Tech NYC Corporate Strategy Comp

I’m interested in going down this path and it would be great to know what is the market comp for corporate strategy roles 2 years out of IB at a tech company in NYC. I understand that it will vary depending on the tech company itself, but would be great if we could get some real responses from people in corporate strategy on what they are being paid. 
Based on some of the other posts I’ve read, seems like ~$130k all in seems to be the sweet spot? 
 

Thank you!

 

Can provide some data points here as I (and some close friends) recruited & received offers within the last 6 months - year. Below is based on offers for corp strat/dev roles at tech firms in the northeast (mainly NYC). Backgrounds include a mix of IB and consulting with ~2-3 years of experience.

130 total comp is doable but 130 cash comp definitely on the high side from what I personally saw. Average all-in cash comp was 100-115 with RSU/equity typically adding a bit more on top.

Base: 90-100K

Bonus:10-15K

RSU/Equity: 0-20K (Hard to give an average as there was a wide range here. Also private company equity is hard to value)

I personally took a paycut but it was worth it IMO....hours are way less brutal and work is much more interesting. 

 

Do you find the work itself to be difficult or harder than IB? In general, in what ways does the field differ from IB in both good and bad ways? Do you see a lot of people with the banking background basically pulling the 80-100 hour weeks to keep working on their projects and making them better even though others might only spend 50-60 hours (or whatever your work hours are now)?

 
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To clarify, I came from consulting but was an SA at BB/EB IBD so have some perspective. I'd say the work is different from IB but wouldn't say its difficult/harder.


Pros:
- Work on average is more interesting and varied
- Greater sense of ownership of work
- After building trust with team, I have a high degree of autonomy
- No facetime (when we were in office)
- Hours are significantly less: Averaging 50-60 hours during work week. Typically minimal to no work on weekends (I sometimes spend 2-5 hours to prep for upcoming week). Have had a couple of weeks (<10 in last year) that have spiked to 70-80 hours.
- Easier to stand-out vs. peers: I probably work slightly more than others at my company but the skills learned in IB/Consulting enable me to be quicker/more productive/ get more done so it's been easier for me to be percieved as a high-performer. This may partially be due to the fact the team was not well established and I was one of the first few people hired with this sort of background

Cons:
- Comp and trajectory are less than traditional consulting/IB (but well worth lifestyle tradeoff)
- No 'downtime'. Although you're working a fraction of IB hours, you're actively working for all those hours with meetings, heads down work, etc. (found working rhythm to be pretty similar to consulting)
- Perception of your role/team can vary. In tech companies, Product and Engineering are seen as highly coveted roles. Finance and by extension Corp Strat/Dev are valued but in a different light. (At the end of the day those teams own product vision and roadmap)
- Quality of peers can vary. While I found my immediate team to have comparable skills, you may have to work with people across the org that may not know XLS/PPT, how to throw together a quick analysis, etc.


Other Thoughts
- Although my group is corp strat the work tends to be more in the weeds than I experienced in consulting or IB. My work is rarely ever as high-level as it was in my past roles and often we are expected to help incubate / operationalize ideas/strategy we had come up with rather than just dispensing advice. I personally liked this transition as I get to own long-term outcomes of projects.
- Delivering impactful projects is important for moving up. In my experience, leading and shepherding projects that have measurable impact is what makes people stand out. This is related to previous point that strategy without execution by itself was not highly valued
- Promotions are not tied to a strict timetable so it you can move up quicker (but its also possible to stagnate since there isn't a clear up or out mindset). For example, there have been people who were promoted in <1 year and others that took 3 years.
- Ambiguity is on par with consulting but much higher than what I remember from my SA IB days. Although I was a only a SA, I felt like there were only a handful of scenarios/permutations of XLS models and PPT pitchdecks that FT analysts had to to learn (and my perception was that most of the job at analyst/associate level was heavily process oriented). The types of problems I have faced in my current role have been much more ambiguous and required some level of creativity to solve.
- I had to pick up some technical skills as I see that as an important tool for continuing to be highly productive. I do work with more technical people like engineers on occasion so I ended up taking courses on Python and SQL so I can analyze data quickly. 

 

That seems pretty low - and by 10k bonus are you talking about YE or signing?

 

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