Is there a pay gap between A2A’s and MBA Associates?

I haven’t seen much on this topic here but was thinking about it this morning. Have you guys heard of / noticed an inherent total comp gap between A2A associates and MBA associates?

In practice I’m sure this comes in the form of A2A’s being ranked top (or near top) bucket while MBA’s comprise of bottom or near bottom bucket.

Of course, this is assuming that the A2A performs better and is better at his job than the MBA which feels like a safe assumption given my personal experience lol.

5 Comments
 

bump. isnt there also a crazy age gap? a2a associates should typically be like 3-4 years younger right

 

Yeah lol the age gap creates some hilarious dynamics too. I’ve had post-MBA Associates older than me. Most genuinely don’t give a shit and get it, especially career switchers, like you knew you were signing up for a reset, right?

But then there are some where you can almost watch the existential crisis happen in real time when they realize the guy giving them comments is younger than they are lol.

Like bro, wtf do you want me to do? I didn’t design the hierarchy. I was already a VP when you got here…

 
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MBAs naturally ramp over 1-2 years, which is why A2As almost always rank top bucket. Part of it's performance, part of it's having 2 years of group knowledge and political capital. Things level out at VP once MBAs are fully ramped. Most complaints come from first-year MBAs still ramping or the subset that never actually ramp up. Once a solid MBA is productive, they are the same if not better than A2A's (ideally due to having more maturity than their A2A peers). Most complaints come from analysts who can't stomach that someone worse at the job makes way more. But remember: that MBA has zero IB experience vs. your one year. That said, there's a small subset of MBAs who never actually learn the job, they just "manage" and coast. Those people suck for everyone and drag the general reputation of MBA's. 

Also, there's massive variance within each cohort. Some MBAs hit the ground running and ramp in 6 months. Others take forever or become "managers" early on without knowing how to do the work. Some A2A's keep working as hard as they were initially, other's coast and just collect their paychecks before leaving. 

 

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