What was your starting salary after college?

[bruce negro]

When applied for my internship it was a 4.0. Since banks usually hire around 85-90% of their full-time class from their internship class, that GPA was the only one that really mattered. Graduated with a 3.75 though.

How do they tax your bonuses?

They tax our bonuses at a little less than 50% by my estimate. My signing bonus was 10k and I received around 6k cash. Since I just started, my 70k bonus will be my year-end bonus in July. The class above me that just got their bonuses a few months ago received around 35-40k after taxes if I'm not mistaken.

Bachelors in Economics. Investment banking analyst. 70k salary + 70k bonus. Lifestyle sucks but hopefully just two years and I'll be making way more with less hours.


Edit: ~18k student debt. Went to what was basically a community college for two years so that helped.

If you don't mind me asking, what school did you go to?

Also how did you break in? I'm a freshman in college planning on transferring to another school, what is your advice for someone trying to get into investment banking?

I would answer this question right now but I'm just about to leave work and the answer to this is long as ****. I'll get back to you in the AM.

 

[bruce negro]

Bachelors in Economics. Investment banking analyst. 70k salary + 70k bonus. Lifestyle sucks but hopefully just two years and I'll be making way more with less hours.


Edit: ~18k student debt. Went to what was basically a community college for two years so that helped.

If you don't mind me asking, what school did you go to?

Also how did you break in? I'm a freshman in college planning on transferring to another school, what is your advice for someone trying to get into investment banking?

Here we go~

I went to a mid-tier state school - a non-target for banking, semi-target for sales & trading.

There are a few different ways to break into banking depending on your personal situation. If you're black / latino / native american, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) is a great way to break in, and that's actually how I broke in. If you're a freshman now and looking to transfer there are a ton of different factors.

For one, you're going to want to get into a target school - this can mean a few different things. There are target undergraduate universities (mainly Ivy League schools and other prestigious schools like Stanford) and then there are target undergraduate business programs (Indiana University has a top undergrad b-school and places very well into banking, U of M's Ross School of Business is also a target for a few banks, and there are more). If you do your homework, you can find out where these top programs are - you're going to want to get into those schools while that's still a possibility.

In terms of preparing outside of that, you're also going to want to get some finance experience ASAP. PM me about which school you're at now and where you're thinking about going later and we can discuss further. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I ended up working the treasury department of a smaller, regional bank where I tracked the prepayment speeds on the mortgage backed securities in the bank's portfolio. Although that experience didn't have much to do with what I do now, it became a key talking point in my interviews because it was still in a finance setting and I was able to talk about the responsibility I was given and how I handled challenging situations.

Outside of that, start familiarizing yourself with the industry. I always tell people who are JUST getting into IB to check out blogs like Mergers and Inquisitions and dealbook.nytimes.com. M&I is a blog about how to break in, what to expect during an IB analyst stint, and kinda helps you figure out whether you want to go into IB in the first place. Dealbook is the NYTimes investment banking / regulatory / hedge fund and private equity blog. It covers the latest deals happening in the market and the regulatory environment surrounding them. Humblebrag disclaimer: it's pretty sick when you see a deal you just closed on Dealbook or in the Wall Street Journal.

If you focus on these things as a freshman (ESPECIALLY transferring into a decent program and then keeping yourself above preferably a 3.8GPA) then you will be well-positioned for banking or...anything else for that matter once the time comes. Feel free to PM for more targeted info / advice.

 

[friscostylez]

brucenegro, do you think you will stay in IBD for long or do you think you're 2 and out?

 

[blackredxiiigoat]

First salaried job after grad school (both bachelor's and master's were in sports management) was $40k, I've moved up since then though. Work as a sports manager for a sports and fitness company.

 

[bruce negro]

brucenegro, do you think you will stay in IBD for long or do you think you're 2 and out?

Definitely 2 and out man. Actually about to start looking through my vault guide a bit more and build an LBO or two after I finish typing this . Some of the people are cool and it's a great platform / learning experience, but this is just not the long-term move. Most of the positives people will speak on about banking - working with news-making transactions, high pay, working with and meeting very intelligent people, etc. - are even more apparent in the buy-side (shouts to @hank scorpio killing it in a TPG/Carlyle/KKR megafund). Two years from now, I definitely want to be the client in these transactions rather than the adviser.

It's actually really funny - I've been catching up on Suits on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays if I have the day off, and I'm finally on season 4 where Mike goes into "investment banking" (he's actually a hedge fund associate / portfolio manager in this scenario). The change in his relationship with Harvey, though taken to an extreme in the show, is really similar to how things go when you move into PE from banking, since investment bankers are essentially corporate financial advisers just like corporate lawyers are corporate legal advisers. Depending on what sort of shop you go to, there will be times when you are working on buying or exiting a company and your firm may hire on your old bank or even the senior people in your old group to advise on the deal. Even then, you probably won't have much interaction with them if you're still a junior guy at your PE shop, but it's interesting to know that you're now the demanding, sometimes unreasonable client and your old bosses have to basically deal with that or else they wont get paid

 

[hoosierdaddy317]

$30K after taxes. Still currently in school

 

[s0lefunk]

Finally landed a new job. USAJobs wasn't working out so found another contracting company that just landed a contract with the Govt. Doing the same type of work but got a nice 30% increase. Think I could have got more but I'm so grateful for the progress the last 2 years. Making 70% more than when I first started my career. No certs, grad school, just hard work and seizing oppourtunities. But now its time to look into certs and other stuff to legitimize myself.

Keep grinding yall. It will pay off eventually.

 

[toogoon23]

I make 29K a year as an intern doing defense contracting, living in Arlington, VA right outside of DC. After rent every month my bank account is near zero. Want to start looking for a new job but might be a couple months away from a promotion with 50K+. It's hard surviving now though. Hmmm

 

[s0lefunk]

Living in Arlington on 29k? God bless you my man. Also about to work in DC and planning on moving to VA now that the funds allow it.

Why not live in MD? Much more affordable and still close to DC. Traffic can be a ***** but if rent is killing your pockets and you not saving then thats a dangerous way to live. This is coming from someone whose been there and had many ramen noodle dinner nights since moving out.

 

[capital sb]

 
I make 29K a year as an intern doing defense contracting, living in Arlington, VA right outside of DC. After rent every month my bank account is near zero. Want to start looking for a new job but might be a couple months away from a promotion with 50K+. It's hard surviving now though. Hmmm

Honestly don't know how you are even surviving off of 29K in Arlington? Why don't you move to PG?

 

[verbal kint]

 
I make 29K a year as an intern doing defense contracting, living in Arlington, VA right outside of DC. After rent every month my bank account is near zero. Want to start looking for a new job but might be a couple months away from a promotion with 50K+. It's hard surviving now though. Hmmm

A few years ago, I used to live in that Arlington area and found it a bit thin on a 60k+ salary. Much respect to your abilities to stretch a dollar.  I'm assuming you are receiving some kind of parental assistance as well.. and yeah, not sure where you work but Alexandria/PG may be a bit more cost-effective rentwise

 

[fontaine]

young bruce in here dropping nuggets

 

[freshlikedasani91]

econ degree got me $45K doing budget/accounting for municipal government. trying hard to find a job that pays more and is more focused on budget stuff

edit: i love my job though

 

[Rootin4EverybodyBlack]

A few years ago, I used to live in that Arlington area and found it a bit thin on a 60k+ salary. Much respect to your abilities to stretch a dollar.  I'm assuming you are receiving some kind of parental assistance as well.. and yeah, not sure where you work but Alexandria/PG may be a bit more cost-effective rentwise

I'm living off 47k in PG and that's a stretch. But i live by myself, I'm assuming he has multiple roommates tho.

Try looking at the consulting firms in Rosslyn, they're usually hiring

 

[darthdeezy]

Never graduated college.
Been working for T-Mobile for 8 yrs and average between 45-60k a year.

Hoping to get into tattooing soon and publishing my comic book works.

 

[atlien seeko]

Good thing yall are puttin those K's after your sallery cuz I thought you were talking about m's at first!

Ayy lmao

 

[atlien seeko]

This.


But here in Vegas, it's opposite... The County/City department makes more than the State department.


Also add our Casinos' revenue to our budget.

that revenue has been falling at a constant rate for several years.

I still dont agree with your salaries.

Teachers start off at 48k with education

Most PDs only require a diploma.

I understand the job has it's dangers, but eh, I don't care for the salary schedules we OK for cops in this country.

Who is this? She's beautiful

 

[destination kicks]

When applied for my internship it was a 4.0. Since banks usually hire around 85-90% of their full-time class from their internship class, that GPA was the only one that really mattered. Graduated with a 3.75 though.

Good stuff.

Never came back in this thread after I graduated back in May of '13. But became a full-time Investment Analyst in August of '13 at the CRE Finance company I was interning for. Had a great time, enjoyed the people and learned a lot.

Just accepted and will be starting a new position at a RE Private Equity firm focused on logistics/transportation based real estate as an Analyst. Works gonna be 50/50 acquisitions and portfolio management/value add. Was afraid I was going to have to get my MBA to make the jump from the debt side to the equity/principal side of commercial real estate, but lucked out and I think I'm going to be the only one without an MBA in my new company.

Stats:
Baltimore/Washington Area
Graduated 5/13
Undergrad BS in Economics (Minor in Business with a finance concentration)
Non-Target State School
Lots of Internships
No Student Debt
Old Salary - Upper $40K's
New Salary - Mid $60K's

Oh and everyone make sure you have a solid LinkedIn profile. I didn't apply for this position, but rather was contacted by a recruiter who found my profile online.

 

[iDon’tRead]

engineering internship in college: $21/hour
current position, Applications Engineer at an Architectural company: $53,000

right now i'm looking to move to San Diego and am on the job hunt for a Mechanical Engineer position
been applying for the past 3 months, but still no bites

Saw spawar in San diego is hiring

 

[dh1water]

Way lower than most, but when I graduated i was taking in 55K my first year 

 

[mzaz227]

my first job out of college I was the assistant banquet manager at the Hilton hotel making 21k a year this was in 2000 

 

[Top Boy]

P4L

 

[whatscomplex]

In my last year of undergrad.

Just got an offer for ~51k ($24.5 per hr in actuality since I'm part time but that's the equivalent salary). They want me to go full time after finishing my bachelors. Hoping to renegotiate a larger salary when I graduate but not sure that will happen since it's an indefinite contract. Just happy to have found something while still in school that pays decently well.

Bumping so I can hear more recent experiences.

 

[waitwut]

30k fresh out of college i aint mad