WB Bonuses
Early looks today. How's everyone feelin?
Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum
| +355 | Evercore Intern Seizure | 54 | 7h |
| +67 | JPM M&A is Gone??? Purely Coverage Banking??? | 31 | 6h |
| +58 | Is DCM actually underrated ? | 24 | 17h |
| +50 | How do I understand vs. just memorizing? | 5 | 16h |
| +48 | Losing my personality in Banking | 9 | 17h |
| +47 | Are all Tech / TMT groups sweaty? | 38 | 13h |
| +42 | Associate & Above IB exits | 16 | 3d |
| +32 | Incoming IB Analyst: Best Ways to Prepare? | 10 | 9h |
| +27 | Which groups are ideal for laterals? | 12 | 11h |
| +24 | The good and bad with Wells Fargo | 1 | 17h |
Career Resources
Friend at GS got less than $25k. Got a pit in my stomach…
Hearing associates at $75k. Not sure if that's Asocc 1 or 2 but either way not great
Credible source says multiple under 50k, associate 1s, not stub
Heard AN2 40k mid bucket
How does this line up w associate numbers above?
Heard the same, analysts and post mba associates getting similar size bonuses, pretty wild. Rewarded A2As on completely different scale (still down heavy)
Banks will regret jacking up base so quickly. Inflation is real but somehow AMs and several PE shops didn't raise base. And when TC is adjusted down people wil be like why work hard if more of comp is certain (in base vs. bonus)
Deadass you think that fr?
Umm. That's the only way to think about it - Total Comp, period. Ever heard of bonuses coming from fees? What is so hard to understand about the limitations of a finite fee revenue pool? They don't just print money out of thin air.
I think you can only interpret bonuses this bad across the board in a few ways. And before people point to how it isn’t that bad and fees are down etc, no reputable bank should be paying anything close to 25% of base as a bonus. An associate making $50k bonus is abysmal.
Option A is this is essentially a layoff, they know a decent chunk of people will look for the door ASAP now and they avoid the cultural issues of a layoff. This is dumb to me since you risk losing your good talent as well and the lazy analysts stick around, but that’s just me. Also if this is the case you would think they’d still pay up for top performers (and it doesn’t sound like top bucket was much better).
Option B is that WB (and others) are just screwing juniors because they can - job market clearly sucks and there’s a bunch of recently laid off BB juniors looking for jobs right now. No one in their right mind would quit without something lined up and the lateral market is basically closed, tech hiring basically stalled, PE/GE funds are generally hiring less, etc. Essentially banks finally have leverage again after 2+ years of needing to suck up to junior bankers and they’re taking advantage.
Anyway it certainly leaves a bad taste in my mouth, some banks out there have chosen to continue to pay juniors because it’s not fair to punish them for a decline in firm revenue but WB and others have chosen to punish juniors. Sucks for all the juniors who got a bad number this year
Seems like William Blair and Baird are rlly the same shit- "Good culture" but love screwing juniors over whenever they can
The issue with WB (and Baird, no different) is that in 2021 they were doing a bunch of $500M-$1B deals which obviously pay a lot more, but when the economy tanks they go way down market and do a lot of $200M deals. As anyone here can confirm, the little deals are often hairier and can be even worse than a bigger deal for juniors but the fees suck, so firm revenue sucks.
So it means a bunch of juniors worked just as hard but bank top line numbers sucked, and bonus pool evaporates. Crappy situation for juniors.
Also hard because many BBs paid similar bonuses, but the difference at those banks is they aren’t chasing $100M sell-sides. My friends at BBs are working way less so it’s at least a bit more fair IMO to give a bad bonus
Just lol at working for a bank like William blair.
As opposed to where? Goldman Sachs?
This is really unacceptable on the part of WB (and RB), and bad management
private partnerships need to take care of their employees in a way public companies have stopped. I get it at MS where frankly associates get the training and the brand and you had to protect the producers. At WB etc you simply have to comp better.
Bad management decisions.
WB (Baird too) have also always prided themselves on above-street pay, and that shouldn’t just go out the window in a bad year.
The numbers here are worse than most (if not all) BBs I’ve seen, and way off from EB levels.
It’s inexplicable to me. This is the environment when private partnerships should be making themselves the safe haven / employer of choice. I am all for differentiation in down markets and protecting top performers but it seems like even they got screwed.
Re points above regarding Private Partnerships and “restructuring”.
My take is WB is conserving money. If LevFin markets remain practically “closed”, I don’t see sponsors being able to close a lot of deals at 10-12% paper. We are in the hands of Yellen and Powell, who are in hands of Congress. Aka Santos and Co….
You might not like it but this is the prudent way of managing a business. You don't pay your employees large bonuses when there is presently a lot of economic uncertainty and your core clients are not doing deals because the leveraged finance market is shut down.
This is a cyclical industry guys. We don't get paid well when conditions are this bad. It sucks having to work like slaves and not get compensated well for it but that is the risk we all signed up for.
Put yourselves in the shoes of an owner of a business and think honestly about what you would do in this situation. If you would pay your employees strong bonuses in these conditions then you are either dishonest or a moron
Gosh thanks for letting us know that in down years we should expect lower bonuses. Crazy nobody’s mentioned that in this thread.
If you’re still playing catch-up, here’s a few things we’re discussing:
-communicate guidance downward instead of parading around for months slapping yourself on the back about it being the second best year of all time with record backlog “we held up WAY better than those pesky BBs!”
-don’t reward people who are literally mailing it in for months at a similar level as people who are busting their ass, think for two seconds about the precedent this sets for your average and above performers heading into a new year
-consider how you will be perceived from a culture standpoint when that’s all you brag about throughout recruiting (hint: full of shit)
-don’t give totally bogus feedback as a way to justify the lower bonuses, we’re fucking adults you can explain the situation
What is with people on this thread?
You work at William Blair dude.
Get over yourself and be happy you were not fired.
RE: there being basically one bonus band and zero differentiation.
unfortunately this isn’t 2005 or 2015 anymore and the world has moved on. Banker clients view the product as a complete commodity (which it is) and give zero fucks about your “differentiated view” or worthless pitch book (sorry to offend).
today in 2023 banking is a complete commodity and information flows exponentially faster than it did even several years ago. Your clients have more visibility than you and know more than you.
When capital markets are shut, banking is a 0% value add business. When they’re open, it’s a 5% value add. Again, sorry that’s just the way the world is.
Banking is in a long structural decline and is a dying business.
Long, structural decline yet 2021 best year ever for fees? Checks out.
One year does not a trend make
Can confirm morale is at an all time low - most people didn’t get their number on Friday but rumors are (obviously) spiraling out of control so everyone is completely freaked out and gossip is crazy about what to expect. Already hearing from nearly everyone that they’re starting to try to recruit out - we’ll see how that pans out given the economy, but it’s not good. William Blair has a very much “work hard and you’ll be taken care of” culture, and I think this bonus means a lot of people are losing trust in the institution
Whats WB, Warburg Bincus?
Seconding what someone else said about top bucket actually being ok. Obviously not good and way down from 21 (of course), but more in line with what I expected and actually pretty solid vs what I’ve seen from competitor threads.
Not going to give a number since I was told there weren’t many people at my number but it was felt pretty fair honestly.
Seems like more of the carnage was at the associate level - I’m sure there were some decent numbers there that aren’t being shared, but seems like the vast majority were bad and a lot of bottom bucket numbers
A friend at WB who got 180k+ bonus last year (top bucket) as an Analyst 3 / new A2A (forget how they classify it). Got like $60k this year as a full year Associate 1 (top bucket again). I know he moved offices between last year and this year so not sure if he was reporting to the same people, stayed in same group.
A3 promoted to AS1
40k bonus
Hoping more people post numbers
ASO2 -> ASO3
$85K