REPE Salary Negotiation

Hey guys, through a lot of hard work, dedication, and networking, I’ve landed a first year associate role at a firm (think Ares/Blackstone/Starwood/Apollo).

I’m set on accepting the position and am not too worried about compensation or them stiffing me by any means. However, I would like to know, do you guys negotiate the compensation offer? Is that the right thing to do for a first year associate or should I just accept whatever is presented to me? If you do negotiate, what’s your method and what parts of compensation do you focus on? Thanks in advance for any helpful answers.

Also, any insight on what the salary range for a first year associate at the firms listed above should be?

7 Comments
 

Is Ares comparable to the other three? Congrats on the role, but I would think that Ares would be in the BGO, AG, Fortress, Cerberus, Oaktree peer set. Would be interested in getting other people’s thoughts here but that’s my $0.02.

Regarding negotiating, it depends where they came in at on the initial verbal offer. Were you over/underwhelmed?

 

Ares definitely could be. I was overwhelmed that I received a verbal offer after the interviews. Nothing detailed about comp yet

 

If the firm has associate classes every year, you aren't going to be in a position to negotiate. They will be giving people the same salaries and using bonus comp to differentiate. The firms you listed fall into this category. This question gets posted fairly often and the responses are usually, the smaller the firm, the more you negotiate. 

 
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