Friend recently got an offer as a full time IB analyst at a no-name shop but with no base and pay based on deals closing. Is this ever worth taking? If it makes any difference, the firm does a lot of capital markets work.
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If you’re working real IB hours, risking variable bonus comp at a small shop is a bad idea. The company is not on the hook to pay at all, and bonuses are up to MDs discretion so you could end up being screwed with 80-90 hour workweeks and a 50k paycheck, which is atrocious.
The sad fact is I know a lot of No-names that screw analyst. Usually they are in low tier cities and they base is just enough to cover basic living and bonus is 100% discretionary. Why people stay on their teams for the long term is beyond me.
This would be in a slightly HCOL area. Is it worth it just for the experience/putting it on your resume?
I doubt this would be "real IB hours" since, from the website, the firm closes only a few deals a year.
Happy to hear it's not Tobin & Co
Yeah, the key here is potential to be paid which isn't a thing at Tobin.
I'm thinking Pegasus (Chicago/Grand Rapids)
Only with serious due diligence... firms operating like this can be super sketchy and close like 1 tiny deal every 3 years. Talk to anyone you can find on LinkedIn who used to work there and see what the deal is, but you could be left with a lot of hours and no income. Probably better off negotiating for a small base or looking elsewhere.
Makes sense, thanks.
If they can't afford to pay full time analysts base salary, I can't imagine their deal flow is good enough for variable pay to be lucrative, or even livable. Think about it, if they are willing to do this, then they must think for sure its less than what a regular base salary would be, so at best you might make a normal base but at worst you make literally nothing.
As someone who did IB, I would say absolutely no.
Given the demands the of the job, it would alarm me to get an FT offer from an IB but that firm does not have the resources to provide compensation.
If this is for SA, that is a different story...
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