<p>I keep hearing how people start at 120K+ no matter what kind of ibanking job it is. But is this really true? The top business school average starting salaries are only 50-60k. Is it all bonuses or something?</p>
<p>Let's just use Analysts (fresh out of college) in IBD and S&T:</p>
<p>Standard Package at Bulge Brackets for 1st Years:
-60k annual salary
-10k signing bonus
-Discretionary End-Of-The Year Bonus (Numbers Given In Late June/Early July)</p>
<p>Bonuses which really put you over the 100k mark are distributed in buckets, meaning analysts are ranked for low to top bucket.</p>
<p>In Summer of 2007, 1st Year Analysts made 60k (low bucket) to 90k (top bucket). Remember now this was right before the markets started collapsing, as banks had been profiting greatly from the LBO boom.</p>
<p>In Summer of 2008, with the markets going to hell, 1st Year Analysts made roughly 35-40k (low bucket) to 60ishk (top bucket)</p>
<p>2nd Years saw their bonuses remain relatively flat from the previous year so they made roughly 60ishk (low bucket) to 85-90k (top bucket).</p>
<p>At the entry level (i.e. Analyst) the pay for IBD and S&T analysts is virtually the same, because they have the same base (60k), and the analyst bonuses for IBD and S&T are banded; so S&T -- whether structures, traders, or sales -- analysts will get similar bonuses to IBD analysts in similar buckets (top, mid, below).</p>
<p>In S&T, once you move up (i.e. associate and beyond), your bonus is tied more to the performance of your desk/product and your P&L.</p>