Citigroup CEO visits campus and talks job prospects
Posted November 11, 2009 at 12:00 am
Updated November 11, 2009 at 3:24 am
Matt Mitgang | Student Life
Citigroup Inc. CEO Vikram Pandit met with Olin students Monday in the Knight Center during a visit to St. Louis. Pandit was in town to announce preliminary third-quarter results of Citi’s foreclosure prevention activities in Missouri. Citi has more than 200 million client accounts globally and is known as one of the “Big Four Banks” of the U.S. Pandit sat down with Student Life and gave advice to students looking for jobs or internships.
Student Life: What would you recommend for students about to enter the job market?
Vikram Pandit: It’s all about an education. Don’t worry about the rest; it will happen down the road.
SL: Is 2010 a bad time to be graduating?
VP: I do think that the economy feels a little better to us, it seems to be stabilizing a bit more here, so if you were to look at the economic environment right now, by the time they get out of school, it might actually turn out to be a good time for them.
SL: Is Citi hiring right now?
VP: We are hiring a lot from schools right now, and I know some other firms are as well. Most of the firms like ours take a very long-term view—you want the young people in, you want to get them every year and train them because ultimately, it is a talent business. We haven’t really changed many of our plans, and I know that most other companies haven’t. Students should do what they have been doing, which is study hard and interview well so they can get a good job.
SL: With foreclosures on the rise, there are more jobs available in the mortgage industry than in years past, for example. Should students package themselves differently in order to meet the current demands?
VP: There are aspects of that that one has to be aware of, but when we recruit students coming from schools—undergraduate and graduate students—we recruit for the long haul. This isn’t about hiring you for a particular job, this is about bringing you in as a part of the training programs, [a] part of what is going to make you great over time.
SL: How should you approach job recruiters?
VP: There may be jobs that are specific that they might be going after, but if you are looking at Citi, just be yourself and just talk about what you really like to do, what do you want to do in your life, what do what you want to learn, what kind of career do you want to have, what interests you. That’s the most exciting for us.
SL: Are there a lot of business job opportunities in St. Louis?
VP: There is a great community in St. Louis, and Citi has been lucky to find some great people who have decided to work here. I think we have some 6,000 employees in Missouri and 4,500 in St. Louis. What St. Louis offers is a lot of different aspects of a large city in a great living environment, which is why there are a lot of companies here. There are a lot of opportunities here.
SL: So students shouldn’t be scared to graduate?
VP: I think it is good to be prepared and it is good to have realistic perspectives about what could happen. I’m not saying that every employer is still doing the same hiring that they used to. I’m saying that we haven’t changed.
SL: And Wash. U. students specifically?
VP: My guess is that you are going to find that for the kind of school Wash. U. is and the kind of students you are, I think that they are going to be in demand.
SL: Did you enjoy your visit to Wash. U.?
VP: There was so much energy. It’s great to see the energy; it’s great to see the diversity. I thought the [students’] questions were absolutely terrific. They are really tuned in to what’s going on, so I enjoyed spending time with them.
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On November 11, 2009 at 10:00 am Jerome Bauer said
“Pandit was in town to announce preliminary third-quarter results of Citi’s foreclosure prevention activities in Missouri.” Good job, CitiMortgage Loss Mitigation Department, for tearing up your “Making Home Unaffordable” proposal, and redoing it, on your own initiative. We taxpayers are getting some value for our our money. If we are very lucky and talk to the right people, we may get to keep our homes.
I filed a complaint against this company with the Missouri Attorney General, forwarded to the federal government, which has jurisdiction.
Lecturer Dr. Jerome “riff-raff” Bauer
STILL a local homeowner, taxpayer, and WashU neighbor…
On November 12, 2009 at 6:25 pm 08 Alumni said
I understand that you aren’t supposed to be hostile to someone who clearly ranks as one of the most important people interviewed in Stud Life, but don’t you think you could have asked a question that might have done more than ask about the job market?
He is a CEO not a career counselor.
What about asking him how he can justify paying out such huge bonuses in the face of increasing unemployment and one of the worst economic downturns in our nation’s history?
Or what he thinks should be done in order to prevent this kind of crisis from occurring again?
This isn’t an overt and blind attack on the quality of the reporting (I am happy to see you even scored an interview), but rather a recommendation: when presented with an opportunity to ask significant questions you run with it instead of lobbing soft balls to one of the (arguably) most powerful men in the country.
On December 8, 2009 at 6:30 am Jerome Bauer said
Thank you very much, CitiMortgage, for repeatedly “losing” my agreement, and trying to charge me late fees and penalties, and trying to go back on an agreement that I have never received. I sent the first payment, on the advice of your Executive Response department (CEO). Thank you for this courtesy. Now please stop playing games. I am not the only one to whom this is happening. We smell a rat. Why are we taxpayers bailing you out?
On December 12, 2009 at 10:06 am Jerome Bauer said
I heard a politician on television say of the mortgage bankers: “We asked the lion to lay down with the lamb, and when we came back, the lamb was missing. Now we are calling, “Here, kitty, kitty.” Here, kitty, kitty!
My case is not unique, it seems quite common: they string you along, demanding new documents, pretending to lose your file, harassing you with robot and human phone calls, some rudely cutting you off, giving you the runaround, and keeping you in a constant state of distraction and anxiety so you cannot make plans or do your real work properly. They hope you will give up, so they will get your house. I am glad the government is cracking down. Don’t we need good government, to oversee the bankers’ bailout?
I am grateful for the escalation of my case, by the Citigroup Executive Response Department, thanks, no doubt, to the complaint I filed with the Attorney General, the Facebook Note I posted with tags to politicians, journalists, and activists, and perhaps to my posts to the Student Life discussion board. Now I am getting VIP treatment, and at least I have not been locked ouf of my home, unlike many others. Even press attention and protest demonstrations may not be enough to prevent this from happening, even if one has an agreement in writing. Please see Leslie Parks’ case, in Minneapolis: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=184628686503&ref=mf How many homeless folks live in our neighborhood, who have no such press and charitable attention?
Unless you escalate, they will not escalate your case. Based on my experience, that is my best political advice. The best legal advice I have been given is, “Do not trust them.” I would prefer to trust. Can we?
On December 19, 2009 at 1:07 pm Jerome Bauer said
Well, the harassing phone calls from CitiMortgage have stopped. Will they claim I have been unresponsive, to the phone calls and letters they no longer send? They have done so in the past, but now I am calling them on it. Perhaps they are listening. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you CitiGroup, Millsapp and Singer, Indy Mac, et. al. May you NOT earn Scrooge of the Year award, unless it be Reformed Scrooge of the Year.
I nominate CitiMortgage for Reformed Scrooge of the Year Award. May they earn it. May President Obama earn his Peace Prize, too. Let’s have peace on earth, good will to all creatures. Happy Holidays and good cheer to all!
On January 9, 2010 at 7:14 pm Jerome Bauer said
Today I received a form letter from CitiMortgage Collections Department, informing me that we had agreed that I would pay the full back balance by January 1, and charging me $825.96 Delinquency Charge. Since we had no such agreement, and since CitiMortgage “lost” the agreement I was to have signed for my four month Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Trial Period, the Delinquency Charge should apply to CitiMortgage, not to me. Let’s all send their bills back to them, if they are delinquent.
CitiMortgage, please deduct this from my upcoming February payment. Of course, I will be sure to pay the whole amount that we DID agree to, rather than give you another bad excuse to take my house. I am glad the Executive Response Team is on my case, reopening my file, redoing my papers, and investigating all cases of “lost” agreements, and CitiMortgage harassment techniques. Thank you, CitiMortgage! I am glad Congress is investigating the bailout. Here, kitty, kitty!
Call me old-fashioned, but my mother and my father taught me that crime does not pay, and crooks belong in jail. Karma Police will arrest you, if the citizens don’t do it first, if you cheat your customers and lie to the government.
Karma Police, arrest these folks, they talk in maths, they’re like an unstuck record…
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164120369582&ref=ss
On January 20, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Jerome Bauer said
Today I received my loan modification package. Tomorrow is the deadline suggested by Michael, my Executive Response case manager, for faxing my rewritten Hardship Letter, and some supporting materials. I am on the fast track now!
If you, too, want to get on the fast track, here are some resources, compiled by my friend, filmmaker Josh Lassing:
“Stories, and short videos of interest // related to mortgage crisis/activism,”
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=299976444828
On January 30, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Jerome Bauer said
Here is a link to a news story on KSDK Channel 5 news, about a benefit concert organized by my students in less than a week after I finally acknowledged my situation and asked for some help, a modest amount to keep me from missing a reduced payment in the trial period of my modified loan. They did not run Jacob Stern’s comments calling St Louis to mortgage activism along this model. I am not too surprised. They wanted to keep the story positive. I myself had only positive things to say about CitiMortgage, and I gave them full credit for catching their error last summer, and shredding their unaffordable proposal.
This could have been avoided, last summer. Why does it take a year? I have talked to others who have lost their homes, and they tell me that the mortgage companies will not even listen to you before you actually fall behind on payments, and when you do, they treat you like dirt. I know what they mean, having been “in the process” for almost a year. I would not wish this on anyone, not even my worst enemy.
Here is the story:
http://origin.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=194877&catid=3
It is mostly about the WashU Co-op, as it ought to be. I bought my house to help the Co-op, and I’ll keep it to help the Co-op grow and flourish.
On February 4, 2010 at 2:36 am
Jerome Bauer said
When I called CitiMortgage to pay my bill by electronic check, just in the nick of time, I heard something new: the Muzak was interrupted by a narrator who touted the company’s work with Habitat for Humanity and other local community organizations. Fact check, anyone?
The person I talked to informed me that I am in the trial period. Good. I am glad they are not pretending otherwise. I finally received the loan modification via UPS Certified Mail, backdated to the date it was supposed to have been sent. Instead of sending it right away, as they urge me to do, I am going to take my good time and read ALL the fine print with my magnifying lamp. What’s another week?
Citi Never Sleeps. Indeed. Neither do we who are “in the process.”
On February 6, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Jerome Bauer said
Today, Saturday 2/6/10, I received a call from someone calling himself “Mike,” just like my first Executive Response case manager, about my “hardship case” credit card repayment plan. He claimed to offer a better deal, but then he asked for personal information, and read me a statement “required by law,” all about the Patriot Act, and how we all have to make sure “terrorists” don’t use our credit cards to fund their operations. I have never before been confronted with the so-called “Patriot Act,” the Domestic Informer Act really, and I became suspicious and hung up. Was this a phishing scam? Or was it, in some sense, real? To get hardship assistance, must I renounce “terrorism,” sometimes defined as labor advocacy?
I am glad I hung up in time. Now I am more inclined than ever to read carefully every line in my Citimortgage “hardship affidavit,” lest there are any hidden “loyalty oaths” or anything of the sort.
What are we coming to?
Citi Never Sleeps, and neither do we who are “in the process.”