Agency Lending -> should I move on?
I am in my 4th year as an origination production analyst (promoted three times to now to a senior associate) at a top 10 GSE lender. The company itself is amazing. We have extremely good work life balance - some weeks are 30 hours of actual work or less depending on whether we are “ebbing or flowing” that week. Obviously some weeks are more than 40 hours, but really not many.
I’ll make between $220k-250k total this year after a down year last year and I really like my team, company culture, and the work to an extent.
The problem is that this job doesn’t scale unless I choose to go off on my own to originate my own deals OR choose a more corporate path in underwriting or something else. I will more or less be doing the exact same thing for however long I choose to stay in this role.
Question: am I being insane for thinking of leaving? Or is it natural to start exploring other roles at this stage, even when you’re in a good situation currently? The job is too comfortable and I confuse myself… is life just good? Or should i be challenging myself to do more. I am capable of doing more, learning more, challenging myself - and I feel my analytical sharpness even wearing down a bit since the work is easy.
Need a reality check from you all. Thank you
Your all in comp is great given the work-life balance, what's the breakdown of base play and bonus and are you at a bank or non bank Agency shop? You can always intentionally go find a "harder" job that may or may not get you to the same comp you are making now but that's up to you. For the lifers in the Agency business, I would think what you do outside of your job is what is really fulfilling and meaningful. Your job does not have to be your whole identity and personality. One way of living life is to have a career that allows you to have good pay and a good work life balance where you can also do other things that you enjoy. This is a great way to truly live. Afterall, we all have to live lives that is truly worth living. But that being said, others could want to work 80 or 100 hour weeks and might prefer to be on the hamster wheel, maybe they find that to be truly enjoyable, with enough mental gymnastics even the hamster wheel can be enjoyable.
Year 4 making $220-$250k?!?! I need to change jobs. Seconding the other question above, what’s the breakdown of base/bonus? Was this your first gig out of school?
Read his comments bruh. First job out of school in NYC. Base + 80/120%. Still pretty impressive for this market I think. Feel like most analyst get capped around buck fifty. Sounds like he is at a broker as well which checks out with this comp. Would be more interested to know what his team structure is.
Ya definitely can look around the room of agency production analysts and are hard pressed to find somebody over the age of 26. Not familiar with NYC but would think you are at the top end of comp for the role there even. Can't imagine you would make all that much more at the top of the chain in agency UW but idk. If you want to be a producer, can't you move to an associate originator type role where you stay under your current banker and keep a hefty salary + whatever he gives you in tips while you start to source your own business? What are common exit ops of production analysts? Debt funds maybe? Most prestigious exit for a production analyst is killing your boss and taking their clients
What are common exit opps as a production analyst?
I’m mean why not become a producer?
Like telling a g-leaguer why not play in the NBA.
More so saying if you’re making great money with great w/l balance why not stay and figure out how to move into a production role.
To the agency folks out there, how long do you think it’d take to get consistent deal flow as a new originator?
Anywhere from 2-yrs > never.
It's not just consistent deal flow, it's consistent deal flow to the point where you can make $250K+ consistently as a base/floor every year. If you are not doing that, might as well get a salary + bonus role in Agency lending where you can make that much without the stress of producing or relying only on commissions. As you can tell from my comment, it may not be worth it for most people.
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