Sellside Equity Research Analyst Compensation higher at the top 10 boutiques than at bulge brackets

I'm 34, started in financial markets search 11 years ago about a month after finishing school. One exciting but surprising trend i have seen since the financial crash, buy especially this year,2014, is that Senior Equity Analysts at well known boutiques had are making more money than veteran bulge bracket analysts, Associate analyst compensation is still higher at the bulge brackets. This explains why so many individuals start their careers at the bulge brackets than move on to boutiques or the buyside. Boutiques tend to have lower turnover as well, much lower. So kids, maybe you should reconsider starting a career in research at the bulge brackets. The buyside, in many cases, doesn't even care if the research providers have a trading desk anymore, they will just cut checks to the independent shops. As a result, the middle-market and regional research providers many with no particular research specialty are seeing their research derived revenues collapse and in many cases there is simply no reason to keep so many analysts around just for the sake of their banking business. The financial crisis was a storm that was hard to weather (especially for a recruiter!) However, it seems clear that the quality of sellside research has improved as the number of total analyst has declined. 2015 will be another great one for the smaller firms, and if volatility picks up maybe even so for those middle-market and regional firms that produce almost nothing but vanilla research. So 2015 could very well include high i-banking deal flow like in 2014, much higher volatility in global equity markets, and smaller firms continueing to be rewarded for bravery and creativity. I think nearly every type of sellside firm will be making more money this year, which usually equates to a boom in hiring. Time will tell!