Associate in NYC at a MM lateraling to a BB within the same coverage group. What should I expect for signing bonus and/or end of year bonus guarantees? Any relatively recent data points would be helpful.
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Which coverage group?
was 40k for me this past year. non BB. i think this is the lower end. 40-70k is what ive seen on here for stub bonuses
Lateraled from Corp Banking to a Non BB coverage group. $85K sign-on / buyout
Not bad - what time of the year did you make the move?
Mid Fall - so a good couple of months before when normal Associate bonuses pay out
I’ve never received a sign on bonus in addition to the bonus I would receive later that year
In my experience, it’s been either
A) we’ll pay you a full bonus at the end of the year so no sign on bonus (usually if joining early enough in the year)
Or
B) we want to hire you late in the year. You’re forgoing the bonus that you have accrued through the year. Therefore we need to make you whole. So we will pay you something around what your bonus would be for the full year. So you get a sign on bonus of about what your full year bonus would have been. This is subject to negotiation - both the size and clawback provision
Could you maybe walk how you approach these negotiations? Do you bring it up or will HR/the recruiting team initiate that convo?
Sure - are you going through a recruiter? If so, I have let the recruiter handle the convo...I think most recruiters (save for a small minority) are pretty useless but this is one place they can actually be helpful. Let them be the bad guy and you can be the good guy. Just know they have no fiduciary duty to you so be very careful in what you disclose to the recruiter because they can use that info to screw you. They may simply want to close the deal and get you hired at a lower price rather than fight for a few bucks.
In my experience, the banks expect the conversation. Bonus is a huge part of total comp.
Where you are in your bonus cycle? If you're an analyst, I assume that you're either about to be paid or just got paid? Then the question becomes do they want to hire you before or after your bonus gets paid. If before, then you should ask for your full bonus to be paid out. If after, then you can ask for a signing bonus but I'm not sure they'll give you one. Always worth asking.
Then it comes down to negotiation. Use this forum, tap your network, and look at compensation reports (e.g. Johnson Associates) to figure out a reasonable estimate of your expected bonus. Then negotiate from there.
If you're on a different cycle (paid EOY), then the question becomes do they want to pay you a signing bonus that covers the bonus you've accrued thus far through the year, and then pay you a stub bonus at the end of the year? Or do they want to pay you a full bonus even though you will have done only half a year of work? It should net out the same either way assuming they don't screw you, which is a not insignificant assumption. I tried to get them to guarantee me things like a guaranteed bucket bonus (top bucket) and guaranteed promotion to the next rank. I didn't get those things but I've heard of others getting them. Sign on bonuses sometimes have clawbacks attached. I think this can be a point of negotiation. 2 years? 1 year?
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions. Good luck!
That’s what I was expecting. Would you expect them to compensate you for any deferred compensation you have at the time at your current company?
Good question. Def worth asking. didn't bring that up bc i'd assumed that an analyst wouldn't have any. But speaking more generally to folks of all levels, I would certainly push hard and reconsider moving if not. Tough to lose money that you already earned. That's why they're called golden handcuffs!
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