The salaries I see here--they're too low.

I'm a little confused, but I've never actually worked in finance so please don't mock my stupid questions too much. Or go ahead, but just be funny about it.

So I read on another post on WSO about working 80-110 hour work weeks to get paid $120k. Also on a couple of posts here and on other WS related sites I've seen all-in compensation on the low end in the low six figures. This is far from the millions you read about in the mainstream media, such as the recent column in the New York Times by that "wealth addict" asshat, and I can't imagine it's the norm.

Or is it?

Outside of finance we have these huge expectations for financiers at the big hedge funds (Tudor, Tiger cubs, Citadel, etc.) to be raking in $300k starting as a jr. analyst, and financiers at smaller funds (

Can someone explain this? Is it just that bankers make less than people outside the industry think?

Also, why don't people quit to trade their own money--or is this very common? For instance, the guy working 80-110 hours for $120k mentioned above gets about $25 per hour. That's shit pay. Is the point of working in finance to hold out, tolerate a few years of low pay, to break into the ranks of the millionaires? Or did 2008 just decimate compensation to the point where pay-per-hour has gone down the toilet? Or all of the above?

If anyone could educate me on all of this, I'd be really grateful.

 

The hours are a lot better at the VP and greater level. I think @"CompBanker" said that he was working about 50 hr/wk as a PE VP. The hours are a lot better in PE than IB. @"Aaron Burr" retired from IB to work in PE.

 
teddythebear:
Analysts are not suppose to make millions. They are suppose to move up the ladder and enter better positions, whether it be upper level IB, senior management at a F500, hedge fund, PE, etc.

Not sure how you're senior management at an F500, at a hedge fund, or in PE and not making millions in your 40s and 50s and beyond.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

The point is to learn. Your getting out of college with an attitude that's a mixture of cocky, scared, and excited, you don't know shit period. Doesn't matter how many times you've done a re-run on Rosenbaum IB, or how many lbo models you've designed with online courses, your skills are basically next to nothing, even less if your on the investing side. On top of this wonderful realization, you're making six figures right out of college, and you call that low? The reason people in this industry have ever made money is due to the value they add, nobody's paying you shit for your Wharton Undergrad, they'll pay you for the value you add, and as you move up (read up on the new PM post) you hopefully pick up skills that translate to added value over the course of a few years. I think it's been mentioned several times here that real, and I mean real (High six figures/Early Seven) figures are made with at least 10 years of solid experience in this field. It ain't easy, and not everybody can do it, and it's definitely not a "fast" track, but if you can bear through all the hell that will rein down your ass, you'll do pretty damn good.

I think- therefore I fuck
 

120k right out of school---while all of the lawyers, doctors, phds are borrowing that much to go to school.

I've come to realize that banking exists with the mindset that things will always get better, brighter, easier, shorter hours, better pay, exit ops, exit ops, and exit ops.

I suppose this mindset becomes more true depending on long you can stick around.

 

Relevant username, OP.

"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen."
 

$120K does seem low. Most first year analysts in our group make about $160K all in. There's not a huge variance for talent, but there is some (80-100% bonus). For 2nd, 3rd years, it can get up to $210K all in.

 

When you get to a senior level of any industry, including starting your own business and growing it, the income could / should be significantly more than that 120k. Also, in many fields you'll work your ass off to accelerate your career, grow a business, etc.

Don't think about $25 / hr for 100 hours /week being crap pay. Focus on learning as much as you can. It's actually great pay compared to the entrepreneurs who start with nothing, work their tail off, and maybe succeed down stream. It's great pay compared to the med school student who makes rounds for 100 hours a week for NO MONEY. It's great comp compared to the law school student who's blurry eyed from reading court cases for 80 hours a week for NO MONEY. They all get paid quite well later and so do the IB analysts whether or not they stay in banking.

 

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