Comp & Career at Institutional Shops v Small Office

Generally speaking, what is a better path to $500k - $1MM in total comp? a) Institutional business (Starwood, KKR, Blackstone, Hines, etc.) b) Small shop, where maybe you can be a "bigger fish" in the smaller pond. I have always thought option b, but now I am questioning that assumption. Of course, this answer would depend largely on preference and skill set, but for purposes of the question, putting those aside. If your goal was to year in and year out clear $500k+ (in the South), what would you consider the best path to do so, in terms of institutional v boutique business?

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People say smaller shops give that option because you're betting on yourself to get carry and have your deals perform great. While this can happen, your base salary will probably take a hit so more comp is connected to bonuses and equity in deals performing well. At a large institutional shop you are going to be similar to banking where you will probably never get to MD level, or if you do then it will be late in your career but by then you probably made 150-200k+ for over a decade and if you made any worthwhile investments in your 20's-40's with that money then you wouldn't need to work long enough to get to that level anyways. If you move quickly up the ladder at one of those institutional firms (unlikely but people do do it) then that's the more "sure thing" to get that comp and have steady income at that level.

 

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