Investment Banking starting salary UK
What’s the average investment banking salary and bonus for someone in their 20s, 30s and 40s? And does it really make sense to quit aged 25?
How much are they getting paid?
There is a new trend afoot in investment banking. Senior banking recruiters complain that the juniors they hire today are only joining for the ‘CV points’: that they do a couple of years a big name bank and then quit for something more exciting instead. That’s a shame: if you leave banking before you’re 30, you miss out on the best of the pay.
Recruiters might want to show these juniors the charts below.
Compiled using adapted data from pay benchmarking company Emolument.com. they suggest that pay in front office investment bank jobs (sales, trading, M&A, ECM and DCM) increases rapidly if you can just stick at it beyond the age of 25.
Between 21 and 25, as you go from analyst 1 to associate 2, you can expect your pay to rise from £45k to £80k. Between 25 and 30, as you go from associate 2 to vice president (VP), you can expect your pay to rise £156k. From 30 to 35, as you go from VP to director, you can expect your pay to rise from £156k to £231k. From 35 to 40, as you go from director to managing director (MD), you can expect your pay to rise £315k. And if you stick it out and manage to become a senior MD and head of department, your pay may rise to £475k, and more.
And when banking pay increases are smoothed on an annual basis, they look like this:
Naturally, it might not happen this way. Unfortunately, you probably won’t get promoted to managing director. Goldman Sachs employs 12, 0000 VPs and promotes around 400 of them to MDs biannually. If this is the case, your pay might stick around the £250k level forever (or until you leave).
