@blackjack, yes exactly. It's a harmless question to see if anyone knows the structure of pay at certain firms since it's not readily available on this site. This site seems to be lacking quality posters and those who love to degrade specific questions. Posters LOVE to "assume" ulterior motives from the OP. Literally pointless for the flow of conversation and keeps people in dark of useful info that some may have.

Please only respond if you'd like to help out the knowledge base of WSO'ers.

 

They're all about the same. They benchmark each other heavily. It used to be that the Bear Stearns equivalent firms paid a little bit higher, because they were trying to compete with the big guys and most people would have preferred to work elsewhere, all else being equal. Not sure if this is still true.

Bottom line, don't take an analyst offer because of potential differentials in 1st year pay. If anything, higher pay signals weakness from the firm because that usually means nobody wants to work there without the increased pay.

 

@sirtradesalot, that makes sense. However, don't the elite boutiques (BX, Lazard, Qatalyst, PWP, etc.) pay higher than the BB's? I would think that these positions are most likely as coveted as the very top BB's or even more so in general, so increased pay in this case wouldn't signal weakness from the firm, correct?

 
Best Response
Banking34075:
@sirtradesalot, that makes sense. However, don't the elite boutiques (BX, Lazard, Qatalyst, PWP, etc.) pay higher than the BB's? I would think that these positions are most likely as coveted as the very top BB's or even more so in general, so increased pay in this case wouldn't signal weakness from the firm, correct?
I don't know about the boutiques, but I have a hard time imagining that a good firm willingly pays more than the competition on a regular basis. If there has been a difference, don't expect it to persist.
 

Just looked around on-line, appears that the top compensation for the BB's was around 140k all-in (Signing, Salary, Bonus). Found that Blackstone paid 165k all-in in 2010 (not sure about more recent #'s). I've read that Qatalyst paid somewhere around 90k bonus alone, not sure if this is true.

 

From what I've been told, Centerview has the highest on the street. They're very big on retention and I've heard from rumors of people getting paid 200k in good times, although I can't verify. Definitely substantially higher than BB pay.

I'm not sure if Evercore analysts get paid more than at a BB but an analyst there told me that the jump in pay from 3rd year analyst to associate is very large, in order to incentivize you to stay instead of moving to PE/hedge funds.

The bulge brackets currently are pretty standardized. 70k base salary. 10k signing bonus. Variable bonus depending on bucket (performance). Expect your first year bonus to be 30-60k, depending on performance and the business cycle. So between 110k and 140k all in. Second year base salary is 80k, with a bigger bonus.

 

So then what is your question, here?

I think the most appropriate question for you is "how do I break in to the sellside?" Or "I want to be able to afford a condo in London (where prices start in the seven figures) some day. How do I land a career that will let me do that?"

Let's start with the simple stuff that us mortals can relate to, and then one day if you figure out how to make ten figures, you can come back here and tell us how it's done.

 

OP: be more specific about what part of Wall St and what positions. IB analyst at BB's? Or associate, vp or how much are they paying their c-suite? Or S&T, ER, guys on a syndication desk,etc at those firms, or at boutiques or solid mm banks? Or PE, hedge funds, real estate PE, and at what level? You'll get more responses or you can search this site. I'm sure there are dozens of comp related things.

PE and HF's are more difficult to say that this place or that place "pays" x, y or z at the higher more experienced positions (I.e. the guys who you most likely want to hear about because those sums are quite large) because pay is closely related to performance for the carry, they're private (so they dont need to tell anyone shit) and they're smaller so they don't have tens of thousands of employees running all over the street bragging or bitching about their bonus. PE has more structured and typical comp at jr levels but HF's, and I've never worked at a HF so this is coming from friends in the field, even at jr levels is affected by fund performance: if the funds down the the month, year whatever, no ones getting big or any bonuses. The pay at the extreme high end is even more of a function of performance because these guys started their own firms and have significant money invested in the funds. When the press says that HF manager John Doe made $2b last year I believe it's not simply on the carry but often includes the money he has in the fund as well as carry (I may be incorrect so feel free to say I'm wrong). I know at the PE firms that have gone public in parts or whole the press started reporting that whichever manager made hundreds of millions and the press made it sound like they paid someone $300MM in salary when large parts of it were distributions, dividends because they owned so much of the GP/management co) and had significant amounts of cspital in various funds, then from carry and salary. Take a look at HF's also, and I'd guarantee that the FT article included these guys but Soros and Cohen returned outside investor money (for entirely different reasons) and decided to just invest their own money. Soros did that with something like $23b and Cohen did it with over $10b ( could be wrong on that amount.

But I wouldn't worry about IB or Wall St not being a lucrative career. Every time something happens that adversely affects the business and everyone thinks you're never going to make the same money and the good old days are past (I'm thinking when stocks went to decimals everyone thought trading was done, now there's just a bunch of hedge fund billionaires, or before I got into the business the market crash of 87 meant it was all done, or I hear old timers talk about the ending of fixed commisions in the 70's was the death knell for Wall St. Too many smart fuckers with too much money at stake to ever let finance be unprofitable no matter how many people occupy Wall St.

 

Its not 10 years of school though lol I was going to do a masters anyway and its just three years for a phd after that. During the summer I can intern at places. TBH I already kind of considered a phd but seeing the opportunities like these is making it more likely.

 

So you'd spend 5 years doing a Ph.D just so you can have a high starting salary? Why not just work those 5 years and have an even higher salary after that?

 

Sint qui molestiae omnis aliquam. Aspernatur qui rerum ipsam qui qui exercitationem reprehenderit. Molestiae vel dolores magni in quia nesciunt inventore amet. Quam tempore quo quo rerum nesciunt nulla. Fuga reiciendis numquam explicabo saepe ab aut. Quis error non eos inventore beatae et atque.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”