Fraternity Bros Are Running Wall Street

Interviews with dozens of fraternity members "showed a network whose Wall Street alumni guide resumes to the tops of stacks, reveal interview questions with recommended answers, offer applicants secret mottoes and support chapters facing crackdowns," according to Bloomberg reporters Max Abelson and Zeke Faux.

Conor Hails - the president of the University of Pennsylvania's Sigma Chi chapter - told Bloomberg News how his fraternity membership helped him land a connection at a Barclays Plc recruiting event when he approached a banker using the house's secret handshake.

"We exchanged a grip, and he said, 'Every Sigma Chi gets a business card.' We're trying to create Sigma Chi on Wall Street, a little fraternity on Wall Street," Hails said.

Other fraternity members currently on Wall Street said they would use campus recruitment trips to secure their brothers interviews ahead of other candidates who may have been more qualified.

Bloomberg News also reports that these connections sometimes happen unintentionally. Jeff Librot - a former president of the University of Delaware's Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter - found that his membership came in handy when he applied for a Bank of Montreal internship.

Unprompted, a banker responded to Librot's application with an email featuring the phrase "Phi Alpha" - SAE's secret motto - and the fraternity member eventually got the internship.

Check out the full story about fraternity members on Wall Street at Bloomberg News >>