What should I expect for 1st year buy-side comp?

Hey fellas,

I was just offered a gig as an associate equity analyst at the shop where I am interning. I am trying to gauge what I should be expecting in comp. It's a smaller shop ~$3b aum in a secondary market (not chi, sf, ny, or bos). I'm very happy to have the offer and I know its difficult to go straight to the buy side, but it does seem a bit light. Its tough to get a feel for what the going rate is with there being only a handful of major buy side shops in this city and I'm not sure if any of the others would take a guy from undergrad. I know I should expect less than Wall St, but how much? TIA for the help!

J

6 Comments
 

Specified hours were not part of the offer, but I have been around the team for awhile. Hours vary greatly during earnings season. 6-whenever. I'd say 7-5 is typical during the rest of the year. Weekends not too common but just depends on the guy.

Yeah there is performance bonus. Should be low at first, but after a couple quarters would come out to ~20-35% of salary.

 

I'm going to be honest and suggest that if you want to build a buyside mentallity than take it... maybe you won't learn the "modelling" as quickly but you'll get to use your head and diligence meaningfully, esp. as its a small shop... you've got the ability to learn vs. the ability to overwork on mundane tasks... gets you up the buyside curve alot quicker...

plus, its a job in finance in this environment...

 

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