Negotiating Salary or Signing Bonus as Lateral Associate at Top boutique IB

Is this possible? What is typical? Do you get a signing bonus? It would seem there would be some wiggle room b/c you are a lateral, but at the same time its not like a mid level associate is going to make or break the firm so maybe they would just laugh...what does everyone think?

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Best Response

Ah gotcha. It's really going to depend on the bank but definitely something that can be negotiated. All comes down to what you were doing before (IE how strong a bank you were at and what your deal experience is). A couple anecdotal laterals I've seen:

Mid-2nd year Associate at middle market (think Stifel) was asked to start over as an A1 at mid-level BB (think Citi/Barclays). Fresh VP of lower middle market (think Duff and Phelps level) lost two years and was asked to become a beginning A2 at mid-level BB. Lateral A3 from mid level BB was able to remain same level at upper BB (JP/MS).

 

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