Ex-IB analysts that have taken associate PE offers starting in the summer. How did your firm handle your bonus payout?
Having issues around payout being in August and next job starting in July, hoping I don't have to eat the bonus... also was hoping I would have a bit of time between jobs...
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I look offer at LMM. I just flat out told them that I was going to stay until I got my IB bonus before I took their offer. They were accepting- I would definitely speak up to someone because you don’t want to miss out on a bonus.
Thanks, going to discuss with my next firm. More just infuriated current firm refuses to payout on 6/30 which is job anniversary date
Better to be upfront about timing expectations but the response can vary. In most cases, I’ve seen firms provide some flexibility around bonus timing/start date (6mo). Anything more than that and you might run into issues. If you’re joining a UMM/MF shop with a highly structured and large associate class, it can be much harder.
Bump
As others have said, try to postpone the start of your next gig. Your boss could potentially tell you off, and given how fees have been the last year, I doubt you'd want to risk this year's bonus. I've also seen people getting paid stub bonuses by the team that they are joining, but that is rarer and there is no way you are getting more than cents on the dollar.
I would first try to postpone the start of the PE role to after the bonus hits.
If that isn't doable and you're at a bank where exiting to the buyside isn't frowned upon, I'd talk to a few people in the group to get a sense of how exiting second years are paid out. I'd say most banks aren't out to screw over 2nd year analysts who jump to the buyside (it's just a really bad look and sends the wrong message to current 1st year analysts) and will probably pay you something (either full bonus or pro-rated for whatever portion of the year you stayed on). My bank paid all of us out pro-rated for the time we stayed (since payout was at start of July, most of us stayed the full 12 months but there were a couple people who had to leave in May/June and made that known well beforehand).
Now, in the worst case scenario, where you can't postpone the PE role and the bank says you have to stay until August to get any 2nd year bonus, I'd just say screw it and leave 4-6 months early to backpack around South America / Southeast Asia. No reason to waste another 6 months grinding at a bank that won't pay you for your work. And while you're at it, might as well tell all the 1st years / incoming analysts that the bank screwed you over.
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