Not sure if WSO is the place to go for Chinese IB scene, but I'll take a shot.
I know that CICC, CITIC, Huatai, Haitong, and some others are top-notch in China. Just want to see if anyone has up-to-date information regarding compensation (in RMB/Yuan), exits, hours, etc.
Hong Kong offices/subsidiaries of Chinese banks also count.
Thanks.
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Just got a return offer from one of the first two names listed. Base comp for entry-level front office jobs is approximately the same (IBD may be slightly higher, but definitely not dramatically higher), bonuses are dependent on the group. PM me for more deets.
Source: just got my offer letter last week.
Wait, by base comp being approximately the same you mean Chinese analysts are getting 100k USD bases?
Those who work in BB/EBs yes. They get global pay.
Contact Hunter Biden
Won't find much info here. You should ask your mainlander friends in finance. They even have their own version of WSO.
Thanks. Care to say what website it is ? I just came back to China after several years in the US. Ironically, I don’t know that much about my own country’s IB scene.
Do you know that forum? Curious thanks
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Bump
yellow
Bump
To get this thread back on track before all the racists came on board and derailed it, my cousin lateraled to CITIC after being at a BB's HK office. From what I've heard, mainland hours are relatively in-line with the HK scene, if not slightly less. CITIC is a top name on a resume, perhaps just under the best BBs, and exits will be inline with most BBs. I never asked about comp, but it couldn't have been significantly lower than BB comp if my cousin decided to lateral.
OP here. If he’s relatively senior, Chinese banks pay roughly the same or match base pay and give out higher bonuses.
My bank’s brand is a tad below CITIC and I guarantee you the pay gap is huge at a junior level.
A friend interned at CICC, they hire undergrad as analyst and master as associate. Base are 330k and 450k rmb respectively, plus 12-24 month bonus
Yeah, I heard if people went to the top 2 universities in China, you get to become Associates right after joining. I personally think this is absurd because 1-2 more years of study won't get you advanced in banking prep. Once again, the scene in China is vastly different from that of US or EU/UK so what do I know...
So what is the pay in USD? I heard the first year analyst base pay at CICC was $20k RMB a month few years back from a friend in China.
In USD, base pay for CICC 1st year is $70-$80K. Bonus is $80K or higher.
That's crazy. Is MF or top MM PE pay on par with US as well? I see so many masters students going straight into associate role in China. Is that the norm? These people seems seriously under qualify in the U.S. given that most don't come from M7 MBA.
Sometimes it's the reality: for CICC, if you graduate from the top 2 universities in China as a master's student, you go straight to become an Associate. I guarantee you the knowledge and skills they learn will not transcend for example what I learned at UVa/UMich/UNC's business school since the Chinese IBD market is not-very-technical in general compared to the EU and/or the US. Most of them don't know how to model for shit.
I did infra modeling and I'll say I beat >95% of IB job candidates in the Chinese market. However, because of prestige/school brand name selection, I cannot compete with kids who went to top 2-10 Chinese universities. It's not an emphasis on hard skills because I might not even have the chance to show my technical skills. One other aspect is modeling often doesn't matter at all in an IPO-heavy, equity financing-leaning market.
Sometimes it's title inflation: a couple banks call their analysts "senior associates"...which is laughable.
I know this VP at another big Chinese bank and she has never done a single model in her 6 years of banking because you don't need to do modeling for IPOs.
MF PE: On par since they do global pay.
Prestige: CICC=CITIC ≥ Huatai=CSC > Haitong=CMB=GTJA=GF=SWHY=Orient=Guosen=Galaxy>other Big 5 banks’ ibd>others
Pay: Pay gap between BBs “three Zhong one Hua” tier and smaller banks can be big. Comp at BBs in general is on par with street, but heavily skewed towards bonus, which is group dependant. For avg. BB all in pay: CICC>Huatai>CITIC>CSC. Banks like CMB, Haitong, GF, GTJA, Orient pay similar all in to BBs
Exits: No clear exit paths, but quite a few end up in PE and many go to funds/MBA & other common exits that u can imagine. However exiting to the Securities Regulatory Commission(working for the government) is the golden exit to any high finance job in China (There has been fund managers who quit their high7-8 figure RMB job to do so)
Hours: Group dependant, similar to HK hrs
Mostly accurate from what I know. Although pay among those other banks you listed are not on the same level from my 1st-hand experience. A couple banks in the list lean heavily towards "project bonus" instead of personal performance bonus. I'm talking about HK IPO here, not the A-share market where comps are more or less the same.
To my understanding the brand name of your university is THE most import factor when it comes to working in IB in China. Also a master degree in most cases is a prerequisite for you to get interviews. Networking is not very common as most bankers are pretty snobbish and will only talk to you if you went to the same top schools they did. Unlike US where candidates are relatively diverse, IB analysts in China all pretty much have the same amazing if not stellar resume and it’s virtually impossible for “non-targets” to break in unless they have rich parents or something.
WSO: you need to fix your edit comment button.
I broke in probably because I've had some US work experience plus an okay school brand name: UVa McIntire/UMich Ross. People don't care about the major. If you studied Ethiopia Literature Studies at Harvard you could probably land an IB job too.
My VP is a hong-er-dai which means that her parents are top-level politicians in China. VP is snobbish as FUCK.
Yep government connections make you a first-class citizen in China. Also you are spot on that they couldn't care less about what you study. To be honest that's very stupid cause many kids will do a master degree at Ivies in completely unrelated majors like education public policy just so they can put ivies on their resume. However that doesn't make them a good candidate and in fact might be a red flag due to adverse selection. A STEM undergrad at a non-target is often much more capable than a East Asian studies master at Harvard.
Fwiw, the pay gap between local banks and BBs is huge, except for CICC. The highest-voted comment probably addresses more senior levels who sacrifice a bit $ for a better WLB.
I see a lot of master of finance at John Hopkins, from my understanding it’s not a very good program in the U.S. but, I’m sure anyone who’s willing to spent $50k a year for some mediocre degree is probably well connected
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