115 Comments
 

Prayers to my brothers out there pulling 100 hour weeks on useless pitches and relationship management BS just to get 40k bonuses. Might as well be at a BB and get the brand cachet on your resume lol

 

Prayers to my brothers out there pulling 100 hour weeks on useless pitches and relationship management BS just to get 40k bonuses. Might as well be at a BB and get the brand cachet on your resume lol

Jefferies finna be begging laterals from Truist to join pretty soon

truist paid analysts 2x higher on the bonus - hope this becomes a meme thrown at IG bro Handler

 

saw that too lol - I was waiting to see what he would post on his story but this is basically what I expected. It sucks for the folks that worked so hard, especially those working on M&A deals primarily (so not the ECM/SPAC/LevFin folks where deal flow tanked in the last 6 months or so) because the M&A deal flow internally is still pretty robust. 

 

lol litquidity already shilling for his buddy Rich Handler on IG saying these #'s aren't that bad...

i get that an instagram content guy is going to shill for whomever gets them the most eyeballs so that's expected.  What I don't get is how the Jefferies board is okay with their CEO, who is paid millions, using his work time by going on instagram and commenting.

 

Because comparing what an analyst makes today vs whatever you made in the 2000/2010's is a pointless exercise lol. You sound like a bitter old man. These analysts were consistently putting in 80-100 hour weeks during a record year for the bank (IB rev up 84% YoY in 2021). If JEF didn't compensate them for the Aug - Feb months that's their fault. Not sure why you're standing up for a large corporation that clearly just shafted their junior talent. 

 

You’re right, this guy is definitely an old boomer fuck that's fallen victim to the corporate lifestyle and seems annoyed that we don't want to support companies that don't give af about us. "Nooo bonuses were reasonable, you guys have high expectations. Now apologies, I need to finish my break and resume having Handler's and other corporate CEO's dicks in my mouth"

 

Ex-Jef guy here so take it easy on the MS. Couple responses and data points. 1) this bonus range is the same range they paid out in 2017 and a little worse than 2018. 2) know last year was crazy but 2016/2017 was crazy too w/ late stages of long bull run, people were pulling 80-100hr weeks consistently then too; it was a total sweatshop (still is). 3) they paid all of M&A an1 $40-$45k and one guy straight up walked away a few weeks later. Many in my group left before 2 years because hours/culture weren’t worth the comp. 4) genuinely feel your pain (been there), I’ve now been in PE for ~5 years and really enjoying it. Try to remember you aren’t doing IB for short term earnings. It’s a long game and takes awhile to start really cashing in on the 2 years of $h!t you ate. Lateral or do whatever you do but JEF is a good name on your resume and you’ll get good exit opts so my 2c are wouldn’t jump to “lower” shop and would just coast and recruit in Y2, they will pay you like trash on your exit year bonus any way (been there). Stay strong tribe.

 

You conveniently forgot about the higher bases. Everyone is way too emotional on this thread and somehow got the believe A1’s are entitled to $70k first year bonuses. That wasn’t the norm anywhere in 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20. You’re literally comparing just to 2020. Being on the ms tho cuz know you don’t wanna hear it

 

JEF AN1 here - my number was slightly lower than the 40 - 60k range quoted (and I'm in one of the top groups too). Can also confirm a couple junior folks (lowest performers in my group) were fired a few months back. 

 

This doesn't make sense, as part of Jefferies main draw for talent is that they pay people, or at least above BB's which their MM competitors like HW and WB do. This 100% makes sense for ECM bankers where deal fees are down astronomically YoY, but for some groups there I know for a fact deal fees are basically flat from 2021, so this is going to absolutely kill morale. ECM guy working 60% of the hours Tech, M&A, and Healthcare are, but getting comped the same? Fuck that... will be intrigued to see if this holds across groups as some haven't been given numbers yet, but this will surely impact their talent pipeline.

 

Where do you think analysts will look to lateral to? Genuine question,  not at Jeff myself

 

Love how VPs (or other mid-level employees) are telling analysts to suck it up as if they themselves aren't just a cog in the eyes of these large corporations/banks.

The money that Jefferies saved by being cheap on bonus is just going back to the already extremely wealthy individuals, I'd rather have recent grads get the money instead. Also, if analysts get paid that should generally create a salary floor for associates and then that effect trickles upward. Its literally in your best interest as well

 

Love how VPs (or other mid-level employees) are telling analysts to suck it up as if they themselves aren't just a cog in the eyes of these large corporations/banks.

The money that Jefferies saved by being cheap on bonus is just going back to the already extremely wealthy individuals, I'd rather have recent grads get the money instead. Also, if analysts get paid that should generally create a salary floor for associates and then that effect trickles upward. Its literally in your best interest as well

Nah, it's in their best interest to look out for #1 (Senior MDs (read: productive MDs), Partners, Equity Stakeholders). 

Anyone below those levels is, was, and always will be expendable and easily replaceable. Welcome to finance.

 

In 2020 JEF paid low bonuses despite it being a record year. After people started leaving they paid an additional amount but made people sign additional clawbacks. Talking about London here. Something like this could happen this year, however, chances of it are slightly lower due to the macro backdrop.

Key question is, which places have paid better? 
 

Also, for all the people saying the bonus range in 16/17/18 was comparable, I think the indexing is normally linked to % of base (not absolute figures) which is why a lot of people here are cynical. 
 

Let’s see what happens.

Someone commented there have been cuts at Analyst level in US. Which teams? Were they to do with performance or just cost-cutting?

 

JEF is in a real bind here.

Their comp ratio is constrained by their bond covenants, and they have less flexibility than less levered firms and larger firms

If they are screwing their analysts over (which make no mistake about it they are), it’s a pretty good sign that senior people are going to get screwed given their bloated cost structure. And clawbacks notwithstanding they are going to struggle to retain their best senior talent.

it was different when they had Lorello to mind the ship - he could control the inmates. Now, with Rich spending all his time on social media, there’s no one there to manage through a very rough path. 

 

Their comp ratio is constrained by their bond covenants, and they have less flexibility than less levered firms and larger firms

Can you expand further on this?

Wrote that quickly, meant credit rating. Read the rating agency reports. Jefferies is constrained by their credit ratings in terms of the comp ratios they can pay, so they have had to juggle growth, the rating and comp. It works when the business is over performing but it gets very hard there in a downturn. I can see some of their top guys being vulnerable. 
 

 

as a VP, I'm always very curious where my analysts are in terms of comp - yes, I know pay has risen significantly from just a few years ago but it's hard for me to tell juniors to enjoy the moral victory when perceptions of wealth have and always will be measured by your echo chamber.  That's why even senior bankers don't think of themselves as 'rich' because despite being multi-millionaires, that's just average in terms of their 'peer group'.  So if analysts at my bank feel underpaid compared to peers, they'll leave to peers and make my life more difficult.  I'd happily take a 10k hit off my personal bonus so that I'm not hit with a bunch of turnover and start having to align logos myself.

 

Exactly lol this class of analysts is so delusional. They ignore the significant base raises and are now mad at $160k all in comp while we are arguably in a recession. Somehow they felt entitled to a $70-$90k first year bonus and now the universe has personally betrayed them. Idk where they get these ideas

 

I think what are forgetting to consider is the fact that base salaries and the normalised overall comp for the job has not moved in over 10 years, and over that period we are looking at almost 20% inflation, even ignoring the current year.

In that context, the so called base comp increases are just an example meaningless virtue signalling by banks, assuming the overall comp stays the same.

Arguably, this is even worse than not rasing the base at all, since a reallocation of the total comp towards the base increases the likelihood of people leaving within the cycle rather than sticking it out until the end of the year (same logic applies to vesting for more senior positions).

Overall people just feel outraged that in real terms bankers were paid considerably better about 10 years ago and astronomically better pre-2008, yet the messaging coming from the senior bankers is that somehow those juniors are "entitled". Not even mentioning the increased competition for the job.

 

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