Senior Associate Comp Benchmarks

Bumping this.

250k total comp for someone with what, 4 years total work experience? Plus you get co-invest opportunity and don’t pay nyc taxes?

Seems slightly low but not disgustingly low.

If you always compare your offers to Warburg Pilon us numbers you’re gonna be disappointed. Try instead to see if there is a path to working there long term and ask the other senior associates and vps at the firm how their comp progressed.

It feels only a little low for a fund that size. It's still a white hot recruiting market though, so would think you could return with a reasonable counter without offending anyone.  

Pretty tight on comp relative to fund-size, but location-adjusted not terrible - I’m at a $1B NYC fund making $300k cash + 50 bps carry + levered co-invest, which I think is on the low end for NYC cash but probably closer to high end when factoring in carry. 
 

I wouldn’t sweat the cash differences at this level - bigger questions are whether you see a long-term role here. The prospect of making VP or Principal, particularly at a place with solid returns and fundraising, will blow comp differences at the Associate / Senior Associate level out of the water

If weather is good, taxes are low and COL is lower than NYC/SF, I would say that's a fair deal.

Is there any opportunity for partner track?

Delete

Do you get carry? That’s quite low cash comp for fund size. Should expect 300+ in this day and age, and if you don’t get any (or very little) carry, even more. How does this compare to your prior comp?

Maybe a tad low, but not shockingly off-base in my opinion. Senior Associate comp is generally closer to Associate comp than it is to VP. Add in a non tier one geography and a MM focus and you're not going to be getting some of the comp figures that are thrown around here.

If you really want the most accurate comp check you can get, reach out to recruiters and ask them for comp ranges. They can usually get you really specific comp figures based on geo and fund size. 

If you like the geo, like the team, think you can get from Senior Associate to VP in a year or two, and generally see longer term potential at the fund, then I'd eat the ~$50k.

Last thing, if you're really unhappy with the comp and it's borderline pushing you to not take the role, I think you can respectfully go back to them and express that dissatisfaction and see what they say. I would do your research though and make sure you have a good sense of market for that region, which is why recruiters are helpful. Going back and saying something like "Thanks for the generous offer, really excited to join the team, see a lot of opportunity to grow, etc etc with that said, the total comp package is a little lower than what I was expecting. I'm seeing market ranges of xyz and in addition to that, I'm moving my entire apartment across the country, which the $5k relo likely won't cover. " 

Comp discussions can be tricky, I've found that in PE some folks expect you to negotiate; however, some partners for some random reason really take offense to it (despite that fact that we all negotiate for a living...). Personally, everytime I bring up comp, I kind of know that I might be burning and bridge and I really try to determine whether it's the hill I want to die on. If you pushed them for more comp and they pulled your offer would you be upset? All things to think about. 

Fwiw 5k will cover moving expenses bruh

Other people have covered the whole maximize pay thing, but I'll bring another way to look at this. Lots of people need to take a step back and evaluate if they're realistically going to become a PE Partner / whatever senior role.

The argument of accepting lower cash comp for better career advancement / economics down the line is mostly predicated on staying at the same firm for the next 5-10 years. In this day and age, I just don't think that's realistic. Putting aside self-selecting out of PE (which a LOT of Associates do), shit happens in life. Maybe you find a firm that promotes only from within and you have a "clear path" to making VP/Principal/Partner, but pays you 50K+ less than street? Something can happen in your life that either forces you out or forces you to re-evaluate where you want to be after a few years in your role (shitty culture, WLB, industry, life event, anything). Then, you're out a few hundred grand of cash that you'll never get back. Sure, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of carry payout you might get down the line, but until that money is in-hand/fully vested, it's not really "yours." 

Separately, I think the comparison of money on this sub as a whole is skewed. $50K is a lot of money to me and a lot of other young people, especially if you're not from a well-off family and graduate with debt and/or minimal money in your bank account. I am not operating under the assumption that I'll be making mid-to-high six figures in 10 years, or that I'll be nearly as hardcore career-driven down the line. So if I'm in the trenches working my ass off, I want to get paid commensurate with the market, especially since there's no guarantee that I'll be here long-term (and statistically I won't be, whether or not by choice). I'm not saying I'll literally kill myself to work at APO for the bands, but that I would seek to maximize comp at comparable firms.

Companies as a whole don't give a shit about employees and are focused on themselves. In turn, it's not wrong for people in the labor force to then act in their own best interest, especially nowadays where there seems to be a lot of soul-searching among people for what they want to do for the rest of their lives.

I'll give you a datapoint - in Florida, smaller fund size, $130 + $130 and levered co-invest. Some random exit bonuses bring it closer to $300. I didn't push on SA comp because it's a growing fund, solid people, and some much bigger numbers at the VP level. 

Idk, you have a bird in the hand. Doesn't seem too unreasonable for the geo, but you probably have a bit of wiggle room to negotiate or at least get some clarity on what VP looks like

Lobbing in data point at $5bn-$8bn fund non nyc. Total comp for Sr AS is ~$410k + levered co-invest, no carry. ASO 1 is $300k + same co-invest.

I am at a smaller fund in Florida as a SA. $125+125 with levered coinvest sounds in line with funds around here. I don’t think that this is a bad offer.

LAWL U lads left the sell-side too early. I'm making close to 400k all in as a second yr associate