Boutique Analyst Lateral to MM Bank?
Currently in a Tier 2/3 city doing M&A at a boutique as a first year analyst (just hit the 12 month mark but will be AN2 in 01/2022). With how insane the lateral market has been the last year, Im having FOMO….
Current firm is around 20 people in two locations and is great from a lifestyle perspective, but feel like I’m missing out on a bigger opportunity from all of the MM bank recruiters that reach out almost daily. We normally do deals ranging from 10mm-150mm. First years are paid 70k salary and ~35k-40k bonus. Also don’t think were going to be getting any increases in salary. Most weeks are 60-65 hours unless we’re in the weeds on deals or a last minute pitch. Past month I worked every single day and averaged 80 hours for each week. Everyone at the firm is great but feel like compared to the rest of the industry, we’re severely underpaid (even for being in a tier 2/3 city).
Would appreciate anyone’s thoughts if it is worth to dive into a MM bank after bonus is paid out at the end of the year or to stick around from a lifestyle perspective.
What is it you're worried about exactly? That you'll work an additional 10-20 hours a week or something? That's not great, but that isn't a reason to avoid growing or taking advantage of new opportunities early in your career. Certainly, recruiting to a larger/MM bank would be no risk at all whatsoever. It can only open even more doors down the line. So why wouldn't you lateral?
Bump. Same position as OP.
Bump. Same position as OP.
I made a similar move early in my career. Definitely make the move. Giving up the easy lifestyle of an LMM boutique was tough, but at some point you really do need to just bite the bullet for your longer term career trajectory.
Agreed, was in the exact same position as OP (oddly exact...) and it’s tough at first to take on the extra 20+ hours a week. The recent pay bump (across MM and above firms) as well as the better exit ops made it hard for me to pass up. Consider what you want to do longterm though. This move made associate look a lot less attractive because of the increase in hours and workload of a larger bank, but that’s okay because the exit ops are better. Really depends how long you want to do banking..
Haha very ironic. I think the little bit of enjoyment that I get out of IB after a year is from a lifestyle perspective at my current firm. More so feel that I’m leaving even ~$30k or so on the table in terms
of overall comp at a MM that hasn’t raised their comp to Street (I assume yet).
At what point did you leave your previous firm? Any complaints at this point?
I left after about 1.5 years. To be honest, i miss the hours at my old shop, but the tradeoff is the pay. Went from 80k base to 125k base and that isnt too shabby. Honestly though, i appreciated the work life balance more. Some times the stress is a lot and the pay doesn’t always make it better. I don’t plan to stay in banking much longer but i think the exit opps out of my current bank are way better than where i was at.
Did you move to a MM during/after analyst years? And are you still there as a VP or did you lateral during that period at all?
Surprisingly enjoy the work so far but can’t say I won’t hate it in a year (even if I stayed at the LMM boutique).
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