Distressed Debt Research Job Offer - Do I Say NO???
I received an offer to work as a sell-side analyst (distressed debt) on the left coast for an ibank with about 250 employees.
I hear that things are rough on Wall St., LEH is cutting drastically, CITI is likely to follow, etc. I imagine I shouldn't be picky but wanted to get some thoughts.
First, My Background:
*Work at a place HEAVILY impacted by this mortgage mess. Yes I still have my job - for now. My expiration date is anywhere between 3-12 months.
*~4 years corporate finance work experience
*CFA Charterholder
*Goal - ultimately want to get to buy-side
*Decent salary between 85-100 (bonus is close to $zero at this point)
*Work schedule 9:00am-5:00pm
Their Pitch:
*Expected Work schedule 4:30am - 5:30pm, with some weekends and longer hours during earnings season
*Comp Offer - ~65k-70k + bonus = ~115 all in. Although, given the status of the market, who knows what the bonus will end up looking like....
*Role - Would start out supporting an analyst for 12-18 months, and then become my own publishing analyst after that.
I was initially totally excited about the opportunity. It would be great experience. I could work there for 2-4 years and then go to the buyside. BUT, I'm really caught up on the comp. The base salary seems like a massive stepback (and lifestyle change) for me and the all in comp is barely more than I'm at now, especially considering the hours. I realize the market is crappy, and even much smaller to begin with on the west coast. Should I take what I can get at this point, or keep searching? I haven't really engaged in a full-on search at this point, but this opportunity happened to come about pretty quickly.
Cheers-
tough call, salary does sound fairly low for someone of your experience level, however imo there couldnt be a better place to work in this type of market than distressed debt and i think you will set yourself up for great opportunities to move to the buy side with that type of background
i agree with bateman about the salary, but I'm not too familiar with research comp. However, with your experience (somehow) related to distressed debt and it being a hot topic right now, you may have a pretty good career progression.
oh and also 13 hrs a day is pretty standard for any type of research/trading role so i wouldnt even factor that into your decision
i think distressed debt is a great place to be right now and could very likely lead to distressed buyside positions. i would seriously consider this position
Probably a stupid question, but as someone who's not in research I've got to ask - why on earth would you start work at 4:30am?
I'm probably missing something, but these sound more like west coast trader hours to me.
Seems like a good gig, except that you have to wake up at 4 in the morning.
Maybe the job entails covering junk paper in Europe or Asia? Whatever the case is, I believe gaining experience in the distressed area, especially in this dislocated credit cycle would only benefit you, and the skills are transferable into other areas.
i talked to a couple of recruiters about distressed/HY research in general, and based on what they told me, it's reaffirmed my belief that your compensation is below average but not way out of line. the firm you're talking about is a relatively small bank, you come from a somewhat non-traditional background (i.e. non-banking) and the position is for LA, which on average will not pay as well as SF or NY. on average, one would make more money doing buy-side research than one would on the sell-side, probably by an order of at least 20-25%.
in your case, i think you should consider a number of things including what the posters above mentioned, which include (1) the future of distressed/HY investments, (2) exit opportunities, (3) your current employment situation, and (4) other available opportunities. if you think you'd like doing that type of research, then that should be a positive factor since there should be a lot of market activity in distressed and restructuring businesses in the coming years and i'm sure you'll learn a lot whether you're on the sell-side or the buy-side. it also appears that your current employment situation is unlikely to improve and will probably rapidly degrade, and i don't assume you have other available options right now since you would have said so if you did.
basically, i think we can agree that compensation is below average, but what matters more is how much you would like the work, and how important it is for you to be employed rather than unemployed. just don't get too caught up in the comp issue, because i think unemployment is a very real thing in this market unless you have some real conviction that a better offer will come along. not intended to scare, just trying to be realistic, and only you know the answer to that.
let us know how things go
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