Updated 2022 S&T Compensation
After conferring with a few associates and directors, have put this updated comp table together. I am sure it varies year to year (excluding goose-eggs here) and bank to bank, but broadly should be accurate. Feel free to add comments. Analyst 0
- Base: $110k
- Bonus: $20-30k
- All-in: $130-140k
Analyst 1
- Base: $115k
- Bonus: $40-70k
- All-in: $145-185k
Analyst 2
- Base: $125k
- Bonus: $50-90k
- All-in: $175-215k
Associate 1
- Base: $150k
- Bonus: $75-150k
- All-in: $225-300k
Associate 2
- Base: $175k
- Bonus: $100-200k
- All-in: $275-375k
Associate 3
- Base: $200k
- Bonus: $100-250k
- All-in: $300-450k
VP 1
- Base: $225k
- Bonus: $125-375k
- All-in: $350-600k
VP 2
- Base: $250k
- Bonus: $150-550k
- All-in: $400-800k
Director 1
- Base: $300k
- Bonus: $200-700k
- All-in: $500-1000k
Director 2
- Base: $350k
- Bonus: $250-900k
- All-in: $600-1250k
MD
- Base: $400k
- Bonus: $400-3000k
- All-in: $800-3400k
Group Head / Partner
- Base: $400k
- Bonus: $1000-8000k
- All-in: $1400-8400k
There is lots of factors at play here, there is not a single product or group that consistently hits the upper band.
1. What is you bank good at- Some banks have great macro businesses (rates, FX, etc.) and will pay those guys at the wider end of the band but have a weaker credit business and will pay those guys at the lower end of the band and others its the opposite.
2. Market conditions- If a product gets hot, everybody in that group will get paid regardless of good the bank is at it as the entire street is printing money
3. Expectation management- If your budget is 5MM (random number) and you do 6MM you should get paid up. If the budget is 10MM and you do 7MM you get paid down or lose your job
4. Who runs signs the checks- People take care of their own. If the guy running the floor started in credit sales then he is going to pay those people but if the guy in charge did rates trading those guys will get paid. Generally speaking the people running things came from a background of whatever the bank is historically good at.
Generally speaking the goal is to pay you just enough to keep you in the seat, so you are really only as good as what someone else will pay you.
EDIT: Another thing I would add here, trying to optimize for all of this when picking a desk as an analyst or intern is impossible. I would focus on picking the desk where you like the people and find the product interesting. You will perform the best in this situation and for the most part that is all you can control.
These are fantastic numbers for S&T which seemingly has a solid work life balance. But a word of caution and take it from someone that is a VP level in asset management who has never worked in S&T, but strangely enough I see very little S&T continuity from peers and those from my target school network. I went to one of the largest target schools for 2 S&T BB's, and I too looked at these numbers relative to IB back in the day and was a dream of mine to break into S&T and never did. Almost everyone I know that was an S&T analyst was gone after 3 years or so, and I suspect burn out wasn't a factor, but lack of spots up the totem pole.
The 2 hardest moves are from analyst to associate and from director to MD and for completely different reasons. In the other titles you will get promoted every couple of years as long as you perform to expectations and people like you.
1. Analyst to Associate- You need a lot of things to break right here and outside of getting good reviews there are so many things that are out of your control. For the most part as an analyst you have no real P&L or sales credits to lean on here. You pretty much have to hope there is enough natural growth in the business for you to take on real responsibility of your own trading book or client coverage list or that somebody leaves and you take their spot. In some cases the bank will promote you to associate if they like you but there is not a role for you open at the moment and you will still be doing the analyst level work (paying you more for the same gig). In my experience its easier to get promoted/find a seat in trading as there seems to always be a piece of the market that a bank is not focused on that they will let a junior guy take a shot at with a small risk limit. You do well with that limit and you will get larger book and will get promoted. On the sales side its harder as there has been a lot of consolidation on the account side and there are just less accounts to go around. Also with improved tech you can do more with less people, as those smaller accounts can be moved to electronic platforms and you don't need a body to really cover it. There also seems to be more hesitancy for management to rock the boat on the sales side as the accounts like continuity.
2. Director to MD: Its all politics at this point, as a lot of people who have little understanding of what you do get involved in the process here. So you have to hope that there is enough new MD spaces available for people who are like you. As most places will only promote so many FI traders, EQ sales, cap markets bankers, etc. in a given year so what ends up happening is that people will get stuck at director getting paid a bit more each year to keep them happy but never promoted to MD. This is always the toughest spot as these people are always the first to get laid off as you are not in the "MD club" but still making a lot of money.
Talks of automation are overblown and oversimplified.
Numbers check out, and yes S&T is much better than IB in terms of work/life balance if you are good.
I got paid around 850 as final year VP and just got an offer from elsewhere for 1.1m$ as 1st year director.
I work 8am to 6.30-7.30pm, and i now have a junior to take care of the grunt work.
It can be a grind though and become a bit repetitive to come everyday to trade the same products/stuff, and the "lack of purpose/meaning" of just playing a video game with graphs going up and down can weight on your sense of satisfaction depending on personality/aspirations but that's another topic.
That is until you realize you can't exit
Why would you exit? Trading is the end-game. And if you're good, you'll make more than 99% of people in IB and PE and certainly those who burned out and exited to Corpdev.
Ah yes, it doesn’t take very long at all for bankers dissatisfied with their quality of life and who can’t look themselves in the mirror to sniff out a happy S&T thread and shit on the profession to try to feel better about themselves.
Give me S&T over banking 10 times out of 10. Life is too short, and IB is too boring.