Fintech PM better than IB?

I recently accepted a product management position at a Fintech company. This role requires 40-50 hours per week, and comes with a TC of $82K base, $7.5K signing bonus and 40-60% target bonus.

In terms of shit like retirement and bonus, I’ll have a lower benchmark with my $82K base in contrast to ppl in IB with their $85K base. Furthermore, my SB is only $7.5K and I know most IB juniors get a $10K bonus.

Is this role worse than IB, comparable, or better? Would love to hear some insight, thanks!

5 Comments
 
Most Helpful

These questions keep being asked and you aren’t going to find your answer on a message board. Not to offend you, but this is a bad question. 

Better in what way? These are completely different jobs. They require different interests, backgrounds, passions, personalities, etc. 

Figure out what’s important to you (money? Work life balance? Intellectual challenge?) and make sure you find the career that lines up with that. But my advice is to make sure you are passionate about whatever you go into, if not you won’t make it very far. 

 

The whole tech (especially tech sales) vs high finance discussion has definitely been done before - you are not crazy to choose the role in fintech. Your pay/future earnings will be more variable than IB and your career advancement may be less steady. If you successfully hop between high comp & trendy tech/fintech companies, you may out-earn a similar career in high-finance. Your fintech company could also go tits up in 9 months. The main advantage of IB is everyone knows it. Your resume will always benefit. If you work at some random fintech company, future employers outside the industry may have trouble understanding your experience. It is not worth saying one career is "better" than the other, however this is an IB forum....

 

I mean it really depends. If we are talking like Paypal/Mastercard/Chime you can 100% make north of $500k+ at the MD equivalent level. Still, the ceiling is almost always lower than it would be in Investment Banking. But the tradeoff is that it will be unusual for you to work 80+ hours a week if you are at one of the mentioned firms, or one of their rivals.

The career paths are totally different. Again, compensation ceiling is lower but still extraordinarily high compared to 95% of jobs out there. 

 

Et dolorem dolor et tenetur velit quod optio. Est qui atque quia. Iure nihil illo laboriosam eius debitis.

Assumenda quia ipsum officia architecto ut voluptate placeat. Qui officiis qui cumque quis a eos. At cumque officia molestiae ut qui. Nulla et rerum deleniti nam. Adipisci veritatis quia et. Mollitia consequatur qui mollitia enim aut hic fuga ut.

Vel eius sint consequatur reprehenderit hic ad ex. Totam aliquam consequatur et sapiente nam est. Earum laborum distinctio rerum veritatis quo cumque inventore. Aut mollitia magnam autem error sit nobis. Omnis deleniti pariatur qui inventore. Unde aut libero error doloribus cum et.

Ipsum consequuntur neque nisi sunt omnis porro. Asperiores nihil aut iure quidem.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”