I’m hoping to get some feedback here on pay vs. hours/amount of work. Just comparing salary ranges doesn’t seem like a good measure since some jobs are really well paid but require tons of hours, and others not so much, but give a better quality of life. I ask because I work at a place where everyone knows they are getting seriously low-balled, given people’s qualifications and the nature of the work (it’s a very unique and attractive industry within investment finance).
In doing this exercise myself, I calculate I make between $22 - 31 per hour (pre-tax on an annualized weekly basis). Bonuses exist, but are minimal.
My qualifications are: Undergrad and Masters from Top 10 (not MBA, but finance focused and relevant to the field), passed all 3 CFA levels, and 3 yrs experience. The work is demanding and expectations are high, so there seems to be quite a discrepancy, pay-wise. I’m up for a promotion in a couple of months, and although I know they’ll always pay below market, I wanted to know how much of a higher bump I should push for, given my background.
I think there are 2,080 hours in a work year, so divide what you’ll make this year by that for your “hourly”.
Location, your responsibility, and a million other noisy factors go into pay. If you’re an associate a mutual fund co and their are 75 people that do the same work as you, you have no leverage. What city are you in, what’s your title, what do you do, and how critical/substituteable is your work?
Overall, yeah, your probably underpaid but you mayhave zero leverage. As someone else said, a $10k raise isn’t going to give you a better life. I started at 40k 3 years ago (out of school) and now make 85k, honestly, I havent noticed as the raises as much as you’d think… Uncle Sam takes, 25% or 28% of the marignal income, California takes another 10%, add in payroll taxes and etc… it leaves you with 60%-50% of your raise. If you get a 12K raise (gross), you’d see maybe an additional $600/month… that just means you can have 1 less roomate
This works for a while, but eventually you will become trapped by the money. Admittedly, this is a nice proplem to have, but it is hard to change jobs and effectivley cut your salary in half or derail your trajectory. What you say sounds logical, but let’s say you move up and become a regional sales manager, PM or a banking MD…how do you correct your work/life balance? Retire and become a sculptor, assuming you’ve been smart enough to control your costs and save a war chest?
y don’t you just tell us what you do instead of giving us hints on what you do…also tell us how much you make…
also if its very attractive within finance you wouldn’t be having this conversation cause good finance jobs pay well and ppl complain about hours worked not hourly wage
but my guess is you could be working at bloomberg …
But life is hard! People tend to make more money when they are older and have kids. So, the periods of highest potential earnings overlap with periods of highest value of time away from work.
I work right outside the NYC area, so the salary market is quite high. I’d rather not get too specific on the industry, as it’s so unique there are only a handful of firms that do it. Basically, I do front-office work, debt financing at a fund manager. Currently an analyst, but hope to be promoted to associate soon. The company is small, and my co-workers are mostly late 20s - early 30s and all have exeptional credentials. It’s an attractive line of work focusing on emerging markets and I get to travel and work professionally in another language. The requirements for my job are very specific, and it usually takes quite a while to hire anyone around here, as they are very picky. The interview process to get hired was brutal.
Sometimes I’m tempted to just take the next high-paying job I can get, but honestly am not thrilled about doing regular boring banking. I’m sure my employer knows there aren’t many interesting outlets for people who would like to remain in the industry, which is why they are able to attract talented candidates for lower pay. I’d like to continue doing what I do, but don’t see much growth trajectory salary-wise.
I make 69k, with my latest annual raise, and work 50 - 60hrs a week. So would you say that’s largely under-market for the type of work?
Haha, sorry. I do financial analysis for prospective investments and structure and execute deals on a client-by-client basis. I present potential investments to the committees of our managed funds, who then decide if they would like to include the investment in their portfolios. I’m not sure if this would be considered sell side, buy side, or a little of both. I will also begin sourcing investments if I become an associate soon.
By exeptional credentials I mean people who come from some of the best IB firms and with the specific background we require (languages, international experience, etc.)
The problem is you’re focusing on the things in life that don’t really matter. When I was a kid I had hopes and dreams. We all did. But over time, the daily grind gets in the way and you miss the things that really matter, even though they are right in front of you, staring you in the face. I think the next time you should ask yourself “Am I on the right track here?”. I don’t mean to be rude but people like you I really pity. So maybe you could use the few brain cells you have and take advantage of the knowledge I have given you now. Good luck.
I had the exact opposite philosophy. i didn’t really care that much about my salary as long as I was learning something in my job. but when i had kids and that mountain of unfunded liabilities was staring me in the face i decided it was time to start fighting for higher comp.
Ok. Thank you for clarifying. “Below market” is a subjective definition. However, I honestly cannot imagine a company attracting 30-year-old former IB people from the “best” firms without paying them $300k or higher. Obviously, your current compensation would be lower than this, since you are an analyst at this point. But if I had to guess from my (potentially misguided) perspective, I would guess that an analyst/associate 1 in that same firm would be paid at least twice as much as what you are currently getting.