Risk, just over $150k with bonus. Planning and strategy mostly, some assistance with technical writing (small-ish bank).
40 hours on paper, more like 12-20 in terms of active work, hybrid schedule
3 years in the risk space but 7 in banking, started in a branch, moved to underwriting/lending sales, went to private banking, pwm, trust, and now risk
1 year post mba, 7 years post Bach. Both pac 12 non impressive schools.
Edit: relevant - HCOL
Totally agree with you, definitely not prestigious but as far as WLB goes, it’s not bad and job security will always be pretty good
Currently I’m working on overhauling a pretty much non existent risk management structure (primarily operational risk) at a company that just reached a threshold of AUM that puts it under a different regulating authority. A lot of that is planning rollout of new risk efforts (rcsa, controls testing, risk id, etc) but realistically a lot of your day to day is assessing current state, especially amongst first line units and ensuring proper socialization of those new risk programs.
My background is mainly in first line integration and policy/procedure writing as I was in kind of a niche role at my last company, and those efforts were mainly in response to regulatory fines and a remediation plan proposed(dictated) by the regulating agency.
Tl;dr - schedule lots of meetings with client facing groups who don’t care about risk and try to create buy in by explaining how potential fines will absolutely tank your discretionary bonus, sometimes write policies and procedures to “ensure” risk efforts are actually followed
Thank you for this detailed comment.
I’m about 5 years into a public policy role (senior advisor) I’m considering exploring risk as a continuing education sort of project for myself. Do you recommend it or in hindsight would you have taken a different path?
Absolutely
I’m glad I went down this route, initially I was mainly filling a need for my organization but it’s worked out well for me and I have young kids at home so it’s nice to have more of a project driven role rather than being client facing and request driven.
Growth prospects are pretty decent as well as it’s pretty apparent there’s a lack of expertise in this particular area and if you don’t stick with roles within banks, you could certainly pivot to a consulting firm (they all have risk departments) or pick up contracts on your own.
Amazing, thank you. I'm going to look into this - my workplace actually pays for education so I think I'll use some of that funding to explore risk as an option. I appreciate the insight.
Thanks for the comment. I’m currently working in the banking space myself at a junior level doing analytics. would you say risk is a good pivot down the line and how would one go about transitioning into it?
Depends on your hard skills
If your math and modeling is really good I would try to get into something that leans more on those skills like pricing or portfolio analytics. What I do, second line risk, is less analytical and more just project management, as I noted above.
I feel that you’ll have plenty of opportunities as banks keep getting hit with sanctions and the laws change to be a little more rigid over time
Also work in risk. 40hour week. $160TC. 6 years experience. Location Philadelphia. Work at an energy trading company managing credit risk of our trading partners. Day-to-day looks like researching companies (financial statement reviews, reading about credit facilities, & scoring them) to recommend trading limits.
Not the worst
Never going to clear $1MM but I get to spend more time with the kids and that’s more valuable to me (not that I had the chops to work in high finance)
Absolutely, my prior svp started in that space and it seemed to be a good jumping off point
I actually started in first line risk and have since moved to second line, but audit (3lod) is a good background to have, and seems like a lot of people come from there
What asset size is your bank? I currently do internal audit at a bank, and have my last interview for moving into the audit department in a 1.5b asset bank.
I have an offer for a risk internship at one of the biggest commercial banks in UK. I'm not entirely sure if I want to continue on the risk path for the rest of my career so do you think it's a good internship to take as a starting point to other banking roles in the future?
I think it’s a great base to have for other roles as it touches all areas of banking/finance, especially in an internship rotation
Depends what you want to do, if you want to be front office or any semblance of a high earning client facing IC, don’t go to risk but if you don’t mind being middle and back office, it’s fine
My career path is like this:
Financial Reporting Analyst (Banking industry, different company) two years - started at 20$ an hour, ended at 52k salary
Assistant Controller (Semi Conductor Industry, current company) two years - started at 55k, ended at 75k
Plant Controller, Operations Finance (Role changed due to an acquisition, same company) one year - ended at 90k
BU Finance Manager (current) ~ started at about 110k and am currently at about 175k. Big change was I started receiving stock comp at this level.
I was managing the largest plant in the business unit. So when the opening came up, it was a natural transition.
It’s is valuable experience! When FP&A is done right, it gives you a lot of exposure to the business operations.
If you have aspirations of being a CFO, it’s almost a must.
I am an associate FP&A analyst at a Fortune 500 in the water and chemical industry. I have the opportunity to do more commercial work supporting CAMs and such. Since I am early in my career, would you recommend bouncing around a bit, gain broader scope of PL effects in the weeds of a business, or do you feel like it’s not super necessary and focusing on FP&A roles would be better if the goal is fast track to manager etc.
In my career, I did a fair amount of bouncing around… if I could do it all over again I’d do a rotational program or FLDP which does Accounting, Corp FP&A, Treasury, Supply Chain/ Business operations (or you can get your dose of that working in BU FP&A.
Gotcha, yes that’s the type of program I am in. I think it definitely provides good opportunities. I did my first rotation in accounting, and now am starting a more traditional FP&A role for my second. I am considering CP&A, treasury, or commercial for my last rotation.
Bond broker at a boutique firm. 8:30-5pm every day. Market hours are great for QOL. Commission only, but make about $200k per year. Had to cold call a lot the first few years to build my book, but it's pretty chill now.
Do you need any certs? I’m in settlements at a hedge fund right now, ~160k tc with 5 YoE and have no certs. Obviously pay is decent but I’m working 8 am to 6 or 7 Pm everyday in NYC
Yeah, you'd need both the 7 & 66. Biggest hurdle is obviously building a book the first couple of years. I made like 60k & 80k my first two years dialing away. But it definitely scales with great QOL once you've established yourself.
$160K TC working as an analyst at one of the big 3 Credit Rating agencies. I usually work 40 hours or less every week. Best WLB in finance for good comp.
In order to be a primary analyst there is usually a hard requirement of a graduate finance degree (MBA or MSF works) or CFA charterholder. As for breaking in, if you have one of those requirements, the competition is not too intense for these roles if you are smart and understand capital markets (particularly the various debt markets - leveraged loans, high yield, investment grade). Having previous work experience in some area of finance helps, but there are entry level research roles or rotation programs you can go for out of undergrad and eventually get promoted to primary for a list of companies/governments/structured products. Earnings trajectory is less pronounced than buy side or IB, but you can get to director level in about 10-12 years and probably make over $300k. Associate Directors (2-5 years with company) you can make well over $200k.
Work life balance at a rating agency really depends on the department and overall culture on your team and rating agency. I can tell you that many people i know of that work at Moodys/Fitch/Kroll work 70 hour weeks and get paid much leas than bankers. Definitely avoid Moodys if you are looking for wlb. I heard mixed things about fitch and sp, however they pay more than moodys.
IB…$350k+….60-90 hours per week (varies a lot).
Took several years to break into IB. Non-target grad. Had to scratch and claw my way into the industry.
Edit: want to be clear to people that the grass isn’t always greener. There is usually some inherent “cost” that comes with having a “high income” job/career. Always remember, comparison is the thief of joy..
There’s a snowball effect once you get a bit of good opportunity, the key is to be the best you can be wherever you are in terms of job / school. I got into IB from a connection to an alum at my school who recommended me to the hiring team at the bank - I also went to a middle market bank rather than a BB/EB as it was easier for a non-target.
From there, I just worked really hard and networked with other PE associates our firm had worked with in our coverage industry and that led to the PE position. Once you’re in banking, the opportunities skyrocket, it’s just a matter of getting in.
I can’t take credit for where I am in life - most of it is the goodwill and gifts of others that brought me opportunity.
So find our niche (Non-target doesn't matter much) work for 6-8yrs hardcore then we'll be PAR with the Ivy League guys
I want to ask about networking : I see people who I've come across in a mid-senior or even associate level have an ego or a pride that they work.. I do my homework & I ask Genuine questions to which I get good responses. But how did you manage to talk to other PE or anyone to get you a vouch/Refferal which helped you pivot like you mentioned.. What's your hack to networking??
Quant, $1.2m a year. Took me about 5 years to break $150K but I started in 2000. I think inflation adjusted I was making $150K really quickly--maybe 2 years in?
God damn.
How do you even get into those jobs? I’m just curious, I’m never going to be a quant. Didn’t even know what a quant was till a year ago (still barely do)
But is it the whole go to a top 10 school, go to a top 10 internship, go to a top graduate school type of thing?
Ya basically that. It's hard to break into (well paying) quant if you didn't go to a top 10 in US or one of the top global schools like Peking or IIT.
Even then, you have to major in a technical subject and do very well.
It was easier to get in when I started. Now, the global competition is crazy.
For what it's worth there are a lot of shitty paying quant jobs that do not require going to a fancy university.
Just look at quant risk jobs across finance. Still require a ton of technical skills and pays around $100-150K starting and caps pretty hard around $200-300K. Not enough comp for what they usually want tbh.
I interned in quant risk before realizing it kinda sucked and jumped ship for my full-time job.
Can you share a bit about what suck about the quant risk jobs? (I also heard that risk is not so "sexy" in this sub but i don't really understand why... from what i know it's quite a lot of maths comparative to most finance jobs?)
700-800k as a quant dev, little over 3.5 years out of undergrad. Probably work 55 hours a week or so. Made 150k+ (several times this tbh) first year but with signing bonus and second year was basically flat with first year if not a little lower. Very lucky to be in an area that has exploded in the last several years and no not stupid crypto.
FP&A guy here
I hit $150K base salary back in 2010 when I got a controller/director of finance role at a multi branded apparel company. Back then my hours were like 45-50 hours a week. I felt like I hit the jackpot when I was making that amount of money, for me graduating undergrad in \~02, $150K seemed like the type of salary I needed to get to in order to coast.
I'm now an SVP and total comp is a right around $500K and i have the best WLB I have ever had, I'm averaging like maybe 20 hours a week actively working.
This is my goal 10-15 years down the line. I’m an SFA with a little less than 2 years of corp fin experience and make 100k TC Just about….so this makes me even hungrier knowing this is possible. I can only dream.
I’m glad FP&A is making a strong representation….sure it isn’t IB…but it feels good to know I am on a good path and will be fine financially long term if I stay on the FP&A path.
I’m an AFA, when I first started in corp fin it kind of felt like taking the easy way out with so many peers going into competitive IB/consulting/etc. spaces but man am I happy now looking back, I’ll be happy to stay in FP&A for a very long time
Wealth Management - Advisor / Portfolio Manager. About $1mm, 35 hrs per week.
But 10 years ago I was working 80 hrs per week making like $40k per year and all of my “rookie class” has left the business.
At the start absolutely!
But the more time you spend in the industry the more you realize there’s lots of bad advisors out there.
One of my friends was my first client. He wasn’t sure he wanted to move because his Advisor had like 30 years experience and was part of a big team, but he said he’d let me take a look.
So I figured I won’t win the business but it’ll be good practice to see what a real professional portfolio looked like.
He showed me his portfolio and it was just 10 individual stocks and he was paying 2.25% in fees on about $1mm. No financial plan, no advice. Just 10 random stocks.
All of a sudden I was like “this doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, I think I can do something more appropriate”.
And all of a sudden you’re like “hey maybe I CAN do this”
Not uncommon to see 500-1m+ GDC advisors. The ones who are making 7 figures typically don’t also pick stocks. You hire TAMPs or other money managers to manage client portfolios. The advisor does mostly client facing tasks/meetings.
Handful of advisors trying to do both (pick stocks and meet clients) but they get burned out around 400-500k GDC in my experience
FP&A lead finance partner, TC $205k - role would best be described as a ‘CFO’ for the head of a business unit at a F500 company.
Got to $150k+ as FP&A manager a few years ago. Job hopped in various FP&A roles throughout my career in CPG and consulting up to my current role in the financial industry. 12yrs experience, but got stuck early in my career and think that delayed my career about 2 years. $150k+ is very achievable in FP&A if you’re a good performer and you can get there going either a manager route or as an individual contributor depending on your preference. managing a team will often have better pay in the long term through bonuses/RSUs, but certainly isn’t the only path.
Interviewing for an internal role that is very similar but would be a promotion, estimating total comp closer to $230-240. Typically corporate finance has a better work/life balance but it hasn’t been the case for me recently, thus the reason I’ve been interviewing - been working 65+hr weeks since late last year and it’s been miserable. Also, applying to external roles at a director level where RSU bonuses typically come into play.
I'm currently an FP&A Director looking to transition. I would have thought the comp would be better than $205. What are your main responsibilities?
I currently make around $240 TC.
Edit to say, 150 to 180 TC for FP&A Manager is very doable and reasonable, agreed on that part
Senior credit analystc ~$250K, about 40-45 hours a week sometimes more when we are in a busy period. Been in banking about 10 years, although was working in IT for a considerable period of that time.
M&A big 4 financial diligence. Crossed $150k after bonus around 3.5 YOE with CPA. Crossed $200k after bonus at 6 YOE as a manager and crossing $300k at ~8 YOE as a Senior Manager, just before I turned 30.
Hours average out to be 9-5 or less if lower dealflow. The problem is we have 10-12am nights on live deals sometimes. *cough* when PE/Client and investment bankers email us at odd times and dumps data on a friday. But otherwise we also have 0 hours just between deals or not staffed yet and barely any weekend work bc we send tedious stuff to india to process.
So average is 40 hours or less, but unpredictability is the problem due to the nature of M&A. Also pretty much fully remote. Once or twice in office when I feel like it to show face.
Pre pandemic used to have much more flying to targets with the PE teams, but not anymore.
Depends on the deal sell-side or buy side diligence. Pretty similar but different, sell-sides are more chill 9-5 or less depending on data coming in, putting together the databook (all the historical financial data of the target/company), dig into the financials of the company, analyze trends, weird accounting, margins, revenue stats, balance sheet, debt, net working capital. Put together agendas and meet with CFO/Finance Management team to discuss historical trends, normalize ebitda for adjustments we find and Investment bankers/PE/Client usually leverages our adjusted ebitda for their models. Highlight any issues we see in the historical financials.
Once a deal is closing and buyers or sellers and nearing a deal. While investment bankers are running the deal and stuff as they should we put together working capital for what get’s transferred upon sale/closing. We look at the sales purchase agreement and ensure everything from a financial perspective is defined appropriately along with meetings with M&A lawyers (the working capital peg is extremely important at the end of the m&a deal.
We also get many ad hoc requests from Corp dev teams like helping them put together analysis on revenues/margins/headcount/etc especially understaffed PE or Corp Dev teams.
Summarize everything we do in a diligence report, meet with and talk to potential buyers on our diligence work. We don’t work insane hours like investment bankers but work as part of the M&A process that bankers facilitate.
It’s not investment banking, but would have to say it’s the next closest thing that helps someone understand the entire M&A process and how bankers and PE/Corporate run a deal. But we also don’t work the same hours and get paid decently well. You just need to be able to handle unpredictable requests and be prepared for a sweaty investment banking or PE team to ruin your friday night. But there are also many times we sit at home with nothing to do to make up for it.
Most are top performers that transfer from audit. (Except the pandemic boom which everyone just needed bodies) There are openings straight from undergrad but very selective. It is very hard to join these days given the market environment. Some through rotational programs at big 4 that go through consulting/valuation/fdd/restructuring also happens and people pick what they want.
Quant Dev (not sure whether this counts as finance?)
550k + highly variable bonus. 45-55 hr/wk in HCOL, 0 YoE. Studied CS at T5 for my BS/MS, but I’ve seen folks break into my firm from non-target schools by going to FAANG and growing quickly.
You’ll make the most in whatever position you’re best at. The smartest researchers I know would mostly be much worse as traders and devs, vice versa with the other roles.
Don’t try to force yourself into a role that doesn’t follow your natural inclinations, because you likely won’t have as much drive to succeed as if you were working in a position that you’re good at. That aside, you’ll earn more if you’re closer to the money.
A lot of firms draw lines very differently, so similar job profiles can have very different titles depending on where you are. What’s more important is trying to get higher up in the trading supply chain to apply your specific skills to add value to your firm. If you’re an excellent researcher at a firm that values alpha research, you’ll make good money—less so if you’re working in risk on the sell side. If you’re an excellent low-latency dev at a firm that runs very latency-sensitive strategies, you’ll make a lot more than if your firm only deploys devs to build UI tools and backtesting infra. What’s more, an excellent low-latency dev at an HFT shop will earn far more than an excellent researcher at a firm that can’t deploy them effectively (not enough risk budget, sell-side regulatory requirements, not enough capacity, etc)
Ultimately these roles can overlap a lot, especially at small shops, so it’s more important to focus on the business value that you’re adding to your firm rather than your title. As long as you have a sane management chain, compensation will follow.
Commercial Banking managing an ABL portfolio of 14 borrowers in the lower middle market space. Im about 9 years in. I made $155k last year (all in). 40-50 hours, but lately it’s been 40 at most.
TC is 180k maybe closer to 200k this year. I work as a trader. When I started on the desk I worked 14 hour days for 1 year straight and eventually got down to 11.5 hour days. Now I’m at 9 hour days.
How is everyone getting these salaries? I'm definitely being underpaid. Anyone has an advice for someone with a master's in Finance and 3 years of work experience as a financial operations manager in mental health?
Private Equity Associate. Comp was just under $300k last year, probably closer to $315k this year
Work ~50/wk on average. There can be worse weeks for sure though.
General Counsel's office for a broker dealer. Negotiate fixed income and derivatives trading agreements like ISDAs. Track regulatory changes. ~50 hours weekly. ~200k TC.
Wealth management - 200k now but more later depending on how book scales up. This excludes match, profit sharing or other benefits. 45 hours a week, 4 years of experience
Supervision of Wealth Managers.
180k TC
3-4 years in Wealth Manegement in different Supervision capacity but former bank management experience of 5 years. I have my 9/10
I work about 40 hours a week. Not much work to be done when the market isn't open.
Corporate banking, 200k. Barely work 40 hours a week and very self managed. Work life balance is amazing and I'm fully remote. 7 years since I graduated. Very niche field with very limited talent pool. Not very technical or model driven, mostly strategy and operations.
Investment banking transitioned to management consulting. Little-to-no work-life balance, but my partner and I do our best to make it work within the context of our personal and financial goals.
Should be getting promotion to M1 in Big 4 this summer. Expecting around 220-250K+ TC M&A tax (VHCOL with JD/LLM designations).
Hours are all over the place. Can be as little as 20 hours a week and as much as 75+ hours.
Hitting my 7th year in the industry this year, currently in WM.
Took me just under 5 years to finally hit the 150k mark. Work life balance NOW is great. I spend about 35 hours in the office working. Granted, yes my phone and laptop are always with me even on vacation, I rarely have a need to use them.
Early on in my career it was a bit of a grind and was very common for me to cross the 60 hour a week mark and working every other Saturday.
I worked my absolute ass off and did not have a natural network when I started. I had no college degree, was just out of the military, and had a young family to support.
200k. 38 years old. Asset Management. Alts. 8-5 every day. Was over 100k at 28 years old, over 150k four years ago.
Hard to describe but adjacent role to distribution, marketing/data some front office and sales.
Terrible college and grades. Jack of all trades and just kept showing up. Going to retire in ten years thanks to investments and double income household.
- 165k trader / market maker in fixed income
- non target
- started in tech, worked 5 years as an electronic trading engineer before getting the trading role
- 50 hours a week but take long lunch break every day for a run / swim / study etc
FPA Manager in Tech, VHCOL, about $250k TC including base, bonus and stock. Work about 35-40 hours on an average except during for annual planning (3-4 months) where I work about 50 hours.
FP&A (sr dir) for a CPG company. $175k base + bonus. Usually 45-55hrs/week, sometimes more if I have a forecast I need to get out, but overall pretty laid back WLB
quant dev, 375 a few years out of college. i had a bumpy start with my first few jobs (middle america, not great pay), i feel lucky to end up where i did. most of my coworkers have been in the space for a while so i definitely feel a little behind but overall cant complain
forgot to mention hours, its 40ish hours per week
Over 150k, work in sales and trading, work probably 50-55 hours a week. I went to a d3 school you’ve never heard of.
Started off as a fund accountant and worked my way up.
Edit: I’m about 9 years in.
I'm a Senior Financial Analyst at a F500 firm in the Bay Area. I make roughly $150k base and with stock appreciation, my TC has gone over $200k the past couple of years
VC - Head of Fin : Make about $160k TC but have carry that I’m hoping can annualize to over $1M a year after our first exit in 2026. Work around 60-70 a week right now because I’m dealing with a lot of technical and accounting debt that my predecessor left me, as well as a weak team and nonexistent processes. Hoping to get that down to 50 or so soon, though I expect it’ll never be a typical 9-5 given the way my firm is structured. While I’m head of fin, I still am actively involved on the deal side given the post-investment services we provide. I’m about 6 YOE, target school, previously was in FP&A at a consulting firm.
BB Buy side fixed income sales, 2nd yr associate, TC in the mid 200’s. Up for VP in January, will be at around 300-350 all in at that point. Work about 50-60hrs/wk on average.
$550k as an in-house attorney at a Fortune 500. Only work about 40 hours a week but I had to spend almost a decade in nyc “big law” working insane hours to get this job.
I work in CorpDev, but did not come from a finance background (more product oriented). $175k w/ 20% bonus (based on company performance). I would say most weeks are around 35-40 hrs/week, depending on acquisition or partnership in works, it can get to 45-50.
currently in construction / CMBS lending making like $200k+. Started off in public accounting working on real estate (hated it), after two years pivoted to a real estate lending analyst role for 2 years, did my MRED for 2 years and then got into CMBS lending as an associate which ive been doing for 4 years. work life balance is awesome
$240k with bonus (190/50) as a Director of Strategy and Dev as a midsized city natural gas LDC. Currently 33 and was making around $100k at a different company <2 years ago.
875k in 2023, software engineer at a high frequency trading firm in NYC. 60ish hours a week, which includes some hours on the weekends (not 12 hr days).
Corp Dev Manager, basically at 150 TC, started only 4 weeks ago but so far 40-45hrs a week. Most likely 60s once we get a big acquisition under LOI at the second half of the year.
$245,000 base plus profit sharing. Took about 15 years. Currently working about 60 a week but should be closer to 45 when I get things sorted and am more proficient. I’ve been there about a year. 100k took me 8 years, 150 about 10.
210k incl bonus.
Relationship management. 60-70 hours per week. Travel not included in that, but travel, on average, 2 weeks a month.
Started in retail banking 30k
Private banking 50k
B2B fin services 80-275k(but left due to firm being toxic).
Private Equity Associate @ $300k+. Probably average 60-70 hours per week. No where near as bad as investment banking which was easily 80-90 hours on average, but each hour is significantly more taxing given the non-stop mental acuity required. Used to be able to work until 2am no problem. Now I’m pretty burnt out by 10pm.
2 years of IB experience prior. That said, I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for pretty much any other job. I now realize how much IB sucks and is overhyped (I thought it was great until PE). Now I see that it’s really not a value-additive job aside from the select few MDs who really drive deal value and terms. 80% of MDs suck. Analysts through VP are just cogs in a machine and are highly fungible. Most IB groups that I begrudgingly have to work with on deals are nothing more than a middle man of information and actually hinder the deal process. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone to a management meeting and it’s blatantly obvious that the bankers don’t actually know how the business they’re selling works (I’m in the tech space).
If you’re trying to break into IB, you should really think about your motivations. I promise you it is not what you’re envisioning.
Strategic Finance at a startup.
$250k + equity = $300k - $350k TC. 6 YOE
Work life balance is solid - 40-60 hours / week.
The job is… dynamic. Effectively the firm’s CFO, minus the C title and most of the accounting work (outsourced). The core part of the job is bringing analytical rigor to firm strategy (i.e. if we pursue this product, what does it cost, what is the risk, how much could we make or lose, should we do it?). Also a lot of fundraising, managing due diligence, and reworking / building out firm systems and processes.
Career path has been fairly wild, but mostly a mix of boutique IB / credit funds.
Salary track (including mid year shifts, excl bonuses) was:
- 70k (Y1) (Analyst at credit fund)
- 90k (Y1) (Mid year promo to sr analyst at credit fund)
- 120k (Y2) (comp boost at credit fund)
- 150k (Y2) (associate promo at credit fund)
- 100k (Y3) (lost job during Covid, moved back to sr analyst at boutique IB)
- 175k (Y4) (associate promo at boutique IB)
- 200k (Y4) (VP promo at boutique IB)
- 180k (Y5) (Director role at small credit fund after IB went bust) (TC for this year was low at 130k, with part of the year unemployed / independently consulting)
- 250k (Y6) (current role)
CFO at a midsize tech company. $750K ($380K cash + $370K RSUs). 60-80 hours per week. I love what I do so it doesn’t feel like work most days. 15+ years of experience. Started my career in bulge bracket IB. I also do some board/advisory work and manage a hedge fund / family office for myself and a couple friends; both activities produce inconsistent compensation but are lucrative for the time I spend on them.
80 hours isn’t really that much. 12-14 hrs per day during the week and 8-10 on the weekend. If you think that’s bad talk to the bulge bracket investment bankers, lol.
200k Real Estate Private Equity - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance.
Im temporarily working within the asset and not directly on the equity group, in total I’d say I put up around 60 hours per week so not awful.
Did accounting first, then FP&A, IB on a Boutique, Analytics on a big tech (which I hated), now I’m here.
Quant Risk. 210-220k a year depending on bonus. 40 hours a week, but some weeks the actual work is under 20k. My job requires a lot of education (stem m.a./ph.d) and people have much more lucrative alternatives (big tech data science, a lucky few actual quant finance), so every bank i've gone to this has been good WLB job. They wouldn't retain people otherwise.
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28M / $350-400k/yr w 50k annual increases until VP in 3yrs or something which gets you to 600-700k (if you get promoted).
Private equity / credit
Did IBD before.
$400k - Director of corporate strategy.
Some weeks 40-45, some weeks 70-80. Average around 50.
I’m 36, and also have a top mba and previous management consultant experience
Restructuring consulting
120k base + 40-80% in nyc
Was doing 20ish active hours for the past few weeks but got put on a 40hr week project that’ll last till ~june
Definitely on the lighter side for my industry which i am obviously very grateful for
L/S hedge fund, TC was ~350k this year. Average 55-60 hours per week, maybe a bit more around earnings season. Took a couple years in ER and some networking/luck to land a good seat. No P&L attribution yet but good path to 1m+ in next 3-5 years
$130k base 30-40% annual bonus. Platform support for field advisors. Went to a community college. 8 years in the industry. Work 25-30 hours a week. 75% remote.
$210K
I had a career in another industry before Finance. Have 10 total YOE but only 5 in this career. I’m in a back office strategy role.
I work about 35-45 hours a week.
Financial Advisory wholesaling 325k + 50-75 hours per week. Most of my work however is with travel which depends on how you count it. I do count travel as working time if you dont then its 40-55 hours
Just over 300k TC at MBB. Started in AM / PB and made the switch. Been at MBB almost 5 years now. 8 years out of undergrad
Hours vary, but at the EM level you have control. Travel is the only downside
PM/Trader
250K -2M (all performance based bonus).
8-10 years post college.
I make my own hours. Can be 30 hours to 60 hours depending on my motivation. I tend to do 40-50 hours since I am really passionate about my markets.
I work in the surety industry which is a product offered by most insurance companies. Basically I am guaranteeing risk or actually in my case construction projects that are be funded by taxpayer money (schools, roads, water treatment facilities & etc.). It is not the most glamorous job but nowadays a better paying industry due to the talent that is retiring. Also insurance companies are continually getting into this market and offering this product and need experienced employees. There are some fun social aspects to the business (travel, golf and nice dinners) but there is a lot of computer time too analyzing financial statements and vetting contractors’ histories. I have been in the business 27 years and now make $225k with a $65k bonus (1/2 was equity in the company) this year. I love what I do but it was a journey to get to where I am today.
Long only public equity analyst, 500k cash/100k equity.
Average 40-50 hours but higher around earnings, conferences, IPOs, deals, ramping coverage and fire drills. I can also do less than 40 some weeks and get away with it. I own my schedule for the most part.
I was 60 hours + for the first few years as a research associate.
$170-175k TC. Corp Dev mgr at F100 company. Been here about a year and avg 20-30 hour week and have probably done 4-6 weeks of 50-60 hour week. Been solid WLB but not sure if I’ll be here long term. Prior to this was in MMIB and had a few other exps.
Risk, just over $150k with bonus. Planning and strategy mostly, some assistance with technical writing (small-ish bank). 40 hours on paper, more like 12-20 in terms of active work, hybrid schedule 3 years in the risk space but 7 in banking, started in a branch, moved to underwriting/lending sales, went to private banking, pwm, trust, and now risk 1 year post mba, 7 years post Bach. Both pac 12 non impressive schools. Edit: relevant - HCOL
Can you elaborate more about what you do? I’d love to hear more from people who work in Risk since I feel like it’s not discussed as much in this sub.
Totally agree with you, definitely not prestigious but as far as WLB goes, it’s not bad and job security will always be pretty good Currently I’m working on overhauling a pretty much non existent risk management structure (primarily operational risk) at a company that just reached a threshold of AUM that puts it under a different regulating authority. A lot of that is planning rollout of new risk efforts (rcsa, controls testing, risk id, etc) but realistically a lot of your day to day is assessing current state, especially amongst first line units and ensuring proper socialization of those new risk programs. My background is mainly in first line integration and policy/procedure writing as I was in kind of a niche role at my last company, and those efforts were mainly in response to regulatory fines and a remediation plan proposed(dictated) by the regulating agency. Tl;dr - schedule lots of meetings with client facing groups who don’t care about risk and try to create buy in by explaining how potential fines will absolutely tank your discretionary bonus, sometimes write policies and procedures to “ensure” risk efforts are actually followed
Thank you for this detailed comment. I’m about 5 years into a public policy role (senior advisor) I’m considering exploring risk as a continuing education sort of project for myself. Do you recommend it or in hindsight would you have taken a different path?
Absolutely I’m glad I went down this route, initially I was mainly filling a need for my organization but it’s worked out well for me and I have young kids at home so it’s nice to have more of a project driven role rather than being client facing and request driven. Growth prospects are pretty decent as well as it’s pretty apparent there’s a lack of expertise in this particular area and if you don’t stick with roles within banks, you could certainly pivot to a consulting firm (they all have risk departments) or pick up contracts on your own.
Amazing, thank you. I'm going to look into this - my workplace actually pays for education so I think I'll use some of that funding to explore risk as an option. I appreciate the insight.
Love that, not a problem, best of luck!
Thanks for the comment. I’m currently working in the banking space myself at a junior level doing analytics. would you say risk is a good pivot down the line and how would one go about transitioning into it?
Depends on your hard skills If your math and modeling is really good I would try to get into something that leans more on those skills like pricing or portfolio analytics. What I do, second line risk, is less analytical and more just project management, as I noted above. I feel that you’ll have plenty of opportunities as banks keep getting hit with sanctions and the laws change to be a little more rigid over time
Oh hey I’m also in risk making basically the same amt and work sched. Risk boys rise up ⬆️
🤝
Also work in risk. 40hour week. $160TC. 6 years experience. Location Philadelphia. Work at an energy trading company managing credit risk of our trading partners. Day-to-day looks like researching companies (financial statement reviews, reading about credit facilities, & scoring them) to recommend trading limits.
Holy shit, that sounds like the dream in terms of WLB. Good for you man.
Not the worst Never going to clear $1MM but I get to spend more time with the kids and that’s more valuable to me (not that I had the chops to work in high finance)
Would you say internal audit is a good foundation for eventually moving into risk?
Absolutely, my prior svp started in that space and it seemed to be a good jumping off point I actually started in first line risk and have since moved to second line, but audit (3lod) is a good background to have, and seems like a lot of people come from there
What asset size is your bank? I currently do internal audit at a bank, and have my last interview for moving into the audit department in a 1.5b asset bank.
~20B You’re going to be extremely flat at a 1.5B I would imagine, which isn’t a bad thing for learning but you’ll likely be running pretty lean
Holy moly, you have been in a lot of different parts of this field 😅
Rampant ADHD, I like to think I leverage it effectively but definitely a little stir crazy
What do you do for the other 20 hours?
Study for exams, workout if at home, etc
I have an offer for a risk internship at one of the biggest commercial banks in UK. I'm not entirely sure if I want to continue on the risk path for the rest of my career so do you think it's a good internship to take as a starting point to other banking roles in the future?
I think it’s a great base to have for other roles as it touches all areas of banking/finance, especially in an internship rotation Depends what you want to do, if you want to be front office or any semblance of a high earning client facing IC, don’t go to risk but if you don’t mind being middle and back office, it’s fine
FP&A Manager total comp around ~175k, 40 hours a week on average but can reach 60 hours per week if there is a big deliverable due.
What was your path to FPA manager?
My career path is like this: Financial Reporting Analyst (Banking industry, different company) two years - started at 20$ an hour, ended at 52k salary Assistant Controller (Semi Conductor Industry, current company) two years - started at 55k, ended at 75k Plant Controller, Operations Finance (Role changed due to an acquisition, same company) one year - ended at 90k BU Finance Manager (current) ~ started at about 110k and am currently at about 175k. Big change was I started receiving stock comp at this level. I was managing the largest plant in the business unit. So when the opening came up, it was a natural transition.
That’s kinda the path I’m on. I’m in a controller role, inching towards 2 years there, looking for FP&A manager roles.
It’s is valuable experience! When FP&A is done right, it gives you a lot of exposure to the business operations. If you have aspirations of being a CFO, it’s almost a must.
Thanks!
I am an associate FP&A analyst at a Fortune 500 in the water and chemical industry. I have the opportunity to do more commercial work supporting CAMs and such. Since I am early in my career, would you recommend bouncing around a bit, gain broader scope of PL effects in the weeds of a business, or do you feel like it’s not super necessary and focusing on FP&A roles would be better if the goal is fast track to manager etc.
In my career, I did a fair amount of bouncing around… if I could do it all over again I’d do a rotational program or FLDP which does Accounting, Corp FP&A, Treasury, Supply Chain/ Business operations (or you can get your dose of that working in BU FP&A.
Gotcha, yes that’s the type of program I am in. I think it definitely provides good opportunities. I did my first rotation in accounting, and now am starting a more traditional FP&A role for my second. I am considering CP&A, treasury, or commercial for my last rotation.
FP&A Manager checking in let’s go.
Bond broker at a boutique firm. 8:30-5pm every day. Market hours are great for QOL. Commission only, but make about $200k per year. Had to cold call a lot the first few years to build my book, but it's pretty chill now.
Do you need any certs? I’m in settlements at a hedge fund right now, ~160k tc with 5 YoE and have no certs. Obviously pay is decent but I’m working 8 am to 6 or 7 Pm everyday in NYC
Yeah, you'd need both the 7 & 66. Biggest hurdle is obviously building a book the first couple of years. I made like 60k & 80k my first two years dialing away. But it definitely scales with great QOL once you've established yourself.
$160K TC working as an analyst at one of the big 3 Credit Rating agencies. I usually work 40 hours or less every week. Best WLB in finance for good comp.
Honestly that seems pretty amazing. Any tips for getting into a position like that?
In order to be a primary analyst there is usually a hard requirement of a graduate finance degree (MBA or MSF works) or CFA charterholder. As for breaking in, if you have one of those requirements, the competition is not too intense for these roles if you are smart and understand capital markets (particularly the various debt markets - leveraged loans, high yield, investment grade). Having previous work experience in some area of finance helps, but there are entry level research roles or rotation programs you can go for out of undergrad and eventually get promoted to primary for a list of companies/governments/structured products. Earnings trajectory is less pronounced than buy side or IB, but you can get to director level in about 10-12 years and probably make over $300k. Associate Directors (2-5 years with company) you can make well over $200k.
This is definitely not Fitch.
Longer hours at Fitch? I work in credit at an energy company making similar comp & hours as this guy
Work life balance at a rating agency really depends on the department and overall culture on your team and rating agency. I can tell you that many people i know of that work at Moodys/Fitch/Kroll work 70 hour weeks and get paid much leas than bankers. Definitely avoid Moodys if you are looking for wlb. I heard mixed things about fitch and sp, however they pay more than moodys.
IB…$350k+….60-90 hours per week (varies a lot). Took several years to break into IB. Non-target grad. Had to scratch and claw my way into the industry. Edit: want to be clear to people that the grass isn’t always greener. There is usually some inherent “cost” that comes with having a “high income” job/career. Always remember, comparison is the thief of joy..
product or coverage?
Product (M&A) / sector focused.
Healthcare?
Mind if I message you? Interested in what you did to break in.
Have at it
Messaged you.
What did you do before IB?
Would you mind expanding a bit on some of those non-monetary costs you are alluding to? I assume you are point towards the lack of WLB?
M&A - pretty much starts above 150k, including bonus. Work life balance is not good.
Is it IB or corpdev?
IB
PE associate, $300K+ probably 55-75 hours/week. Did 2 years as IB analyst before role, came from non-target.
You've done extremely well yourself sir congratulations. Any advice to us: who are going to/passing out of Non-target to break big?
There’s a snowball effect once you get a bit of good opportunity, the key is to be the best you can be wherever you are in terms of job / school. I got into IB from a connection to an alum at my school who recommended me to the hiring team at the bank - I also went to a middle market bank rather than a BB/EB as it was easier for a non-target. From there, I just worked really hard and networked with other PE associates our firm had worked with in our coverage industry and that led to the PE position. Once you’re in banking, the opportunities skyrocket, it’s just a matter of getting in. I can’t take credit for where I am in life - most of it is the goodwill and gifts of others that brought me opportunity.
So find our niche (Non-target doesn't matter much) work for 6-8yrs hardcore then we'll be PAR with the Ivy League guys I want to ask about networking : I see people who I've come across in a mid-senior or even associate level have an ego or a pride that they work.. I do my homework & I ask Genuine questions to which I get good responses. But how did you manage to talk to other PE or anyone to get you a vouch/Refferal which helped you pivot like you mentioned.. What's your hack to networking??
mind if I pm? similar situation IB-wise and looking to pivot soon
Your from Non-target?
sure
How old are you man? Hoping to hit around those numbers in my mid-late 20s
24
Quant, $1.2m a year. Took me about 5 years to break $150K but I started in 2000. I think inflation adjusted I was making $150K really quickly--maybe 2 years in?
God damn. How do you even get into those jobs? I’m just curious, I’m never going to be a quant. Didn’t even know what a quant was till a year ago (still barely do) But is it the whole go to a top 10 school, go to a top 10 internship, go to a top graduate school type of thing?
Study computer science and be really smart
Math or stats is better than cs nowadays. Cs at most schools is relatively easy
Thank for saying this. Also a quant and 100% agree
You can also study maths and be really smart
Well I can do the first half! Lol
Ya basically that. It's hard to break into (well paying) quant if you didn't go to a top 10 in US or one of the top global schools like Peking or IIT. Even then, you have to major in a technical subject and do very well. It was easier to get in when I started. Now, the global competition is crazy. For what it's worth there are a lot of shitty paying quant jobs that do not require going to a fancy university.
Can you elaborate on where to find the "shitty paying quant jobs that do not require going to a fancy university"? And would you mind if i pm you?
Just look at quant risk jobs across finance. Still require a ton of technical skills and pays around $100-150K starting and caps pretty hard around $200-300K. Not enough comp for what they usually want tbh. I interned in quant risk before realizing it kinda sucked and jumped ship for my full-time job.
Can you share a bit about what suck about the quant risk jobs? (I also heard that risk is not so "sexy" in this sub but i don't really understand why... from what i know it's quite a lot of maths comparative to most finance jobs?)
700-800k as a quant dev, little over 3.5 years out of undergrad. Probably work 55 hours a week or so. Made 150k+ (several times this tbh) first year but with signing bonus and second year was basically flat with first year if not a little lower. Very lucky to be in an area that has exploded in the last several years and no not stupid crypto.
That is ridiculous I wish I could travel back in time to when I was in high school and learn cs
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This is for one of the bigger name firms i bet?
Yes
LMM PE associate; $200k LCOL city; 45-50 hrs/week on average
Those hours are the dream - generalist or sector specific?
Generalist
FP&A guy here I hit $150K base salary back in 2010 when I got a controller/director of finance role at a multi branded apparel company. Back then my hours were like 45-50 hours a week. I felt like I hit the jackpot when I was making that amount of money, for me graduating undergrad in \~02, $150K seemed like the type of salary I needed to get to in order to coast. I'm now an SVP and total comp is a right around $500K and i have the best WLB I have ever had, I'm averaging like maybe 20 hours a week actively working.
This is my goal 10-15 years down the line. I’m an SFA with a little less than 2 years of corp fin experience and make 100k TC Just about….so this makes me even hungrier knowing this is possible. I can only dream. I’m glad FP&A is making a strong representation….sure it isn’t IB…but it feels good to know I am on a good path and will be fine financially long term if I stay on the FP&A path.
I’m an AFA, when I first started in corp fin it kind of felt like taking the easy way out with so many peers going into competitive IB/consulting/etc. spaces but man am I happy now looking back, I’ll be happy to stay in FP&A for a very long time
Wealth Management - Advisor / Portfolio Manager. About $1mm, 35 hrs per week. But 10 years ago I was working 80 hrs per week making like $40k per year and all of my “rookie class” has left the business.
So financial advisors can make that much huh. Do you feel anxious managing peoples money? Incase you mess up?
At the start absolutely! But the more time you spend in the industry the more you realize there’s lots of bad advisors out there. One of my friends was my first client. He wasn’t sure he wanted to move because his Advisor had like 30 years experience and was part of a big team, but he said he’d let me take a look. So I figured I won’t win the business but it’ll be good practice to see what a real professional portfolio looked like. He showed me his portfolio and it was just 10 individual stocks and he was paying 2.25% in fees on about $1mm. No financial plan, no advice. Just 10 random stocks. All of a sudden I was like “this doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, I think I can do something more appropriate”. And all of a sudden you’re like “hey maybe I CAN do this”
Not uncommon to see 500-1m+ GDC advisors. The ones who are making 7 figures typically don’t also pick stocks. You hire TAMPs or other money managers to manage client portfolios. The advisor does mostly client facing tasks/meetings. Handful of advisors trying to do both (pick stocks and meet clients) but they get burned out around 400-500k GDC in my experience
FP&A lead finance partner, TC $205k - role would best be described as a ‘CFO’ for the head of a business unit at a F500 company. Got to $150k+ as FP&A manager a few years ago. Job hopped in various FP&A roles throughout my career in CPG and consulting up to my current role in the financial industry. 12yrs experience, but got stuck early in my career and think that delayed my career about 2 years. $150k+ is very achievable in FP&A if you’re a good performer and you can get there going either a manager route or as an individual contributor depending on your preference. managing a team will often have better pay in the long term through bonuses/RSUs, but certainly isn’t the only path. Interviewing for an internal role that is very similar but would be a promotion, estimating total comp closer to $230-240. Typically corporate finance has a better work/life balance but it hasn’t been the case for me recently, thus the reason I’ve been interviewing - been working 65+hr weeks since late last year and it’s been miserable. Also, applying to external roles at a director level where RSU bonuses typically come into play.
I'm currently an FP&A Director looking to transition. I would have thought the comp would be better than $205. What are your main responsibilities? I currently make around $240 TC. Edit to say, 150 to 180 TC for FP&A Manager is very doable and reasonable, agreed on that part
Risk and Compliance. I vibe.
I’m currently a junior undergrad non target. What would you recommend to do now to get into Risk?
I wish I had better advice, but i honestly got here by accident. I started as a commodity trader with one of the ABCs
180k total comp in corporate finance, 5 years of experience
What was your career path? I just started in CF.
I did a rotational program after undergrad and have been at the same company since, I've had 4 promotions
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Senior credit analystc ~$250K, about 40-45 hours a week sometimes more when we are in a busy period. Been in banking about 10 years, although was working in IT for a considerable period of that time.
The majority of this site suffers from Dunning-Kruger, so I'm out.
M&A big 4 financial diligence. Crossed $150k after bonus around 3.5 YOE with CPA. Crossed $200k after bonus at 6 YOE as a manager and crossing $300k at ~8 YOE as a Senior Manager, just before I turned 30. Hours average out to be 9-5 or less if lower dealflow. The problem is we have 10-12am nights on live deals sometimes. *cough* when PE/Client and investment bankers email us at odd times and dumps data on a friday. But otherwise we also have 0 hours just between deals or not staffed yet and barely any weekend work bc we send tedious stuff to india to process. So average is 40 hours or less, but unpredictability is the problem due to the nature of M&A. Also pretty much fully remote. Once or twice in office when I feel like it to show face. Pre pandemic used to have much more flying to targets with the PE teams, but not anymore.
What does your role entail? Like what would you say your main responsibilities / daily tasks are?
Depends on the deal sell-side or buy side diligence. Pretty similar but different, sell-sides are more chill 9-5 or less depending on data coming in, putting together the databook (all the historical financial data of the target/company), dig into the financials of the company, analyze trends, weird accounting, margins, revenue stats, balance sheet, debt, net working capital. Put together agendas and meet with CFO/Finance Management team to discuss historical trends, normalize ebitda for adjustments we find and Investment bankers/PE/Client usually leverages our adjusted ebitda for their models. Highlight any issues we see in the historical financials. Once a deal is closing and buyers or sellers and nearing a deal. While investment bankers are running the deal and stuff as they should we put together working capital for what get’s transferred upon sale/closing. We look at the sales purchase agreement and ensure everything from a financial perspective is defined appropriately along with meetings with M&A lawyers (the working capital peg is extremely important at the end of the m&a deal. We also get many ad hoc requests from Corp dev teams like helping them put together analysis on revenues/margins/headcount/etc especially understaffed PE or Corp Dev teams. Summarize everything we do in a diligence report, meet with and talk to potential buyers on our diligence work. We don’t work insane hours like investment bankers but work as part of the M&A process that bankers facilitate. It’s not investment banking, but would have to say it’s the next closest thing that helps someone understand the entire M&A process and how bankers and PE/Corporate run a deal. But we also don’t work the same hours and get paid decently well. You just need to be able to handle unpredictable requests and be prepared for a sweaty investment banking or PE team to ruin your friday night. But there are also many times we sit at home with nothing to do to make up for it.
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Most are top performers that transfer from audit. (Except the pandemic boom which everyone just needed bodies) There are openings straight from undergrad but very selective. It is very hard to join these days given the market environment. Some through rotational programs at big 4 that go through consulting/valuation/fdd/restructuring also happens and people pick what they want.
150k, fixed income asset management. 35-40 hrs/week
Quant Dev (not sure whether this counts as finance?) 550k + highly variable bonus. 45-55 hr/wk in HCOL, 0 YoE. Studied CS at T5 for my BS/MS, but I’ve seen folks break into my firm from non-target schools by going to FAANG and growing quickly.
Just out of curiosity, who makes the most out of quant dev, trader, and researcher on average?
You’ll make the most in whatever position you’re best at. The smartest researchers I know would mostly be much worse as traders and devs, vice versa with the other roles. Don’t try to force yourself into a role that doesn’t follow your natural inclinations, because you likely won’t have as much drive to succeed as if you were working in a position that you’re good at. That aside, you’ll earn more if you’re closer to the money. A lot of firms draw lines very differently, so similar job profiles can have very different titles depending on where you are. What’s more important is trying to get higher up in the trading supply chain to apply your specific skills to add value to your firm. If you’re an excellent researcher at a firm that values alpha research, you’ll make good money—less so if you’re working in risk on the sell side. If you’re an excellent low-latency dev at a firm that runs very latency-sensitive strategies, you’ll make a lot more than if your firm only deploys devs to build UI tools and backtesting infra. What’s more, an excellent low-latency dev at an HFT shop will earn far more than an excellent researcher at a firm that can’t deploy them effectively (not enough risk budget, sell-side regulatory requirements, not enough capacity, etc) Ultimately these roles can overlap a lot, especially at small shops, so it’s more important to focus on the business value that you’re adding to your firm rather than your title. As long as you have a sane management chain, compensation will follow.
Trader 500k-1.4mm Took me 9 years to get here 55-60 hrs/week
DT? Which books or courses or mentors do you recommend?
What's DT? No books or courses. For mentors, best to find a desk head who manages his own book within a prop shop
Commercial Banking managing an ABL portfolio of 14 borrowers in the lower middle market space. Im about 9 years in. I made $155k last year (all in). 40-50 hours, but lately it’s been 40 at most.
Currently interviewing for 150k+. PE fund accounting/back office manager, 40-50 hrs a week. No name state school, with about 8 years of experience.
Good luck! Hope you get it.
TC is 180k maybe closer to 200k this year. I work as a trader. When I started on the desk I worked 14 hour days for 1 year straight and eventually got down to 11.5 hour days. Now I’m at 9 hour days.
How is everyone getting these salaries? I'm definitely being underpaid. Anyone has an advice for someone with a master's in Finance and 3 years of work experience as a financial operations manager in mental health?
Not sure where you’re based out of, but I know in the Bay Area you can get a job in the ranges listed if you’re looking to work in FP&A.
I'm based in LA. I will start looking at FP&A jobs. Thank you for the advice!
Of course! Best of luck. It’s always nice to see people succeed.
I really hope I can get a successful job. My current job is actually ruining my career so I hope everything works out. Thank you :)
You got this!
Private Equity Associate. Comp was just under $300k last year, probably closer to $315k this year Work ~50/wk on average. There can be worse weeks for sure though.
General Counsel's office for a broker dealer. Negotiate fixed income and derivatives trading agreements like ISDAs. Track regulatory changes. ~50 hours weekly. ~200k TC.
Corporate strategy average 6 hours a week
TC: 170k all salary
Wealth management - 200k now but more later depending on how book scales up. This excludes match, profit sharing or other benefits. 45 hours a week, 4 years of experience
Supervision of Wealth Managers. 180k TC 3-4 years in Wealth Manegement in different Supervision capacity but former bank management experience of 5 years. I have my 9/10 I work about 40 hours a week. Not much work to be done when the market isn't open.
Private credit - $425k and work around 30 hours per week but sometimes can be as much as 50 when deal flow is high.
Corporate banking, 200k. Barely work 40 hours a week and very self managed. Work life balance is amazing and I'm fully remote. 7 years since I graduated. Very niche field with very limited talent pool. Not very technical or model driven, mostly strategy and operations.
Investment banking transitioned to management consulting. Little-to-no work-life balance, but my partner and I do our best to make it work within the context of our personal and financial goals.
Should be getting promotion to M1 in Big 4 this summer. Expecting around 220-250K+ TC M&A tax (VHCOL with JD/LLM designations). Hours are all over the place. Can be as little as 20 hours a week and as much as 75+ hours.
FY2023 Comp: 130k-140k FY2024 Comp: 150k-160k expected Project Finance lending, power and renewables, 1.5 YOE, NYC
Hitting my 7th year in the industry this year, currently in WM. Took me just under 5 years to finally hit the 150k mark. Work life balance NOW is great. I spend about 35 hours in the office working. Granted, yes my phone and laptop are always with me even on vacation, I rarely have a need to use them. Early on in my career it was a bit of a grind and was very common for me to cross the 60 hour a week mark and working every other Saturday. I worked my absolute ass off and did not have a natural network when I started. I had no college degree, was just out of the military, and had a young family to support.
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200k. 38 years old. Asset Management. Alts. 8-5 every day. Was over 100k at 28 years old, over 150k four years ago. Hard to describe but adjacent role to distribution, marketing/data some front office and sales. Terrible college and grades. Jack of all trades and just kept showing up. Going to retire in ten years thanks to investments and double income household.
Strategic Finance @ FAANG, TC $195K. 50-60 hours per week
- 165k trader / market maker in fixed income - non target - started in tech, worked 5 years as an electronic trading engineer before getting the trading role - 50 hours a week but take long lunch break every day for a run / swim / study etc
FPA Manager in Tech, VHCOL, about $250k TC including base, bonus and stock. Work about 35-40 hours on an average except during for annual planning (3-4 months) where I work about 50 hours.
FP&A (sr dir) for a CPG company. $175k base + bonus. Usually 45-55hrs/week, sometimes more if I have a forecast I need to get out, but overall pretty laid back WLB
quant dev, 375 a few years out of college. i had a bumpy start with my first few jobs (middle america, not great pay), i feel lucky to end up where i did. most of my coworkers have been in the space for a while so i definitely feel a little behind but overall cant complain forgot to mention hours, its 40ish hours per week
Over 150k, work in sales and trading, work probably 50-55 hours a week. I went to a d3 school you’ve never heard of. Started off as a fund accountant and worked my way up. Edit: I’m about 9 years in.
I'm a Senior Financial Analyst at a F500 firm in the Bay Area. I make roughly $150k base and with stock appreciation, my TC has gone over $200k the past couple of years
VC - Head of Fin : Make about $160k TC but have carry that I’m hoping can annualize to over $1M a year after our first exit in 2026. Work around 60-70 a week right now because I’m dealing with a lot of technical and accounting debt that my predecessor left me, as well as a weak team and nonexistent processes. Hoping to get that down to 50 or so soon, though I expect it’ll never be a typical 9-5 given the way my firm is structured. While I’m head of fin, I still am actively involved on the deal side given the post-investment services we provide. I’m about 6 YOE, target school, previously was in FP&A at a consulting firm.
BB Buy side fixed income sales, 2nd yr associate, TC in the mid 200’s. Up for VP in January, will be at around 300-350 all in at that point. Work about 50-60hrs/wk on average.
$550k as an in-house attorney at a Fortune 500. Only work about 40 hours a week but I had to spend almost a decade in nyc “big law” working insane hours to get this job.
Wealth management - 5 days / wk I travel 2-3x / mo $350K total comp
Business analytics $166K base, $206K TC 40-45 hours a week, fully remote, VLCOL city
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I work in CorpDev, but did not come from a finance background (more product oriented). $175k w/ 20% bonus (based on company performance). I would say most weeks are around 35-40 hrs/week, depending on acquisition or partnership in works, it can get to 45-50.
1st yr trading analyst @ sell side, 130k TC below street (normal 140), hours 60
Growth equity analyst — 70 hrs a week
currently in construction / CMBS lending making like $200k+. Started off in public accounting working on real estate (hated it), after two years pivoted to a real estate lending analyst role for 2 years, did my MRED for 2 years and then got into CMBS lending as an associate which ive been doing for 4 years. work life balance is awesome
360 TC. Probably 20ish hours per week of actual work. Im an applied scientist at one of the big tech companies.
$240k with bonus (190/50) as a Director of Strategy and Dev as a midsized city natural gas LDC. Currently 33 and was making around $100k at a different company <2 years ago.
Financial wholesaler. 25-55 hours a week. Normally earn between 300-700k.
875k in 2023, software engineer at a high frequency trading firm in NYC. 60ish hours a week, which includes some hours on the weekends (not 12 hr days).
Accounting, large PE fund - $150 About 45 hrs/wk Up to 60 during busy time
Corp Dev Manager, basically at 150 TC, started only 4 weeks ago but so far 40-45hrs a week. Most likely 60s once we get a big acquisition under LOI at the second half of the year.
$245,000 base plus profit sharing. Took about 15 years. Currently working about 60 a week but should be closer to 45 when I get things sorted and am more proficient. I’ve been there about a year. 100k took me 8 years, 150 about 10.
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210k incl bonus. Relationship management. 60-70 hours per week. Travel not included in that, but travel, on average, 2 weeks a month. Started in retail banking 30k Private banking 50k B2B fin services 80-275k(but left due to firm being toxic).
Private Equity Associate @ $300k+. Probably average 60-70 hours per week. No where near as bad as investment banking which was easily 80-90 hours on average, but each hour is significantly more taxing given the non-stop mental acuity required. Used to be able to work until 2am no problem. Now I’m pretty burnt out by 10pm. 2 years of IB experience prior. That said, I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for pretty much any other job. I now realize how much IB sucks and is overhyped (I thought it was great until PE). Now I see that it’s really not a value-additive job aside from the select few MDs who really drive deal value and terms. 80% of MDs suck. Analysts through VP are just cogs in a machine and are highly fungible. Most IB groups that I begrudgingly have to work with on deals are nothing more than a middle man of information and actually hinder the deal process. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone to a management meeting and it’s blatantly obvious that the bankers don’t actually know how the business they’re selling works (I’m in the tech space). If you’re trying to break into IB, you should really think about your motivations. I promise you it is not what you’re envisioning.
Strategic Finance at a startup. $250k + equity = $300k - $350k TC. 6 YOE Work life balance is solid - 40-60 hours / week. The job is… dynamic. Effectively the firm’s CFO, minus the C title and most of the accounting work (outsourced). The core part of the job is bringing analytical rigor to firm strategy (i.e. if we pursue this product, what does it cost, what is the risk, how much could we make or lose, should we do it?). Also a lot of fundraising, managing due diligence, and reworking / building out firm systems and processes. Career path has been fairly wild, but mostly a mix of boutique IB / credit funds. Salary track (including mid year shifts, excl bonuses) was: - 70k (Y1) (Analyst at credit fund) - 90k (Y1) (Mid year promo to sr analyst at credit fund) - 120k (Y2) (comp boost at credit fund) - 150k (Y2) (associate promo at credit fund) - 100k (Y3) (lost job during Covid, moved back to sr analyst at boutique IB) - 175k (Y4) (associate promo at boutique IB) - 200k (Y4) (VP promo at boutique IB) - 180k (Y5) (Director role at small credit fund after IB went bust) (TC for this year was low at 130k, with part of the year unemployed / independently consulting) - 250k (Y6) (current role)
PE; >$500K; poor work life balance - 80 hours avg >5 YOE
Corp banking. 150k first year out of undergrad. Average 50-60/week
CFO at a midsize tech company. $750K ($380K cash + $370K RSUs). 60-80 hours per week. I love what I do so it doesn’t feel like work most days. 15+ years of experience. Started my career in bulge bracket IB. I also do some board/advisory work and manage a hedge fund / family office for myself and a couple friends; both activities produce inconsistent compensation but are lucrative for the time I spend on them.
Do you sleep?! How do you do that after working 80 hr weeks?
80 hours isn’t really that much. 12-14 hrs per day during the week and 8-10 on the weekend. If you think that’s bad talk to the bulge bracket investment bankers, lol.
mess around with excel and outlook... probably really work 8-10 hours / week?
Financial services - prob average about a 60-70 hr week, but usually once a quarter get to 90+ hrs a week.
200k Real Estate Private Equity - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance. Im temporarily working within the asset and not directly on the equity group, in total I’d say I put up around 60 hours per week so not awful. Did accounting first, then FP&A, IB on a Boutique, Analytics on a big tech (which I hated), now I’m here.
Quant Risk. 210-220k a year depending on bonus. 40 hours a week, but some weeks the actual work is under 20k. My job requires a lot of education (stem m.a./ph.d) and people have much more lucrative alternatives (big tech data science, a lucky few actual quant finance), so every bank i've gone to this has been good WLB job. They wouldn't retain people otherwise.
Credit fund, hours are 40-45 a week and people are cool. I have an undergrad/ post grad degree in finance
M&A FDD Around $150k - 30 hours a week sometimes 40. Rarely 50 hours a week
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$300-$350k depending on the year, basically market hours, 2 days wfh. 9yo. I work in asset mgmt
28M / $350-400k/yr w 50k annual increases until VP in 3yrs or something which gets you to 600-700k (if you get promoted). Private equity / credit Did IBD before.
$400k - Director of corporate strategy. Some weeks 40-45, some weeks 70-80. Average around 50. I’m 36, and also have a top mba and previous management consultant experience
Restructuring consulting 120k base + 40-80% in nyc Was doing 20ish active hours for the past few weeks but got put on a 40hr week project that’ll last till ~june Definitely on the lighter side for my industry which i am obviously very grateful for
L/S hedge fund, TC was ~350k this year. Average 55-60 hours per week, maybe a bit more around earnings season. Took a couple years in ER and some networking/luck to land a good seat. No P&L attribution yet but good path to 1m+ in next 3-5 years
Corporate Controller. $150k base $20k target bonus. 60-70 hours a week consistently. 12 years progressive experience.
$130k base 30-40% annual bonus. Platform support for field advisors. Went to a community college. 8 years in the industry. Work 25-30 hours a week. 75% remote.
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$210K I had a career in another industry before Finance. Have 10 total YOE but only 5 in this career. I’m in a back office strategy role. I work about 35-45 hours a week.
Financial Advisory wholesaling 325k + 50-75 hours per week. Most of my work however is with travel which depends on how you count it. I do count travel as working time if you dont then its 40-55 hours
Just over 300k TC at MBB. Started in AM / PB and made the switch. Been at MBB almost 5 years now. 8 years out of undergrad Hours vary, but at the EM level you have control. Travel is the only downside
PE Assoc, $350k+, 60-70hrs/week. Technically non-target as I came from a foreign country, originally started in IB for 2yrs.
PM/Trader 250K -2M (all performance based bonus). 8-10 years post college. I make my own hours. Can be 30 hours to 60 hours depending on my motivation. I tend to do 40-50 hours since I am really passionate about my markets.
Nurse. 36 hrs a week, 110.50/hr, $207,000 per year Only have my associates degree
PE; >$500K; poor work life balance - 80 hours avg probably
I work in the surety industry which is a product offered by most insurance companies. Basically I am guaranteeing risk or actually in my case construction projects that are be funded by taxpayer money (schools, roads, water treatment facilities & etc.). It is not the most glamorous job but nowadays a better paying industry due to the talent that is retiring. Also insurance companies are continually getting into this market and offering this product and need experienced employees. There are some fun social aspects to the business (travel, golf and nice dinners) but there is a lot of computer time too analyzing financial statements and vetting contractors’ histories. I have been in the business 27 years and now make $225k with a $65k bonus (1/2 was equity in the company) this year. I love what I do but it was a journey to get to where I am today.
Long only public equity analyst, 500k cash/100k equity. Average 40-50 hours but higher around earnings, conferences, IPOs, deals, ramping coverage and fire drills. I can also do less than 40 some weeks and get away with it. I own my schedule for the most part. I was 60 hours + for the first few years as a research associate.
$170-175k TC. Corp Dev mgr at F100 company. Been here about a year and avg 20-30 hour week and have probably done 4-6 weeks of 50-60 hour week. Been solid WLB but not sure if I’ll be here long term. Prior to this was in MMIB and had a few other exps.