Interesting Scenario: Discord Strategic Finance Offer, or Keep Trying PE?
I am a 2nd year analyst at a strong IB in NYC (Cview/evr/gs) and have hated this job so much so have recently been recruiting hard.
Got super lucky and got a really interesting offer. Strategic Finance Associate at Discord, all in comp is around $240k. Networked with the team a lot and they let me know 0 weekend work and usually work 35-45 hours a week. Paid cabs, 3 meals a day, and at the end of the day it is a software office (arcade, chefs, basketball court, sauna, pickeball, art and music lab, yoga, walk climbing, gym etc).
Only issue is I have no idea about progression / scale at this job. Seems like they internally promote a lot and there is VERY little turnover so assume this is a good sign. I feel like some will say to just shut up and accept this job, but for some reason I want to try to stick it out and see if I can get a really good UMM / MF offer eventually.
What would you do?
Ngl that job sounds like heaven, if you already hate IB what makes you think you will like UMM/MF roles where there is less visibility for promotions and as much if not more stress.
Would love to know your final decision on this one. That Strategic Finance role sounds pretty sweet ngl but yeah I hear you on wanting do PE. Depends how bad you want it and if you see yourself climbing up the ranks.
This role sounds amazing.
You need to take a hard think now about your life. Comp-wise, you’ll probably clip ~$5-10K TC increases within the same title, then a couple $10s of thousands for each title bump depending on equity. You’re what, 25ish now? By 30, you’re looking at $300K TC, maybe cap out at $350ish before you either move to a highly visible manager/director role, or move to another company. Does this life sound good to you?
On the flip side, if you stay in PE, by 30 as a VP you’ll be making 400-500 cash + $2-3M carry allocation no that you won’t see until you’re 40. Does this significantly change your life?
At a certain point, no matter how big the pay gap is, nothing can replace the time and life you give up. It’s literally irreplaceable. You will never get it back. Those that stay must genuinely like the work, and they’re willing to make that sacrifice because to them, it’s not so bad to grind out deals because they ultimately get satisfaction from doing them time and time again.
If you truly hate banking now, I don’t think you’re one of those people. There is no shame in it, and it doesn’t signal anything about your competency or ability. It’s a different set of priorities.
Thanks man, I really appreciate the response. You bring up great points.
Do you agree though that making it to partner in PE is like a 5% chance? Don't 95% of people get burnt out or shoved out anyway? The Comp will be great but that carry allocation is very hard to materalize I assume right?
How are you thinking about things now a days? Are you valuing more WLB or still want to grind?
There’s a lot of factors to consider. Yes, most don’t make it out of choice. I’m fairly certain if someone really wants to be Partner, they’ll be able to at some fund at some point in their life, they just realize it’s not worth it. In general, if you’re a good leaver you should at least keep your vested carry, or at least get bought out at cost or mark if the vesting terms don’t fuck you. I wouldn’t discount that to absolutely zero in the long run, but certainly for budgeting yes.
The other thing to consider is that you’ll be rolling parts of your bonus into the GP commit, so it’s not like you keep all of your cash anyway (but you should get this back too). Just like when you take a risk and join a private startup without public equity, you end up married to the firm at some point and always leave $ on the table when leaving, which really fucks with people’s decisions and ingrains this “just 1-2 more years” mentality.
I’m a few years older, and just moved corporate side for similar ballpark of comp to you. With my life now, it’s really hard to fathom going home for dinner, just to hop online and be available the rest of the night. The mental burden is hard to understand until you’re out of that life.
One thing that doesn’t get mentioned though - in PE, I didn’t have time to spend my money, so when I had the chance, I’d blow a shit ton on stupid shit - random expensive trips with the boys, high class dinners, etc. Now that I have time, living a financially sustainable lifestyle is crucial - cooking more, thinking about big expenses more before impulsively deciding, etc. Most young folks in finance never have to budget cuz they don’t need to, but with a “real person” job means you have to become more of a real person.
There’s no ceiling in tech corp fin, it’s just about how much pressure you are ok with. If you feel comfortable that you want the CFO seat you can keep pushing your comp up a lot higher.
Fair. Meant ceiling as in that’s when it does start to get harder moving up in ur current org (once you’re 1 away from CFO, time to start thinking about potential moves)
I don't think it makes sense for you to try for UMM / MF PE given how much you say you hate banking. That said, I'd really consider what it is about this Discord job that appeals to you - do you think that type of work and career path is interesting to you, and what is it exactly that you hate about banking? Is it the type of work, how bureaucratic it is, or simply just because of the intensity and hours? Because there are other options such as BD, IR, moving to an asset allocation role where you could still stay in finance.
I worked at a startup for a bit and that wasn't for me (have some old AMAs if you check my profile), and from that experience and discussion w/ peers (and validated by the link below), $240k for an associate role is extremely good and well above market (assuming that's all cash and you're not including equity).
This should help answer your Q on comp (older versions also break out by location if you dig around): https://omna.substack.com/p/omna-search-compensation-benchmarks
UMM roles are not too hard for promotion if you find the right company and right sector, some hours are even better than techies at the likes of OpenAI (they work 9 to 11 sometimes 1am too).
Even if you don't like the UMM/MF roles you can always pivot to Growth/VC or Strategic Finance job, but once you switch to Strategic Finance with only 2 years of finance experience you will never get that UMM/MF role again.
pretty sure open ai pays its ML researchers like high 6 figs/(touching 7 fig) don’t think any ib/pe role is comparable for the level of exp
at startups you don't count your equity, so yearly cash is just 300-500k for 6+ years of experience + PhD times, and MF PE pays 400k for kids who are less smart with only 2 years of experience
Whats the point of comparing finance roles to ML researchers? Was that realistically your other option? If not I doubt even the strategic finance roles at OpenAI pay anything like that.
If you hated banking you will hate MF/UMM PE even more. They're just a more stressful banking 2.0 with the prospect of golden handcuffs (carry) that lock you in once you get to the upper-mid level. Unless you really care that much about making 2x+ in cash comp in exchange 2x+ the hours in a work culture/environment you've already said you hate, I'd take the gig. Sounds awesome. Life's short and looking back, while I've learned a ton from PE I do have some pangs of regret about sacrificing a big chunk of my 20s for it.
Thanks man, I really appreciate the insight. You still in PE? You decided to take the journey of climbing the ranks?
Almost done with my time as a MM SrASO and pretty disillusioned, don't think I stick around for VP unless I happen across a younger fund with a unique offering. I didn't do banking so I didn't know what to expect and ngl I hate the process work with a passion. It's tedious and dull. I'm taking interviews with CorpDev for the better lifestyle, VC for the more interesting work, and HF for the "pure investing" experience now. Still weighing out my options.
I don’t see what the debate here is. The comp you cited for the strategic fin role is wayyyyyyy above market for your YOE. What’s the point of going into PE for 2 years (you think you’ll last longer but you won’t frankly) and then you’ll have to get a similar corporate job that pays even less than the current Discord offer. Makes no sense to me.
I think signs are pointing to the tech role given how you felt about the banking lifestyle. PE is for the most part the prize of the pie-eating contest (more pie). Having time in your twenties to enjoy your life with top tier comp is invaluable. I personally work about 35-50 hour weeks at a tiny fund making a little less than your Discord offer would be. I have golden handcuffs just from the lifestyle. Any other role would need to pay a lot more to justify working more hours. I’ve been able to go to every concert, every ski trip, every wedding, visit my niece when she was born, golf with my grandparents, etc. It’s something worth much more than $1-200K per year to me. My friends at other banks and funds just can’t do most of these things. I would suggest thinking really hard about the limit of how much you can grind and still thrive somewhere. Don’t want to wake up at 40 with millions but no memory of the last two decades of your life. Always a trade off.
I think a few others mentioned it here, but I would get a better sense of the day-to-day work you will be doing there (you may already have that understanding and just didn't post it). "Strategic Finance" can mean a lot of different things. I have seen "Strategic Finance" positions that end up being a slightly glorified accounting + FP&A role where 75% of your work is boring and repetitive, with 25% being interesting ad-hoc projects. But there are also some really great Strategic Finance roles out there.
Also knowing the background of who you will be working for is important. What have they accomplished in their career, what is their boss's background?
However, the fact that Discord is paying that much compensation at the Associate level tells me this role will likely be interesting, I doubt they would pay someone that much to perform monthly close + rolling forecasts 75% of the time.
Everything else about the role in terms of benefits and culture sounds great.
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