Baird Bonuses
Just got off the An/As/VP comp discussion call. What everyone think? Seems pretty dismal tbh. “It’s common sense to think that comp would be nowhere close to 2021 numbers.”
Curious to hear what everyone’s bonus figures are. Post below when you find out.
Bump
Bump
Wow you guys are getting recked if leadership said that
“It's common sense to think that comp would be nowhere close to 2021 numbers."”
Maybe WSO should put baird a few notches below Blair if this is brutal
For real. The mood is pretty dim rn. I found out tomorrow and I am not excited
WB comes out today.. don’t think it’ll be much better. Heard some restructuring rumors
Hot Take: People bitching about stuff like this is why IBs don't pay out bigger bonuses to junior employees more often. Because they know that if you pay that money out once, people get the idea in their head that they are unconditionally entitled to that level of comp each year. It becomes their new base line and then god forbid next year's bonus isn't record breaking you have tons of bitching, negotiating and lateraling among your employees.
Also, yall work for fucking Baird. The fact that some of your associates cleared $500K in 2021 is NUTS. I agree with whoever told yall it's common sense that you guys wont make that again in 2022. As a matter of fact, don't yall mostly do sell-sides for little founder owned $50M industrials companies based out of some dude's basement in Youngstown, Ohio? If I were in charge you'd get a hot-pocket and a fuckin Ohio State cap
Smoke frog approved post. Love the caustic, real world language.
What kind of hot pocket though? Ham and cheese or pepperoni?
Pepperoni for top bucket. Bottom bucket gets an Alabama Hot Pocket.
You made a lot of sense in the first paragraph, but sound like a complete tool in the second. Anybody who works for somebody should keep their mouth shut - we are all doing the best we can so keep your toxic shit to yourself.
I agree with you on the "unconditionally entitled to that level of comp each year" - also, kind of stupid to have raised as quickly as they did. People have always thought abou bonus as % of base, but budgeting should be done on a TC basis. The whole premise of a bonus is that you are tying a meaningful portion of earnings to performance. With higher growth rates on base, and more normalized growth rates on TC, the bonus becomes a smaller portion of targeted TC. So why would people work as hard. Not that they can undo base increases... Yes, there was inflation but banks overdid the raises. All other types of employers did not have as much of a ramp. Heck even other pockets of finance like AM, independent fund managers didn't either. 2021 + 2022 was a weird period - anyone with computer skills and basic finance knowledge got get hired
Someone used to work at Baird
I actually don't know if I think the raises were overdone. At the time people were leaving left and right and dealflow was pretty shocking. Nobody knew 22 was going to be what it was.
Can confirm - numbers are ok. Not end of the world, but nobody is popping bottles tonight.
Care to provide a range? How much % down compared to last year? What about 2019/2020?
ANL / ASO between 15-50% of base
Rank: An2
Bucket: Top/Mid
Base: $125k
Bonus: $45k
Pretty let down tbh, was hoping for more.
If you were really top/mid AN2 then thats dogshit
That's actually really good.
To be clear, did you start in 2021 out of undergrad? Just want to make sure I’m interpreting your title correctly
Sorry m8, definitely not top bucket neither middle. This is bottom bucket
don't AN bonuses get paid out in summer? how did you already get yours
When are you analysts going to realize total comp is a thing? You just made $170 as analyst2 at the beginning of a recession.
When the corp dev offer with $90k base and 10% bonus comes through
I got a couple CD offers at $150-$175 cash so no, this analyst TC is a joke.
Any intel on associate/vp bonuses?
30% base for stub ASO 1
<100% of base
What was your expectation / what would it have been in other years?
>100%
You got much higher bases so quite natural for bonus % to be down. Look at TC. Banks need fees to pay TC. 100+100 = 120+80. Focus on TC and don't expect the old regime of bonus % of base to carry over. Investment banks are not central banks, can't print money from thin air... They will pay you the least they can based on (i) fees, (ii) demand for these jobs, and (iii) the need for talent. Not a dime more
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Totally agree about comparing to ‘21 which was outlier year. People shouldn’t anchor to that. Comp was wild.
That being said, fair to compare to other years right? People feel burned because some groups posted their 2nd best year ever and management championed that at end of year. Now it feels like mgmt is the one who compared too heavily to 21 on the downside no? If second best year ever how do you square that with TC coming in below 18/19/20 ? Absent 21, this would have been a “record year”
Agreed. They were touting how this was the 2nd best year ever and it was all rainbows & sunshine on the monthly calls until bonus and completely shat the bed worse than many other banks that also had down year. Well don’t give a shit about your 2nd best year ever if you ain’t gonna let any up side to employees. 2nd best year for bank but worst year in comp vs last 5 years even if you look at it from a TC perspective. Coupled with inflation it’s a total joke. It’s their way of downsizing by encouraging people to quit I guess.
This is not the worst comp in 5 years… TC is still up like 25% from 2019 on average.. total comp across down 30% on average of JBs, seniors took a much bigger share of the hit. I remember when total 140-150 for analyst was the absolute top bucket for experienced analysts…that was 2018-2019.
Headcount related? Put your budgeting hat on and think about all the other variables. Increased headcount, office space for some, benefits expense so and so forth. If you made the same fee as 2019 and have 1.3x the headcount, you won't have the same amount to go around per head. Illustrative numbers because I don't work in banking.
Agree but I think frustration lies with management flexing 2nd best revenue year, and not being transparent at all on expected junior bonus numbers. Only guidance we got was there down from 21 numbers, which is obvious. We were all lead on to believe it’d be 80-100% of target.. but 15-30% was a tough pill to swallow. Curious to know what other MMBs got (Blair, Raymond james, etc)
15% bonuses? Lol
Why not just work in Corp dev and get paid more....for half the hours worked. Hell, HR pays like 10% bonuses.
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This. Hardos need to realize that you're getting paid just as much as some idiot in Corporate who works 30 hours a week.
On balance, this simply isn't true. Don't Baird Associates get paid $200K base? So a 25% bonus is still $50K and you're making $250K total comp. That's like what a SVP with 15 years of experience at a blue chip gets paid for FP&A, in industry.
Man, ppl need to stop comparing to corp dev. At worst times we get paid just as much as corp dev and even at average times we get paid way more depending on the level obviously. The comp ceiling in banking is way higher and exit opps are better.
Depends on the industry and level.
corp dev managers for portcos probably made more than IB AS1 and AS2 depending on the bank - certain banks have terrible healthcare costs and 401k match
Yeah but Im not just talking about AS1 and AS2. Im talking about your long term trajectory. You shouldn't be making your career moves based off one or two years of junior comp. If anyone feels like they can make just as much doing corp dev long term vs banking, by all means. And again, it's not just comp but also exit opps.
are portco corp dev managers typically clearing 300k+?
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How did Baird pay historically back in 2019 or 2018?
Usually they'd hand out a few Marquette headbands to the mid-bucket troops and maybe peel off a few $100 gift card vouchers to Skyline Chili or Culvers for true top performers. Bottom Bucket analysts get a few knobs of corn. It aint much, but find me another bank where you can wear overalls to the office, on your way to help a HNW client finance his acquisition of a few cows from his neighbor.
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