UK Asset Management Compensation & Hours
Currently working at a boutique in London as an equity analyst. In around 9am, out by 6pm. No weekends, although you obviously track your investments 24/7. Great team and I also have a lot of flexibility e.g. no issues with taking half a day off to sort out personal stuff. Could for example do this twice every month and nobody would say anything. As long as I get my work done, the expectation is to be at my desk maybe 80% of the time. No remote work however. As for mandate, we can pretty much look into anything we want but no individual shorts. I spend 30% of my time looking into stuff the PM requested and the remaining 70% is spent looking into whatever I want to delve into. Salary progression went as follows:
Year 1: £30k + 30% Bonus [£39k tot]
Year 2: £53k + 30% Bonus [£69k tot]
Year 3: £58k + 30% Bonus [£75k tot - Several changes that year, which meant everyone took in less]
There is no guaranteed salary progression at my company so I have no idea what I'll be offered in January.
In short, WLB is great however compensation is below my personal expectations, especially because my bonus is capped. My target is to find a position with a clear path to a total compensation of £150k by my 6th year if not earlier. Is this realistic in the UK? Does anyone know of firms I could look into? I am OK sacrificing WLB. Strategy wise, I like to buy and hold, so no shorting, which means that L/S positions aren't an option.
Thanks guys!
At an American fixed income shop in London, where hours are typically 9-8, and our base comp progression is:
Y0: £65k
Y1.5: £80k
Y3: £95k
Y4.5: £130k
Y6: £160k
Many thanks for sharing. Are you guys top of the range when it comes to compensation? Since you are in fixed income, do you know what Federated Hermes is like? They are mostly geared towards FI but added equities as of late I believe.
Are equity shops similar in this progression or this an outlier?
are you a junior? Would you happen to see a step-change in comp once you reach Y4? Your comp is in-line with UK / european firms' grad schemes (believe even similar to Fido's comp in the grad programme) but I would expect you to achieve at least low 100s at some point in your Y4-Y6.
Fwiw i'm at a pension and my target is mid100s for around that level of experience (4-6 yoe)
Can't compare to US fixed income funds, esp PIMCO which I suspect is one of the earlier comments, as they tend to pay top of market.
I was referred to as junior analyst until Y2, but everyone in the team (4 people including me) gradually dropped the "junior" part this year and my title was eventually updated in our internal presentations without really being told about it. By experience, yes I am the least experienced, next person up has 7-yoe, then 20-yoe each.
Pay bumps are really down to performance. We sold majority of the positions I brought to the table by the end of Y2, performance has generally been strong and the PM was happy about it. However, the positions I pitched this year were placed on hold as the PM felt that pessimism was still building up and that they could bottom further. I therefore don't have much to show for this year, which I suspect will affect my ability to ask for more in January.
Many thanks for sharing your salary data points, really helpful! Can I ask what your work environment looks like? Do you get a lot of autonomy?
You're right - it was PIMCO (I guess "American fixed income shop in London" doesn't really leave you with much). Our pay is benchmarked against Capital Group, Wellington, and T. Rowe. Blackrock pays a similar level at entry, Fidelity pays less surprisingly (I believe that they paid £37.5 back in 2010... must be at £50k now). The likes of M&G, Schroders, Baillie Gifford all pay less than that - closer to the likes of T2 consulting (£40k).
It doesn't seem to pay very well compared with other finance jobs.
There are most definitely long onlys paying more than this. I've had recruiters reach out to me about 80-90k base positions at long onlys when I had <1YOE on sell side. Not any of the big names either.
Ironically, I am exclusively approached for PE, consulting and VC roles (probably because I spent a couple years in industry then lateraled), none of which I am interested in. I find approaching other boutique AMs tricky as the interview process can be really long with no disclosure on pay until you hit the end. Interviewed at a shop last year and got dinged at the 7th round, which was also the stage at which they asked me about pay. Any chance you can share which headhunters contacted you?
I can't really remember. All the usual suspects and a bunch of randoms too.
HW Anderson, Selby, Greenwich, Dartmouth off the top of my head.
It's not that abnormal you're not approached that often if you're working for a boutique AM vs working for a tier 1 BB. Recruiters are mostly young and look for easy wins when doing outreach.
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