The most laid back Corporate jobs for those of us without C-suite aspirations?
Let's use this thread to discuss roles that offer amazing work/life balance and limited stress (i.e. not FP&A, development, etc.).
It doesn't even necessarily need to be finance-specific as there are dozens of little-known roles out there that someone with a finance or analytical mindset can do well.
There are so many corporate roles out there, let's discuss some of the low key, yet still good, jobs and career paths.
Most chill corporate job I've ever seen was VP of a syndicated television network. Once a TV show from the parent company hit 100 episodes, it would come down the pipeline and then the syndicated guys would go on a road show to sell advertising (agencies are typically in NY or Chi). It was the closest thing to Mad Men I'd seen. No late office hours, lots of dinners and drinks and schmoozing, and perks up the yin yang. 80% of their product got sold during the Upfront Presentations, so the bulk of tough work took place during 1 period.
The downside is that all the execs started off in Sales themselves, which certainly isn't chill at the entry level by any means-you have to perform to move up. Also, I imagine things have changed quite a bit w/ the on-demand/digital/netflix/subscription services bleeding TV revenues.
The thing with chill jobs is that to get there, you almost always have to start in a role that is the polar opposite. The reason some people have these chill jobs is because they learned a lot and became experts in their field while working in a very stressful and intense environment (IB, consulting, etc.) for many years and are now being paid for their expertise.
Sales can be 250k 35 hours a week once you're a bit into your career
One element you forgot to mention is the time it takes to get to your $150K/year and 40-45 hours/week job.
Scenario 1: Get an easy $50-60K/year job out of college as a billings or accounts payable analyst and after 30 years, a few promotions, and annual 2-3% raises, you could get to $150K/year. You would be in your early 50s if that timing is okay.
Scenario 2: You bust you ass for the first 10 years of your career and get to the ~$150K rate by 30 at relatively higher stress corporate business jobs (not counting IB / PE / VC, etc.)
This is exactly right. All those older guys sitting in cushy jobs probably busted their ass for 15+ years to get there (also, they're probably more stressful than you think).
If your goal is work/life balance, reduced stress and an opportunity to advance and make decent money (upper middle class) I'd advise looking in to HR. The work wouldnt particularly interest me, but its not near as competitive or stressful as many other corporate jobs. I also assume working for non-local government can usually have a pretty nice stress/work/life balance, but I'm not overly familiar with those positions.
You mention not FP&A and I certainly understand why, but I feel as though I've found a pretty good spot in FP&A. At some point you just "get it" and the normal stuff doesn't bother you. I'd say I average 40-45 hours a week and almost no stress except 5 weeks a year. 1 week per quarter and 1-2 weeks for AOP I bust my ass, work long hours and am pretty stressed. Even AOP isn't really that bad anymore, at my current company the quarters are insane though.
Recommending HR to people who value competitiveness, accountability, and agency is akin to telling a nun to eat chlamydia cereal.
Its a banal and incredibly passive aggressive subset of corporate culture.
If you're like the 12th most senior dude in a 200,000 person pyramid scheme, you're golden.
The federal govt . Lazy asses are welcome
Depends on the role, there are serious roles in Treasury, Federal Reserve, DoD, State Department, etc. Roles that require a great deal of intelligence and a significant amount of hours.
10 years in federal pays 130 with pension and 401k. I know idiots in those roles. Dated one.
Commercial/community banking. The hours are ridiculously low, you get to watch your work add value to the community (sometimes), and it’s not mindless data entry. Start as a credit analyst (not the best pay) and then move into a loan officer role - it’s sales in the beginning but once you build a solid list of customers, you can kick back and collect (if you’re competent). A family friend works 25-35 hours a week in a third tier market and makes 250k-500k per year; she hasn’t had to call on a potential customer in years, all her new business comes through referrals from existing customers.
I second commercial banking. I'm a 1st year credit associate, 2 1/2 years out of UG and will hit ~$72k all-in comp in a tier 3 city at a Large regional bank. Not to mention 6% 401k match, profit sharing, etc. Literally never work more than 40 hours... half the time i'm out of the office a 1/2 hour early each day. I also get to work from home at least once a week if I want.. which is honestly like a day off most of the time lmao.
OH. and half the time I'm just fcking around web surfing etc. But honestly, its a little too easy of a job for me and it's easy to get sucked in and be lazy. I'm going the RM/Sales route within the next 1-2 years - I'll maybe work a little more but 6 figures is definitely in the cards within the next 3-4 years. Not unheard of for RMs to pull $200k+ in tier 3 cities... which beats the hell out of an Associate making $350k or whatever in NYC working 80+ hours a week hating their life.
EDIT: for illustration purposes, you can buy one hell of a house at $400-500k in tier 3 midwest cities. Probably nicer than the $2.0mm+ houses in Tier 1 cities... actually I'd probably bet my savings on that. 3,500 sq foot pretty much brand new modern home.
Even a $325k ish house will be damn nice and affordable.
EDIT #2: By the time I actually hit 3 years out of UG, I'll be making closer to $76-77k all-in.
Commercial Banking. Life as an analyst/associate is pretty relaxed. The work is divided between annual reviews, underwriting, compliance, and random administrative tasks. More often than not, you're reusing covenant models for underwriting and copying + pasting previous reports for annual reviews. Typically 40-50 hr. work weeks.
Then you move on and become a deal pimp aka Relationship Manager where your time is divided between making sure relationships that were handed down to you by senior bankers don't leave the bank, proofreading analyst reports that are still copied + pasted from when you were an analyst, and calling on companies you noticed while driving around town. When you get meetings with prospect, all you do is set them up with a product partner and have them do all the talking while you enjoy a free lunch or dinner. Come in at 10 and say you had a 'breakfast with a client/prospect' and leave at 4 to go catch your kid's soccer game.
The only stressful period is when your deal is closing. You may need to stay until 5:30. You make pretty decent money as a senior RM.
Work in a strategy role at a big hot tech company - 3 years of MBB post undergrad, and making $200 all-in. Work 40-45 hours/week.
There are a few roles that come to mind, and perhaps some of the threads out there that are similar could be helpful to you as well:
A manager at a large F500 company (F50 and above in particular) will likely give you a comfortable living without any material stress. My sense is that corporates generally pay similar base regardless of your function (a corp strat/dev manager isn't likely making significantly more than someone in AML/FP&A/Internal Audit.
It should take someone anywhere from 5-8 years out of undergrad to reach manager level, where you can probably expect a package in the periphery of $120k base, 15-20% bonus, and a limited package of RSU's as applicable. The hours here are also in the 40-50 range (unless you are on a live deal in corp dev, in which case the hours may ramp up into the 70 range for a few weeks as you complete needed tasks in advance of transaction execution (e.g., corporate and board approvals, closing out open legal points, etc). Alternatively, I think a MO/BO role at a BB will offer similar lifestyle and comp. I know a few folks at BB's who are a few rungs below MD who are pulling in $200-250k in their early 30's.
All of this of course should be caveated with the idea that at a certain point you should look to do something that you like rather than get to [ ] by year [ ] where life gets comfortable. Perhaps it makes sense to see if you can start in a relatively rigorous role to start your career. Once you build the relevant skillsets, you can make a judgment call for yourself as to which direction you would like to go. Having a comfortable lifestyle where you work 40 hours and make $150-200k is certainly well within reason.
Your figures seem a bit high for Manager at a Corporate. I've worked for both a Fortune 50 and Fortune 1000. Manager's typically average ~$100K all-in. Undergrads typically start off at $55-65K. 2 promotions get you to manager. Some simple math gets you to ~$100K. This is for managers with 5-7 years experience, not managers who are "lifers" (e.g. 50 year old IT Manager).
Many thanks FWU. It's quite interesting that you say this.
From a very small sample of colleagues that I had, FP&A managers came out to roughly 120-140 all in, though perhaps this is a bit aggressive. I think it should be caveated that these are tech/pharma types in the NYC area, so perhaps this drives the premium.
I know that there's a bit of separation at the SVP level onwards, but I wasn't aware that there was this degree of separation at the junior/mid manager level. It seems that at some organizations the base is flat across levels, with the differentiator being a slight delta in base and significant gaps in Bonus/Stock.
It's a fairly comfortable living in any event I imagine. Working at a federal contractor at a mid level ~10 years in likely gets you to a 6 figure salary with relatively low stress. For those that really don't have lavish lifestyles, $100-120k is quite reputable.
Human Resources - you don't do jack and you just have to repeat phrases like a parrot.
After glancing through the responses, I suppose I have been in the wrong industries (engineering and now finance). As an engineer, if you're worth a damned, you get paid well but they load you up with work/responsibilities as you progress through your career. After 15 years I'd had enough. I'd made a nice little chunk of change to use as seed money for my IRA/brokerage accounts
Anyway, I don't know of any gravy jobs out there, to be quite honest. I know they exist, but basing your job search around finding the most laid back position may not be the best approach. Life is short, and you spend far too much of it working, so it's a great idea to find something that you enjoy doing. But trying to find one that challenges you the least is going to get you the shortest distance in life. Even if you don't want the C-suite, you should always want to better yourself in some way. At least that is how I operate and have tried to teach my children as well.
That said, good luck on your journey. You may be surprised where you end up