Product Studio class. The bank’s VC arm, Citi Ventures, will also be involved through its University Partnerships program, enabling students to participate in its hackathons and design sprints. This multi-pronged approach is likely designed to engage as many students and staff as possible, giving Citi the best chance of finding the talent most suited to its needs. It also creates an opportunity for these groups to experience working with the bank, perhaps helping to dispel any negative assumptions they might have about working for an incumbent.

Citi’s approach will likely aid, but not solve, its talent acquisition woes. The collaboration with Cornell Tech will give the bank access to a wide pool of technical talent early on, affording it a good chance of bringing students on board as soon as they graduate. That should help with some of its immediate talent needs. But, in the long run, the talent pool in areas the bank, and others, want to hire in remains comparatively small due to the nascent nature of the technologies. It will take years for that pool to expand, and even longer for those employees to build up experience. That suggests hiring, and retaining, talent will be an issue for even the biggest banks for some years to come.

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