Are all 'no name' boutiques unpaid?

Im guessing there are some paid but that's the exception not the rule.

Has anyone ever been paid before working as a SA at a no name boutique? And how many weeks was the SA stint?

I care about the experience not the money but just want to know what I should reasonably expect and whether I should save up now (potentially working unpaid in NYC=lots of living expenses out the door)

28 Comments
 
Boreed
God of WineMake them want to pay you.

Fuck that's a baller phrase.

Also a good phrase for when you pick up hookers.

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 
God of WineI was at a no-name boutique and it was supposed to be unpaid. I killed it and walked out with a check at the end of the summer. Make them want to pay you.

Wow. This just inspired me.

 
God of WineI was at a no-name boutique and it was supposed to be unpaid. I killed it and walked out with a check at the end of the summer. Make them want to pay you.

Second this. Say your boss makes $1m a year, that translates to daily earnings of about $2700 every single day of the year. Now that's a lot of money for a day's work (compare to your analyst semi-monthly pay check), though $1m a year isn't really outlandish in this industry. Point is, it's really not the money that your employer worries about, it's probably more whether or not the person's worth it.

 

I've heard most banks will pay minimum wage just to avoid doing paperwork, but this is not from personal experience.

Competition is a sin. -John D. Rockefeller
 

I feel like if they have a real structured program that it would be paid.

Also, It seems to me that anyone who labels a summer opportunity as a "summer analyst" vs. "summer intern" takes it a bit more seriously and therefore will probably pay their intern.

 

I'll be a SA at a boutique in Charlotte getting effectively $15ish an hour (I'm assuming I'll be working about 70 hours a week, just basing that off the vibe I got from spending a half day in the office). Also looking forward to killing it this summer and getting a small cash bonus.

-Andrew
 
Best Response

I did an off-cycle internship at a small boutique M&A shop, not in NYC. Started off, they paid for lunch usually when we went together and they said they would pay for parking. Not bad hours since I was balancing it with school. Got mainly bs assignments at first, and slowly got more meaningful research/modeling/ client facing work. Two and half months into the internship an analyst said they needed to talk to me.

We got coffee and they said they wanted to start paying me. Also, they were going to start giving me only modeling/pitch-book/research type work. I was working on real deals and getting paid all of a sudden. Oh, and they said they would reimburse me for the time I already worked. They said the amount of work I was doing and the quality was a lot more than they ever had from an intern. They have never paid interns in the past.

Sounded too good to be true to me. All I cared about was the experience but for them to pay me meant I was doing something right I guess. I think part of it(most of it maybe) had to do with a deal closing just before that but I think a combination of timing and effort led me to that position.

 

Albeit they may not all have stron deal flow / big players in the market, anything is a step up from my current situation.

 

Do you have anything else?

Gotta take the boutique if that's all you have related to IB. It'll help you secure other interview for FT.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (65) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”