Private Credit/Direct Lending Comp

Hey guys - hope this is the right place to post this.

Currently a second year IB analyst at a mid-tier MM firm in a major metro area (think Stephens, Stifel, Piper, etc.). I'm in the later stages of the recruiting process for a couple of different analyst roles at direct lenders/credit funds (always wanted to be on credit side).

The question came up on comp & I wanted to know what the market looks like for these types of roles. There isn't much out there and I don't want to give a number below market. Was thinking it would in the same range as IB comp.

Anyone know what successful small/mid-sized credit funds typically pay analysts?

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You can definitely ask headhunters. I don't really know what you mean by "analyst", but for a 1st year associate for a smaller shop, I would expect somewhere between low-mid $200s including bonus. You can always give a range of $200-250, I don't think anybody would balk at that, and once you do get the offer you can always negotiate it up. But yea I think it's good to get comps to avoid lowballing.

FWIW, when I first started as a 1st year associate, I was at a smallish shop and got an offer of $100K and bonus of $85K. That is probably comparable to IB or maybe a bit lower. A couple years later I was a little better than that, maybe my base came up to $110K or so with total comp in the $220 range. In comes a new 1st year associate who negotiated a $125K base and correspondingly better total comp package. Based on that I was able to negotiate my comp up at bonus time, but it was painful and it sets you up for lower comp expectations if you want to move to another firm. So in your position I would just try to land the position and negotiate from there. Firms are usually pretty willing once they decided that they want to hire you, and the extra $10-15K in base shouldn't be a big deal for them.

 

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