Seeing a lot of postings on LinkedIn for lateral IB analyst spots. I am strongly considering but know I’ll be missing out on ~40% of my total comp if I leave before my YE bonus this summer. Do the banks looking for laterals just hope the analysts don’t care, or do they subsidize to make up for it?
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They make you whole, but you have to explicitly ask for it. If you don’t, they will pro rate you.
Source/ i lateraled
Can you go into make you whole more? Bigger bonus during bonus season? How do they go about it?
Would ask for it. Left a couple months before I full year and received a hefty pro-rate
I am a first year analyst lateraling to a IB coverage role from an MO role, and the new bank said my bonus cycle would be in the summer along with other analysts. So frankly speaking, the advice here is to ask to receive a 1-year worth of bonus (assuming this is what it means to be paid 'whole') although I will be joining in February?
bump
You don't really have much leverage coming from an MO role. You're not missing out on much of a bonus from that job. Even coming from another IB job, ~6 months into bonus cycle they will probably not pay you the full 100% unless you wait a few more months.
If you are ~6-7 months in and really "upgrading" roles I would ask for a larger signing bonus now (maybe 20-30k, which should cover your missed MO AN1 bonus) or if they want to do it in the summer, make sure it is a full-year bonus and not a "stub" bonus (pro-rated since feb). Either way I would get whatever your agreement is in writing in your contract.
Could you pm me? Looking to lateral as a first year and would love some advice. Thanks!
Given you’re not coming from IB, you wont get treated as such. Only roles they’ll make whole for is front office to front office
It’s really on a case by case basis.
When I interviewed analyst laterals the bonus guidance was really dependent on where the analyst was coming from.
If they were coming from another top bank, then yes we fully expected them to ask to be made whole.
But when they were coming from a lower tier bank or outside the industry or from a middle office type role, then I definitely saw HR give them pro rated bonuses, because they really were not walking away from anything
In this market I would not lateral without being made whole if you're somewhat close to bonus - i.e. your entire bonus paid upfront as a signing bonus. If you're under ~50% there, it's somewhat fair for them to pro-rate it down a bit. Maybe wait a month or two until it's reasonably close to your 2022 bonus and you can ask for 100%.
Don't let them say "We will pay your owed bonus when it comes time for our bonus cycle" but not give any numbers in writing, you will not get your bonus. They either have to pay it all upfront (most common) or if they want to wait, date and amount need to be in your contract.
Got it, thanks for all the helpful comments.
In my case, the company agreed to pay the clawback that I have with my current firm, mentioned that my promotion cycle would be with the incoming 2022 FT, and didn't really mention anything else. I will be discussing the details tomorrow for terms to be put in writing, but I guess I don't have much say since I'm coming from MO treasury although from a top BB.
Would you mind shooting me a pm? If your willing I would love to hear about your transition. I'm in a similar position that you were in and looking to lateral. Any insights would be greatly helpful.
Generally, for example if you joined in June as a lateral hire, you would receive a pro-rate bonus anyway. You likely won't get a signing or anything but during the normal comp cycle, you should be taken care of.
Just finished recruiting with GS. Before offers were even handed out, an HR rep called me to discuss compensation, bonus cycle matching, total compensation expectations. Clearly can't speak for all banks, but I feel like most banks would either make you whole on the spot (if they paid out stub bonuses already) or they would put you on the full year summer cycle with the other FT analysts. In my specific scenario, I was coming from a bank that had equivalent base pay so that was an non-issue, I negotiated to be paid a full 12 month bonus, and my signing bonus claw backs. Any firm which is trying to skimp on an analyst 1 pro-rated bonus is probably not a place you want to be at anyways.
So you worked for 6 months and got a bonus for 12 months??
Sorry I wasn’t super clear. I negotiated to be paid on their cycle (summer) for a 12 month bonus even though I’ll only be on the job for 1/2 a year. A easier way to think about it is that they’ll be paying my bonus for my time at my previous firm.
Thank you everyone for your inputs. I am in a similar situation too. When HR called me to extend for the offer, they said everything as a standard call of offering an IB job (base pay, benefits, etc.) and said NOTHING about the make-up bonus. I asked right away and they said they would discuss internally but still wanted to issue me a written offer letter and wanted me to go through the background check and all that.
From everyone’s perspective, does it mean they already knew they would most likely pay me the make-up bonus but HR knew if I did not say anything about it during the offer call, then they would keep it silent? And if they still decided to issue me an offer letter which I got it and I am going through the background check process, it is most likely that they will pay me the bonus right?
I meant otherwise, they might as well turn me down after I asked for a make-up bonus.
What do we think? Thanks!
I would absolutely not go through the background check or sign anything until you get the bonus in writing.
Right now IB spots are very hard to come by + bonuses are nil, people are worried about their jobs or have been laid off. Based on "having to discuss internally" I would read this as they are not planning to buy out a bonus. My guess is they discuss internally and come back with like $10k signing bonus or something small.
Up to you to accept that if your bonus is expected to be big, but in this market there are soooo many laid-off or terribly compensated IB analysts that firms with open spots can very easily hire without having to buy out bonuses. Assuming your bonus is in August, I would wait until then to recruit as the market is simply not forcing companies to make you whole right now. 2021 was a different story as people were dying for any extra set of hands.
For future reference, if you are expecting a significant bonus buyout (most or all of your bonus) you need to raise it (and can do by telling them bonus timing as a heads-up) in the first intro HR call. It's not a good use of anyone's time to go through a whole interview process before discussing a huge portion of the comp package.
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