Here’s the situation: 1.5 years out of undergrad at a decent Canadian university where I had a high 3’s GPA. Level 3 candidate. While at school had co-op placements at a big 4 accounting firm doing audit work for 8 months, and spent 4 months at an asset management firm where I was an analyst that evaluated Canadian and U.S. equities. After graduation I landed a job as an analyst at an asset managment firm that is run by a very well respected portfolio manager, with a top quartile long-term track record. Also, the style is a good fit. That is the positive. The negative is the mediocre pay - $37K to start, ended up making $45K in my first year, all-in. Expect that I will make about $60 this year if I stay (all-in), living in a large city in Canada. So now i’m considering a couple of different options, try and find another analyst job at a competing firm, or perhaps go back to get an MBA. My end goal is to own my own investment firm one day. As much as it was a struggle to live on such a meagre salary, this job provided a good opportunity to learn a variety of industries which was invaluable to my development as an analyst. However, I feel that there’s little more that I can learn at my current firm that I wouldn’t be able to learn elsewhere. I would really appreciate an independent evaluation of what you feel the pros and cons are of staying or leaving, and if I leave - which avenue should I pursue, school or another firm to achieve my goal. Thank you all in advance, and I hope I covered all the essential information.
try and get a competing offer to mark your salary to market. you are getting underpaid. even AM firms in Winnipeg pay more than that.
if you really want to learn about how to dress and what car to drive, then go for the MBA
billwest, not entirely true… i’m at about 41k; i’m basically pay cheque to pay cheque, even in the peg. (it’s painful). of course that depends on which am you’re refering to. buysider; i would suggest taking a discrete look around, the mba may not be necessary to achieve your goals.
i know am that starts with 65k for fresh grads.
you don’t have enough work experience to get into a good MBA program. need a couple more years…
billwest Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i know am that starts with 65k for fresh grads. Do you mean 65K base or all in?
base
care to say who?
pretty much any sell side banking or research or buy side analyst shop will start fresh grads at a $65k base. some go higher. I worked for a big bank in sell side research and my base was slighly higher. in the end it didn’t matter as base + bonus equals about the same no matter where you work (approximately)
Sounds like your comp is about in-line for your experience and time at your firm. Is the firm going to register you as an APM once you reach 2 years? At that time, you’ll be much more marketable to jump…but even after 3 years on the buyside, I don’t see you getting much better than $80K-$100K all in. Why can’t you survive on $60K in a large CDA city…run-up the credit a bit. I’m sure when you make partner you’ll easily pay-off the debt.
“pretty much any sell side banking or research or buy side analyst shop will start fresh grads at a $65k base.” That varies greatly per buy-side shop in Canada.
Agree with Turkish. Your experience is very entry-level and so you are making entry-level money. The ramp-up is decent and is certainly better than the ramp-up I experienced out of school. Focus on experience. If you’re getting great experience where you are, don’t jump for the possibility of making $5K more. Make your move once you have 2.5 - 3 years of quality experience under your belt and can command a not-so-entry-level salary. Or apply for the MBA at that point. Your experience is a little on the light side to be thinking about an MBA now. Unless you go to a lousy school.
Turkish solves another problem. Glad I logged in today.
Thanks for the responses. I think some smart people here confirmed what I already knew was the right thing to do - stay put for at least another year, finish level 3, soak up as much knowledge as possible, and then consider the next step. Turkish, in response to your questions, there’s no commitment to register me as an APM and i don’t really expect it to happen since this is a vary top-heavy organization right now. Also, your right, I can definitely live on $60K just fine, it’s just when I was trying to live on the $37K salary until bonus time it was a bit tough. Thanks again for all the advice, and hopefully I can return the favour for others.
“Also, your right, I can definitely live on $60K just fine, it’s just when I was trying to live on the $37K salary until bonus time it was a bit tough.” Yeah, $37K is poverty line in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver…that I will agree with.