Who is quitting BofA next week post bonus!!!!??
It is almost finally that time of the year. Who is out once they receive what BofA calls a “bonus”!?!?
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Pls quit I need a job ffs
Are you not an analyst already
Try and figure that one out by reading his question.
LOL. You still wont be getting the job if I quit.
Why not quit now, you fuckin' pussies are getting pats on the back for bonuses this year anyway
Lol I’ll still take my 35k after tax, but agreed
35k net is better than a sharp stick in the eye
Definitely me!
Why quit for free? Why not stay and collect a paycheck, and make them lay you off for $?
Of course if you got something good lined up, by all means give your notice and GTFO - but the tenor of the thread leads me to believe that isn’t the case.
You’re letting them win if you quit
Fuck that, why work 80 hour weeks doing menial tasks for 90% of the time and get paid a 20k bonus
FUKKKKKKKKK THAAAAT MAN
Preach. When are you dipping?
Let me have your job please 😭
Everyone should be applying to places like crazy rn so they can quit and have a better job lined up
It’s pretty clear that bonuses for 2023 have been in the shitter at many places, with layoffs left and right, so people interviewing you would be understanding of why you’d want to move elsewhere
There are a lot more places hiring now, been getting a ton more recruiter inbounds for both buyside and IB
Bonuses were very bad across the street. What BofA paid, was far below “street”.
Start interviewing now. Out in ~2 months. Lots of jobs on LinkedIn, looks like hiring has picked up.
I see so many job listings on Linkedin now as well, how are there so many roles open now?
What you looking for cause to me it seems like good roles are sparse
No, don’t listen to the advice above.
You should all stay and work even more for another year of sub 40% bonuses
Really need out. Second I get something worthwhile, I will be putting in my 2 weeks notice. Morale is at an all time low at the junior level. This holds true across every group
My plan is to not quit but quiet quit to the extreme. Make them lay you off, thats how you win this. With severance you can chill and take some time to find another role at a non-shit bank
My timeline: 1. Collect my $20k after tax next week 2. End of next week, send a calendar invite for a 2 week vacation starting the first week of March 3. Chill and dodge staffings the rest of February 4. Go on my two week vacation 5. After my two week vacation, which will allow me to dis-engage from all staffings without explicitly screwing any colleagues over, I go radio silent. No going to the office, no sending emails. 6. Wait until someone asks where I am 7. Say I’m sick, won’t be available for at least a few days 8. Wait to be laid off which would take at least a few months for them to go through with 9. Profit $
Any drawbacks to this ? Serious question. I am thinking of doing the same.
Probably some reputational risk / more difficult to get job reference from someone still there if you needed one for a new role. Though, I think you could be fired for cause if you stopped answering emails and blatenly stopped doing your job, thats not even doing the bare minimum, which would mean no severance. You'd probably want to consult with a lawyer/consultant in case getting fired for cause goes on your U4, which would go to any future employer where you need to be registered, pretty much just banking jobs i'd think. It would be a red flag.
DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT READING YOUR EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK.
I know we are all anti work given what management is doing but I want to warn people of potential issues. In most IB contracts we sign, while we sign at will employment, we do typically have in it something that says given our job description we agree to give 2 weeks notice if we plan to quit. Legally, who knows if they can use this against you, but their lawyers are already being paid, yours are not. Don’t screw yourself over.
In addition, it can be seen as a violation if you take 2 weeks off and then quit. Check first to make sure you don’t violate anything.
Also, don’t not log in or show up for days. I know at the banks I’ve worked at and heard from friends, if you don’t tell anyone for 2 or 3 days they consider it your voluntary termination, hence you don’t get severance and essentially quit if they want you out.
I’m not saying to not take vacation or sick time. But be smart. See what you get paid out if they fire you. If it’s for cause, no severance. If you quite quit, they’ll have to pay severance and potentially unused vacation days.
God speed
Only potential drawback is reputational risk if they ask for references. But I realized any employer rarely does. And even if they do, they would ask you for the contact so you just give them the contact of a nice VP that will cover for you.
Quit so I can apply for a full time spot.
i get the sense that BofA is so bloated that even if half the juniors quit they would still not need you to backfill.
Issue is the wrong ones would quit. it largely won't be the bottom 1/3 performers who would have a harder time getting a new job with similar comps than the rest of the group.
I cannot provide real-time or speculative information about specific individuals. It's important to respect privacy and confidentiality. If you're interested in general trends or news related to Bank of America (BofA), I can provide information based on publicly available sources up to my last training data in January 2022.
The posters above don’t understand what “for cause” means. Ya, you can’t not respond or show up for weeks, but refusing to do work past the time stipulated in your contract is absolutely not “for cause”. Not working the weekend is also not “for cause”. Being perceived as lazy at your job or incompetent is not “for cause”.
Now never showing up to the office or never responding between 9-6? That could be for cause. The first one for sure, the second one is a little debatable. More examples of for cause:
Taking a shit on the MDs desk? For cause. Making sexual advances at a colleague? For cause. Saying racist shit in the office? For cause. Engaging in insider information? For cause.
See the difference? I swear, I think most people on here are college kids.
You can probably last a few months not doing any work past 7PM, literally none, while also being vocal about the fact that you’re not doing work past 7PM. Being vocal would expedite your employer’s actions drastically. But you will just slowly (or quickly) get taken off your core accounts and live mandates and be given bitch work to do throughout the day.
The better move is to just quietly remove yourself in the background aka quiet quit. But if you can’t stomach staying at your bank for another minute, you can definitely get away with doing nothing for much longer than you think. This applies to all BB, probably not the private.
BTW, banks (employers in general), in the state of NY, most states too, don’t actually owe you severance when terminating an employee’s contract with/without cause or part of a RIF, unless stated in your contract. That’s a reputation thing.
The whole cause / without cause is more of a legal matter. When firing someone for cause without actually cause is opening a legal can of worms.
If you get let go for "performance" does this fall under a "for cause" termination? What if the firm that let you go doesn't really have evidence of the bad performance but you have developed a reputation of laziness and unreliability and no one at the firm goes to bat for you? Does this hold in a legal case as solid reason for firing someone?
I.e. asking in the event someone is a "scape goat" at a company and is getting the boot for random bullshit etc.
Lol no bad performance does not constitute for chase nor does laziness or incompetence. Doesn’t even come close to cause
That’s not what cause is. Cause is not for being lazy or incompetent. Cause is like stealing trade secrets or being convicted of a felony
Not me, yet. I am considering just leaving coverage and going to some more relaxed product group for better hours. I have heard from several colleagues in several coverage teams that “all A&A is interviewing or trying to leave” Take that with a grain of salt as I am not source but that is what I have been told by colleagues.
Very interested to see how this goes. The conference rooms on my floor are constantly full of A&As talking to headhunters, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that most juniors want to leave, from top bucket to bottom bucket.
Lots of people will quit - what I’m interested to see is if it’ll be the people management wants to quit (the bottom performers). I think the middle/upper middle people will end up quitting instead due to superior deal experience and competence.
.
I'm not in the IB world, so I'm not up to date with things happening at bofa. Why are so many said A&As mentioned in this thread trying to leave bofa? Is that because their A&A stints came to an end and they are just actively looking for betters exits, or something bad happened recently at bofa?
It’s simple, just start looking for buyside and corporate development jobs
It takes some time to be knowledgeable about your deals and then interviewing at places can be time consuming as well
Can you go from a capital markets group to corpdev?
It possible to negotiate a package if you have a good reputation - I know someone who put his hand up the day of firings and they refused to do it.
I think they were leaving the industry though so it was a goodwill gesture
🙋🏻♂️ me hehe
Coverage or product group?
Got something lined up?
Cov - and yes I got lucky with how timing worked out. Was going to be out anyways (and was actually feeling a little sad I was moving on in a way given I have made good relationships from banking) but with how this bonus season went I no longer feel that way.
GL to everyone else gtfo - think it’s now clear that BofA won’t match street when times are good (2021 we got roughly 20-30% less than other banks if memory serves correctly) or make up for that fact when times are bad.
Having left the place 5+ years ago, comp was always screwy as in with mature group, politics played a role and spread at associate level btn first and second was often wide. But if you hung around and worked hard, things typically worked out in the long run.
by the time I left, there was a significant change in analyst world. First was the boom in hiring (post summer 2014 incident in London) that doubled / tripled class sizes. This very quickly became analyst double / triple staffed while MD quantity / quality shrank. Then second years stopped doing work and it became a come in for Seamless / gym and utilize India. But they had no skills so they’d just hang around instead of leave for PE (like older classes who couldn’t wait to get out) and from what I hear, then came the promote from within / 2 year promotion along with 2021 type busy market. On campus MBA recruiting never slowed down, but a firm that always actually had lot of MBA MDs now suddenly had bunch of A2As who think they rule the world cause they did some follow on or lev fin.
Overall MBA recruiting quality continues to deteriorate, you have bunch of A2As that couldn’t get a job elsewhere or are just lazy (not saying all) and BofA doesn’t fire people easily. Mix it with dead capital markets - and here we are. I actually don’t know if many BofA people would survive at like Moelis, so not sure why they expect to get paid.
Interesting historical perspective. Agree that half of the analysts/associates wouldn’t survive at Moelis… which I believe is the point the competent people ant BofA are making. Why are we working boutique hours and getting paid 25% of a boutique bonus. It was probably always like this but has gotten significantly worse the past 1-2 years.
Testing
Testing
yea lets quit and join another underpaying bank
Has anyone else also noticed an increase in favoritism across the board? Understand these things become more noticed during downturns given people trying to save their jobs, but seems like it’s been especially pronounced.
The policy has been moving average/under performers into other groups, essentially pushing them out, and then rewarding those who are loyal/close to the heads. This is saving BofA from PR and having to announce layoffs, but obviously impacting morale given the sheer amount of juniors who are disgruntled at the moment.
While brutal, in other news, the sky is blue.
It’s Wall Street investment banking at a massive bank. There will be politics. Things will be unfair. As much as it sucks and isn’t fun, in bad markets like this, we find out that the emperor has no clothes after being spoiled in 2020-2022
That’s always the case, to be fair. Especially at BBs. It’s just easier to notice during downturns.
I don’t think you understand how tough job market is right now lol
bunch of lazy fucks who don't know the meaning of hard work and being naturally driven. If you are motivated by money in banking, then you don't belong in the industry -- go to selling used insurance or real estate if you wanna get rich quick. Investment banking is prestige and elite and I would work on Wall Street for free if I had the chance.
No you wouldn’t work for free
Even my MDs say explicitly they’re in it for the money
I don't know, it's bigger than the money for me. Getting to operate the lever of power and capital that drive the global markets everyday is priceless. Plus, getting rich isn't the goal, having power and prestige is worth a lot more to me.
Spoiler: everyone is motivated solely by money in IB. Otherwise how could you do a job like that? Nobody likes working 90 hours a week.
I’ve only seen 1 person leave pre bonus but ended up going to the buyside. Curious to see what the turnover will be if any when bonus hits. Personally I’ve been trying to move from Sales into Trading and it’s been nearly impossible.
I think getting into IB, even if people quit will still be hard in the near future, unless you already have IB experience. nothing is impossible but there's still many candidates from IB alone who are applying, giving little room for non-IB laterals. Plus even if attrition goes up, I think banks aren't looking to fill those spots anytime soon.
Agree but I am more so interested from a Sales to Trading lateral, interested to see what goes on from that front. No axe on trying to get into investment banking.
I could be wrong but it is my suspicion that one can get away with doing work on their own time (something like 9AM-8PM) @ BofA for a long time before actually getting let go. Seems like the process to ax a Jr. Banker at the Bank is a hefty one
Yup. BofA is so big and bloated that no juniors get fired. The ones making decisions have seen ~20 large classes come and go… you think they know (or care) if one person is cruising a little bit?
Well the issue is more of what’re you doing when the team is working on a late night deliverable and you just want to go to sleep. Or you don’t want to work on the weekend. How do you handle all that?
Not doing much during the day is relatively easy to get away I would imagine but haven’t put it into practice yet
Curious and sure others are too. How’s LevFin right now from a junior perspective? Heard a lot of juniors axed in last 12 months and a few seniors recently.
For the other product groups who considered lateraling and going to private credit or just interested in high yield world, what are the options?
Is it even possible to quiet quit in IB? Just go out to dinner at night and ignore emails! Go to bed early? Ignore title, associate here.
Imagine being afraid to coast/quiet quit at a large bulge bracket bank with 6964727 junior bankers that all effectively got the equivalent of a bus pass for their year end compensation after working 90 hour weeks for 52 weeks doing meaningless busy work because there is no deal flow while senior management couldn’t care less if you’re twiddling your donger in the bathroom for 3 hours or furiously aligning logos until 3am
Truly not as easy as you’re making it sound. Easy to do loudly but tough to just be non responsive on certain workstreams
I love seeing BoA hatred. I got yelled at by BoA customer services and I hope the firm go broke soon
Got an offer for VC! I’m out next week. Bofa LevFin will have one less Assoc starting next week
Congrats! Mind if I shoot you a PM?
Can I ask how you went about this? Have similar goals.
How did you approach this? I have similar goals.
Ughhh
4 days until comp!! Who else is also out????
I hope all the competent associates quit and bofa is stuck with all deadweight useless MBA associates. Thats what the firm deserves
Hoping to be joining you within the next month
I've seen so often that the lower middle buckets to nearly bottom buckets find exits to buyside faster, especially if they're staffed on much less work
These scam bots are new. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this on WSO before
Just told the senior banker that I work closely with that I'm planning on leaving. And was told to take some time off before turning in my resignation letter. Low key just interviewing for non-banking jobs. The only reason why I was ok with getting verbally abused and working these hours is because I know I will be paid a decent bonus. Any decent bonus 70-80% will allow me to make twice the amount of people at my age. As my group head always put it, working in banking is like working 2 jobs and getting paid for 2 jobs. Now that I'm working 2 jobs and not getting paid for 2 jobs, a lot of people will quit. I can just see it in people's eyes. Frankly the people that doesn't quit are the ones that can't find a job or lossers. They are the same guy that won't stand up to the sponsors and just take orders. They are the MBA associates, the 40 year old VP, and the director that's never going to make MD. Enough of me venting.
Good for you, get outta there, not worth it
the value proposition of working in ib, especially at a place like bofa, doesnt make sense anymore. and they will just use these shitty bonuses as the new standard going forward too so forget about any arguments senior bankers make about things being cyclical. and its not like they will pay you well as you become more senior as i know directors at bofa get paid like young vps at other shops.
Yup have come to that conclusion as well & trying to get out as soon as possible. Slowly approaching the point of saying “fuck it - just be horrible for three weeks so that they fire you”
Currently paid for one job to work two jobs. It’s a joke. And they know they have us all by the balls at the moment
Group head ask me to take 2 weeks off, after I hand everything on my plate to other guys. Will take the 2 weeks paid time off and figure out what I will do next.
You went to quit and they said take two weeks to think about it ?
Morale is lowest I’ve seen ever.
Bonus hit my account yesterday (usually hits 2-3 days early), is it safe to quit now? F Bofa
you're good to go, do you have something lined up?
-
My bonus just hit too. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.
I wouldn’t do shit today (respond to nothing) and then quit
Thought you were doing the quiet quiet thing over two months? Or did you manage to find something within the last two weeks?
Bonus hit my account last night, didn’t even notice because it was so disgustingly small. Getting paid for 1 job to work 3 jobs at once
You quitting too?
As soon as I have something worthwhile to go to. BofA is not coming back for a few years. Rough sailing ahead for deal advisory in my opinion
Surprised by how few people have posted / left
Not many exits opps I guess, it'll be interesting to see what they'll do when lateral market improves. Will they forget the miserable bonus or leave once the opportunity is presented?
Personally will be leaving as soon as the market allows. And know many others in my group and other groups who feel the same way
I mean people only got their bonus numbers 3 weeks ago. It’s tough to find a good job that quickly, especially in this market. Even in more typical years when it’s easier to move, people leave over next 2-3 months not right after bonus usually, unless they’ve had something lined up for like 1 month +
Welp the bonus hit and the real winner of bonus season is once again Uncle Sam….
I quit today! Am I the only one?? We gotta get these #s up, Bofa doesnt deserve to keep anyone competent
Congrats. What team? Or if not comfortable, coverage vs product?
✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️
So guessing barely anyone quit
This thread got silent very quickly lol
Yup sad scene
RIP
A few lucky souls were apparently able to get out. Mostly to other banks though. It’ll likely take a few months for more people to trickle out.
BofA (and to a lesser degree other BBs) are in a tough spot. They want associates to quit but a lot of them don’t have the deal experience to leave, and not a lot of firms are hiring. The job market is rough, hopefully will improve the latter half of this year.
What’s considered enough deal experience?
It varies by exit opp but you’d at least want one announced M&A deal on your resume for something to talk about in interviews (50%+ of ASO2s in my class don’t even have that) for a biz dev or buyside role.
I’ve seen people leave with no deal experience but to very crappy jobs (think at a bank but not IB)
So how many people actually quit?
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