Monkeys,
In a position where I was able to swing a solid PE offer at a fund that I like with solid a work life balance and career progression outlook within the firm. The issue is they want me to start before I get paid my 3rd year analyst bonus (expecting ~$120k+). They want me to start by the end of February, but my bonus is paid out in mid June.
Would you leave the bonus behind for a decent PE job? Should I ask them to pay the bonus out?
Last comment, not really too worried about staying in banking (in terms of busting my a** for the hours etc.) for a few more months as the 3rd year has been relatively chill with easy work hours - so happy to cruise along, collect the checks + bonus and then bounce.
Why don’t you tell them your situation and let them come up with a solution?
Send PE firm (or HH if you used one) a polite message saying how happy you are to have received an offer and would like to accept. Explain to them your situation regarding your summer IB bonus - you want to reiterate that it's not a deal breaker in terms of you accepting your offer with the PE firm by any means, but it would be nice to not have to leave money on the table for work you've already done at your bank, and if there is any way that they could help alleviate the forgone bonus with a stub/signing. From my experience and from what I've heard from friends who transitioned off cycle, most firms are pretty reasonable and pay you out a little something ($25-$50k).
If you tell them it is by no means a deal breaker, meaning even if they say no you’ll take the offer, what stops them from saying no because screw it you’ll take it anyway
It's called being polite, and it gives you some room to negotiate and potentially meet somewhere in the middle as opposed to giving them an ultimatum. Do you really want your first interaction with your new potential employer as a first year associate on the buy side to be "pay me out or i'll walk"? Do you think they won't call your bluff if they have another kid they liked maybe a little less than you, but isn't a dick about a half year stub bonus? Yea it's a lot of money, but a rounding error in the grand scheme of things if you stay in high finance. If OP has another PE offer that they are deciding between than ignore what I said above, but I don't think that's the situation here.
Please stop providing advice on negotiating.
You'd be giving up less than it would appear at first blush. That's nearly a third of a year you haven't spent at the bank yet, so that knocks out 40k gross right there. Assuming the PE comp is in the same ballpark.
Basically you have ~$80k accrued bonus that you could potentially be giving up. This can be discounted by the chance that you get shorted, especially if they suspect you might not be sticking around. Take 1/4 off the top to account for this possibility and you're looking at $60k gross, $30k EV after taxes.
Not enough to jeopardize an offer you like (hard to find PE shops with decent cultures) or goodwill with the team. My first thought was agreeing with DickFuld, just let them know the situation so they can give you feedback; possibly upside with unlikely downside. But on second thought, I agree with ke18sb, if you knew the start date ahead of time and didn't mention your bonus coming in later, then it could be considered a re-trade.
Guys - I'm really not sure what the problem here is. I really can't stress this enough with juniors I am mentoring -- at such young age starting in an apprentice business, money should be the last factor you consider on your checklist. I didn't say it was not important, however. As someone above said, it is extremely hard to find PE firms with good culture and $100k is chump change. Real money comes in when you have carry and co-invest.
Take the job.
You don't just leave $100k to $120k on the table. That's serious cash.
A few things to highlight: they're not the only PE in town; if you recruited successfully with them you could do so elsewhere as well; you're not in a rush to ditch your current gig.
To me it's a no brainer.
You go back to them and make them cover a portion of the bonus. I would start with a 60k ask. Don't accept less than 40k. If they walk away, continue recruiting.
thanks for the help here guys - as an update, the PE firm ended up extending the start date to allow me to capture my 3rd year bonus in a few months.