Decent pay + good hours ?
Hey everyone,
I am currently changing careers (going from law and sustainability into finance). Since I am still quite new to all the different options out there I would really appreciate your advice.
What finance jobs (specifically in London) do offer a decent pay and good hours at the same time?
Ideally, I am looking for a job which would be more or less the classic 9-5 (because I have also other activities outside of work, which I really want to keep on doing, so I am not looking for any of those 80 hours/week jobs), to keep a good work-life balance.
With regards to pay, I am looking for something in the 3000-4000 range /month (after taxes). Do you think there are any finance jobs that offer this hours/pay or at least something remotely close to it?
Any advice would be much appreciated!
I'm not sure exactly what the pay to the number but I think risk management has the hours and the pay your looking for. If you push for slightly more hours than the 9 to 5 then sales and trading or asset management could fit your bill.
What about Corporate Finance? I honestly thought about this because I am quite familiar with stuff like M&A because of my legal background. How are the hours/pay in that field?
Also I think I should mention that in the future I would like to get into Sustainable Finance and since I already have legal as well as sustainability background but lack the financial resume, I really wanted to get some solid experience in finance which could potentially move me in the future in that green/sustainable finance direction. So I am looking for some finance job also with this in the back of my mind.
Yeah absolutely, I forget about it, corporate finance definitely can fit your requirements. Not sure about the specifics about pay but hours wise should definitely be in that range, and pay range should be around there.
Wealth Management has best hours to comp in all of finance if you’re the right person for it. The better you can sell the easier it will be for you to work 30 hours a week clearing $500k+ once you have tenure.
Even entry-level analysts in WM work the classic 9-5 and clear at least $65k pretax so on a monetary basis, this seems to make the most sense for you to pursue.
Thanks a lot for the reply, really appreciate it. Though, isn´t wealth management really difficult to get into? I heard that only a very few people actually make it there. But I mean, I don´t know nothing about wealth management, it´s just what I´ve heard. What does the daily work actually consist of?
Actually the contrary. Wealth management is one of the easier finance roles to break into (relative to IB/ER/S&T/AM/HF/PE). This is because you really don’t need to know the ins and outs of financial modeling or fundamental analysis; rather just a general interest in the markets (by reading headlines) and passion for selling and building relationships to help manage peoples money.
The catch is that although it’s easy to get in, it can be hard to stay as you need to produce or you’ll be gone as you get more senior. Most banks will have you work for the MD/Partner and not expect you to sell yet but other non-banking firms (Northwest Mutual) will expect you to pull in sales right of the bat.
I've written a metric fuckton on PWM, take a look at some of my threads and feel free to ask questions, it has everything you're looking for
So working in Wealth Management is basically being a salesman/trader?
Plus relationship management, yes
Isn´t the pay quite volatile then? Or in other words, would I have some guaranteed "base pay" at the end of each month regardless of me making sales or not? What if I wouldn´t make any sales, would I just get fired?
I don´t know why I always thought about wealth management as more of a planning/strategizing/budgeting job as opposed to just selling (which is what I feel like I would be doing in an entry position, from what I have read so far).
again, please read my 4 part on PWM, the info is still good even though the thread is almost 10y old.
my pay isn't that volatile. imagine you get paid a % of AUM for an endowment fund, your pay will be as volatile as the investments, and since endowment funds aren't hedge funds, you're not going to see 30% drops in a quarter unless you're fucking something up bigtime. I think during covid my pay dropped by double digit %, but it was less than 20%, I don't recall exactly. and with the market recovering quickly, it was barely noticeable.
if I don't close any new clients, that's fine, I'm still being paid off of the AUM I keep, which is why I emphasize relationship management, because you have to keep the clients (they're not tied to you and you make most of your money long term rather than IPO fees for bankers which is a one time fee). it's good because it allows me to seek out relationships I want to have rather than bring on a client who's a dick just so I can pay my mortgage.
you have base pay when you're just starting out as an advisor, but that's just so you can make your rent (maybe $50k a year in a city like mine), the real money is made long term.
Why don’t you join a fintech firm? If you want those hours and money, you’re kinda out of luck with most interesting traditional finance jobs (less WM). London is the Open Banking capital of the world - I’m sure there are some really cool Fintech roles you could land that would meet your criteria :)
As an addendum, I would be shocked if a risk management role etc paid more than a solid product manager role at Revolut or Square in total compensation
Currently in Risk Management, and I strongly suspect you're correct about pay. I would also guess that getting a risk role is a whole heck of a lot easier than getting a product management role at a top (or even solid) fintech.
Corporate banking
What roles specifically do you have in mind?
why finance? just go in-house in a F500. I got an offer for 80k€/45h week plus stock not so long ago and I'm like 3 years into my career. Or does law not interest you anymore (which I certainly can understand lol)
I would really prefer not to go back to law to be honest. But the offer that you got sounds great!
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Actually, I am quite interested in valuation. Is it difficult to get into? Especially for me with no finance background.
in my big 4 accounting firm in london, moving from audit to valuation is very possible to do if you network and pass level 1 of the cfa
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