Before we describe the divergent developmental pathways that new Individual Bankers and Organization Bankers traveled, we first establish that most of the banks' recruiting practices were similar. This chapter provides evidence that the banks chose similar types of recruits. In describing their comparable recruiting practices our goal is to rule out an alternative explanation for our findings. One might argue that the divergent developmental processes we describe in Chapters 5 and 6, and the differential performance consequences that we observed at the two banks, were not caused by the banks' different uncertainty-management practices but instead by selection effects. According to this view, the bankers developed differently because they were different people to begin with. One bank might simply have recruited people who were smarter or differed along other important dimensions. This explanation might be valid if the banks used different selection processes and criteria or if applicants systematically chose a bank based on their preferences for the banks' different cultures. Candidates who were interested in a superstar culture, for instance, might have chosen Individual Bank but not Organization Bank. This chapter shows that neither the banks nor the applicants based their selections on such factors.

Even though the banks' recruiting processes and selection criteria were similar, however, recruitment served different functions at the two banks and thus launched new bankers' trajectories in distinct ways. Both banks recruited candidates who had a history of strong personal accomplishment and a “big ego.”