“”It puts you in a really bad position if you’re a junior banker who has accepted a buyside offer,” said Anthony Keizner, co-founder of Wall Street search firm Odyssey Search Partners, adding, “If you’re a young banker who’s just done oncycle, do you just try and not tell the bank?”

Bankers who get fired stand to lose their private-equity job offers, too. Those offers are usually given with the expectation of having two years of training and deal experience at an investment bank.

“There’s a reason that PE jobs are post-dated, because of the firms’ capacity and pipeline planning and needs — but it’s also because they want you to be trained and have deal experience before you come,” Keizner said.

The suggestion that young bankers could be fired for disclosing their future-starting private equity jobs could encourage the opposite of transparency, he said.

“It’s more likely to bury these issues or make someone less forthcoming,” said Keizner. “This seems to, I think, cause more confusion and concern than clarifying or allaying any fears.”

The first wave of private-equity recruiting is known as “oncycle,” and it has become increasingly chaotic and stressful for junior bankers as firms start the process earlier each year. The oncycle recruiting process has been kicking off so early (it took place in June this year) that buy-side firms are often hiring candidates with zero deal experience. In some cases, it’s turning off newbie bankers, as BI has previously reported.

“There’s been pressure on oncycle, and I think this will further weaken its importance because of the effect that it will have on worried bankers who have enough to do in their days without having to worry about potential legal implications and employment curtailment by their banks,” said Keizner.

“I think probably the biggest impact is going to be on current bankers and prospective bankers,” he said. “It’s turning up the issues that relate to this on-cycle process, and frankly, this email is potentially another nail in the coffin of oncycle.”

“I think it will make candidates even more reluctant to interview for roles in such a long-dated fashion and make them more likely to say, ‘I don’t know where this is going, but this sounds like a legal and employment mess so I’m going to keep my head down, do my first year, and then I’ll look for opportunities for a sooner start or an immediate start.”

As exemplified by virtually collective return-to-office mandates following the COVID-19 pandemic, Wall Street tends to move in packs when it comes to employee policies. So the impact of JPMorgan’s missive will also depend on whether others follow suit.

“I haven’t seen other banks come forward with something that is so clear,” Keizner said. “It’ll be interesting to see if other banks follow suit or if this really is just a JPMorgan thing.”