Getting A Higher Salary 'Under The Table'

A lot of WSO monkeys ask about the salary in investment banking so I would be quite interested if people in the industry could shed some light on this post.

I read the figures from Dartmouth Partners and several WSO threads to get an idea of the salary paid to first, second and third year analysts.

However the numbers I get from 'inside info' sources (ie friends at banks, friends of friends and so on) are quite different. For example, I saw an add by an elite IBD boutique hiring a 2nd year analyst and they were paying £250k base. Yet they typically pay less then half that amount to analysts at this level. There were serveral other similar examples I found (mostly boutiques/MM firms vs BBs though).

Generally is the salary advertised and the salary gained different?
Should I always take published figures as a pinch of salt?

 
knivek:
So what exactly are you doing "under the table" for your bosses to get a higher salary?
haha wow absolutely hilarious...wondering if anyone else interpreted this the same as i did
"Money is a scoreboard where you can rank how you're doing against other people." -Mark Cuban
 
TakeItToTheBank26:
knivek:
So what exactly are you doing "under the table" for your bosses to get a higher salary?
haha wow absolutely hilarious...wondering if anyone else interpreted this the same as i did

I have a f'ed up mind.

 

This sounds wrong.

Most BB and "most MM" investment banking firms have standard pay packages that cannot be changed for Analyst and Associate levels.

Some "Elite" boutiques may have higher salaries for similar positions, but I doubt its by THAT much (maybe +5-10k base or +10-20k top bonus).

I think whatever you read is wrong.

Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis - when I was dead broke man I couldn't picture this
 

The salary you read was likely a misprint of some sort. As for what 'friends' and 'friends of friends' say...they are probably fibbing to make themselves look better.

As is mentioned above, pay packages in IB are pretty standard across the junior level, with the exceptions being accurately pointed out above.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 
Best Response
hopesanddreams:
...elite IBD boutique hiring a 2nd year analyst and they were paying £250k base....

No. Unless we are talk ER (managing director level) "analysts".

What possible skills could this guy have that would be worth paying several times the high end of the market rate? This isn't exactly a stellar job market. An elite boutique could realistically offer 60k base, 10k bonus and still get top recruits.

The only scenario where I could see this is if said analyst is the son of a f500 CEO/other exec, and they are hiring him with the implicit promise of IB business.

 
West Coast rainmaker:
No. Unless we are talk ER (managing director level) "analysts"...

Yeah, this is a good point. At some places like asset managers and that like, research guys are often 'analysts', but clearly are much more senior in their career.

I guess the only caveat is the point about being a 'second year'.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

When I read it I didn't believe it either.

One of my friends at a BB emailed them (didn't intend on moving, just for fun) and they emailed back saying that if you 'went through them you would get a good deal, £250k was not a joke so long as you fit their profile' (which was graduating from a top uni and have been working in IBD at a BB). He was assured the £250k was not a misprint.

Perhaps they were desperate for an analyst and therefore tried to lure people in with a higher base? This is a legit elite boutique btw - not a small shop - a pretty well known place in fact.

 
hopesanddreams:
When I read it I didn't believe it either.

One of my friends at a BB emailed them (didn't intend on moving, just for fun) and they emailed back saying that if you 'went through them you would get a good deal, £250k was not a joke so long as you fit their profile' (which was graduating from a top uni and have been working in IBD at a BB). He was assured the £250k was not a misprint.

Perhaps they were desperate for an analyst and therefore tried to lure people in with a higher base? This is a legit elite boutique btw - not a small shop - a pretty well known place in fact.

I PROMISE YOU that this is not accurate. 250k Pounds is $382,000 at today's exchange rate. This is simply false. No investment banking analyst at any bank in the world is making that today.

 

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