Career Thoughts and Compensation Thread - 2011 Edition

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Location: Texas

Occupation: Product Design Engineer

Education: BS Mechanical Engineering

2011 Compensation: $58,300 base salary + $6400 profit share

Future Salary Projection: Currently my salary is $63,400 + profit share (twice per year). Since starting in June 2009, my base salary has increased by 23%. The first two years the company does a review every six months. I should expect an increase between 3%-7% annually based on performance.

Benefits: 80 hours vacation per year (unused rolls over), 10 paid holidays, undefined number of sick days (within reason), profit share twice a year, 401(k) 100% match on the first 3% & 50% on the second 2% of salary contributions, health, vision, dental, $100k life insurance policy paid by employer.

What is the job like?
With the oil and gas industry booming in the US, some days the job is low stress, other days the job is high stress. Being one of the first engineers in the organization I have had the opportunity to advance quickly into a supervisor role. My time is split 70% in engineering, 30% in operations (i.e. manufacturing, sales, quality control). I work anywhere between 45-60 hours per week depending on the time of year. Product design is the best part of my job. Some days I get to purposely test products to failure. It is a fast paced, multitasking environment. I have to tackle several short timeline projects at once while handling the day-to-day demands of working in a manufacturing plant.

Would you recommend the career to others?
I would recommend my job to others that enjoy working in a face-pace, multitasking environment. I would not recommend the job to any one who cannot multitask or work under pressure.

CatNoir said:   growingdollars said:   jkimcpa said:   CatNoir said:   I would like to get some advice from all of you. I graduated this past May with an accounting degree. Without giving a lot of details, I'm going back to school for a second degree which I can complete in two years: BS in computer related field and international economics. I have been working as a budget assistant for a F500 company and I might get a Business Analyst job at a major university. My salary will be in the $ 35,000 -45,000 range. The university will cover all the cost of my second degree.

Career wise, I would like to work for two years in equity research or Sales and Trading after I am done with my second degree. I am considering equity research because I enjoy doing research on companies and everything and I tend to know "surprising " details about people/organizations.

Based on feedback from past employers and people I have done business with, I am a good salesperson. I enjoy selling products and idea. So I think that sales might be an alternative option to ER. I have heard a lot about "trading" but I rarely see any information about "sales". If any of you have some info/experience please share. My goal is to move to San Francisco and work for a tech company after two years in ER or Sales and Trading.

If I don't make it into ER/ Sales and Trading after the second degree, I will try to keep my job at the university and get my Masters in Public Policy and International Economics (The school has one of the best graduate programs for international affairs.) or a joint JD/MBA there. Upon completing my Masters, I might venture into consulting or try to get into ER/Sales and Trading or corporate development.

Regardless of the path I take, my ultimate goal is to end my career in corporate development or as a trade negotiator for the government or a company.

I lost track of my goals during undergrad so I am trying to outline what I want to do in the short term and make the best of the possibilities that are open to me. I'd appreciate some feedback.No offense but you have no idea what you want, and are severely disadvantaged with your competition. If I were you instead of wasting time with more school I would try to get my foot in the door at a Big 4 and wiggle my way into the consulting arm. No second or graduate degree needed. Heck better chance of you getting into a tech co in the valley with public accounting so you should consider that route.

jkim is right, you have no idea what you want.

So you want to get into equity research, sales and trading, corporate development, consulting, or pursue a JD?
You forgot to include investment banking, venture capital, or becoming a doctor in your list of career aspirations.

If you want to work in corporate dev, just get into a Big 4 consulting arm and play your cards right from there.

I never said that I want to be all these things at the same time. I said they are the things that interest me personally and academically so if I can't get a gig in one (ER), I would not mind working in another position (Sales & Trading).

I have also said that corporate development would be something that I want to do later in the years, so it is not something that I want to get into now.

As far as getting a JD, this is grad school plans. There is nothing wrong with wanting to get a JD or another closely related degree for grad school if the program has offers dual degree.

Anyway, time to move on.

Those recommending going the Big 4 route have a fair point. I'm currently with the Big 4 and will try to transition into the firm's M&A advisory group. From there I'll go for my MBA or try to sneak my way into private equity.

Gender: Male

Age: 25

Location: Major Metropolitan City

Occupation: Corporate Strategy Analyst, Banking (not high Finance)

Education: Undergraduate Business Degree at a non-target school

Future Salary Projection: All else the same, flat in current environment

Benefits: 160 hours vacation per year, 401(k) with minimal match, health, vision, dental, life insurance policy paid by employer.

What is the job like?
Typical analyst life as you'd imagine but discount it somewhat in terms of harshness/hours/glamor because I'm not in high finance. (high finance = Investment Banking front office, Sales & Trading, Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Venture Capital etc) I'd said main difference between this and high finance analyst positions is the hours, exit opportunities and compensation- the above-average first year analysts in high finance break $100k all-in first year.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Long term, no. Short term, yes. Exit ops to management consulting are attractive but entry-level management consulting pay isn't much higher, if at all. Management consultants also work more hours with travel to crappy cities.

Age: 27
Location: Texas
Occupation: Corporate Lawyer
Education: BS Econ, MA Econ, top 10 JD
2011 Compensation: 165k salary, 2500 bonus
Future Salary Projection: Yearly 5-10k raises, small increases in year end bonuses
Benefits: 2% 401k contribution, shitty health plans so we use my wife's. 10 days vacation for the year, will go up to 15 next.
What's the job like?
My job is pretty great. I got very lucky to work for a "lifestyle" firm. I bill ~1700-1900 hours a year, which is significantly less that is expected at most other firms on this salary scale. My time split fairly evenly between M&A and capital markets work, though I would like to move more towards capital markets full time. The work is pretty interesting, as a third year I've finally progressed beyond a lot of the truly miserable bitch work. All that said, it's still nowhere near a 9-5 job. I work 9-7 most days, and end up staying late (often midnight or later) usually 1-2 nights a week. Average working 1-2 weekends per month as well. No overtime, obviously. Every now and then, especially when closing a deal, I will work 2-3 days straight without really sleeping.
Would you recommend the career to others?
If you can handle the lifestyle, and have the credentials to get the right job, absolutely. Be very careful when picking a firm, I would have quit long ago if I had gone to one of the big NY based firms that expects 2500+ hours. The hardest part is getting a job at all. We tend to hire from the top 10 law schools, and then the top 10% or so from our local law schools and other decent schools around the country. The job provides excellent exit options (as the vast majority will never make partner). Our associates tend to leave most often for in-house attorney positions at our larger clients or step down to a smaller firm as partner.

iceberq said:   CatNoir: If you want to get into S&T, doing a business analyst job at a university isn't going to be the best positioning. Read up on wallstreetoasis.com

I am WSO and MI subscribers.

The business analyst position is not what I am going to leverage to get into S&T.

I will apply for analyst positions with my graduating class from my second degree. As I said, I left out some details so folks should not bother killing themselves over the fact that I am getting a second degree.

Thanks anyway

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Location: Los Angeles

Occupation: Actor in adult movies (Porn Star).

Education: High school Dropout

2011 Compensation: $700,000

Future Salary Projection: Anywhere between 500K to 900K

Benefits: Work Satisfaction and great coworkers. Lot of free time.

What's the job like?
Tough. Takes lot of energy, stamina (and medication). Routine medical every other week. 2 to 3 hour workout every day and special diet. Very high risk of catching infectious disease. Deal with bad people and see shattering your dreams in front of your eyes.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Probably not because of risk factor. You need to be a really good liar to survive.

Gender: Male

Age: 20s

Location: Major Metropolitan City

Occupation: MD

Education: MD degree and Non-MD undergraduate degree (I don't want to specifically say my degree, but I was trained in undergrad to be a business analyst). Total: 8 years of post-secondary education (...and counting. It's supposed to be "lifelong learning"!)

2011 Compensation: 1-year contracts. By nature, contracts start halfway through the year, so 2011-2012 year (pre-tax) salary is high $40,000s. Also get a parking pass and a meal card of $2000/year that can be used in the hospital cafeteria. The meal card money does not roll over at the end of the year and cannot be used to purchase multiples of the same item. Both the meal card money and parking pass and can be suspended without notice by administration for not submitting your paperwork on time.

Future Salary Projection: No guarantee of contract renewal. New requirements (that significantly increase the burden for fulfillment) for contract renewal (that modify or contradict terms of original contract) were added some months into most recent contract; no recourse allowed. Tentative raise each year of $1,000. No potential for additional raise or bonus.

Benefits: Free high-deductible health insurance (with copay) if you're single. No copay if you get your preventative care within our hospital system. No/minimal coverage for ED visits. No dental, no vision. No pension. Can request up to three weeks of vacation each contract period (year), but do not always get to choose when you take it.

What's the job like?
Service field, high-stress, dealing with wide spectrum of people all day, many poorly educated or from lower socioeconomic background with poor or no hygiene. Occasional need to make life and death decisions, frequent need to make decisions affecting morbidity.

Significant potential for personal threats (or attempts) of physical violence against you, significant threat for contracting serious infection (tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis, etc.), very significant potential for being sued. 1/50 to 1/100 people will express mild appreciation for your effort/contribution to their health (excluding narcotics; about 1/10 to 1/25 will express appreciation for narcotics, the rest will continue to make threats and complain that you are not generous enough). Each day is something new and can be great or not. A large part (sometimes most) of the day is spent doing paperwork. Some days, you are required to spend a lot of time on the phone and dealing with social and transportation issues. You can also expect to run the risk of exposure to body fluids (often contaminated/infectious) on a daily basis.

Significant potential for dealing with people with one or more underlying mental disorders. Not allowed to speak freely or frankly and must remain calm and censor self at all times, even in the face of physical confrontation. Must remain objective at all times, not letting bias interfere with interactions or decisions (even in the face of threats of severe personal physical violence). Significant interaction with severely ill people. Caring for people when they are at their worst. Frequently the bearer of bad (and often life-changing) news, must have good communication skills and be empathetic. Minimal/no respect from significant portion of daily contacts.

Work 6-7 days/week (70 to 80+ hours/week) with (officially) a total of 4 days off each month (this includes weekends; technically, a day off is supposed to be exactly 24 hours off). You will also be randomly scheduled to work nights every month; sometimes you work nights for a week at a stretch, while other times you will be working nights for just one night. This does not include the time you are expected to broaden your horizons and keep up with the flood of advances in the diagnosis and management of disease. This also does not include time for studying or sitting for (mandatory) licensing exam(s) (on which you must do well or your contract will not be renewed for the following year). To sweeten the pot, significant policy changes come down frequently from the powers that be over which you have no say; you are expected to "roll with it and adapt." Minimal potential for training with outside providers/facilities.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Yes, but only if it is something they would truly love doing.

Yankees said:   GreatestGambler said:   Gender: Male

Age: 32

Location: Los Angeles

Occupation: Actor in adult movies (Porn Star).

Education: High school Dropout

2011 Compensation: $700,000

Future Salary Projection: Anywhere between 500K to 900K

Benefits: Work Satisfaction and great coworkers. Lot of free time.

What's the job like?
Tough. Takes lot of energy, stamina (and medication). Routine medical every other week. 2 to 3 hour workout every day and special diet. Very high risk of catching infectious disease. Deal with bad people and see shattering your dreams in front of your eyes.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Probably not because of risk factor. You need to be a really good liar to survive.

why all the red? unless this was tongue-in-cheek...
If true, I suspect that tongue may have ventured into places other than cheek...

tolamapS said:   Age: Low 30s
Location: NYC Metro
Education: BA in Math and Computer Science, PhD
Occupation: Finance, Trading
Current Job: Design / implement statistical models that trade securities automatically
2011 Income: $300 - $400K (all included)
Future projections: I would like to make 7 figures / Y in the next few years
Benefits: Very good
Whats the job like: Job is awesome. Often times I don't feel like leaving the office. If I had the physical capacity, I would work 20+ hours a day. Analyze financial data to find predictable patterns of price movements. Understand how securities markets work. Understand how securities prices move. Read a lot. Try a lot of ideas.
Would you recommend the job to others: Tough to say. Job requires superior math and statistics skills, excellent programming, creativity, persistence. Unless you absolutely love this job, you can't do it.

No girlfriend, right? Don't worry, once you have one, you productivity will drop sharply.

motuwallet said:   bytem3 said:   Gender: Male

Age: 20s

Location: Major Metropolitan City

Occupation: MD

Education: MD degree and Non-MD undergraduate degree (I don't want to specifically say my degree, but I was trained in undergrad to be a business analyst). Total: 8 years of post-grad education

Do you mean post-secondary?

Yes, thanks. As usual, I will blame my lack of proper wordage on a crazy day lol. Nice username, btw

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Location: Denver, CO

Occupation: Senior Consultant, Management Consulting

Education: BS Finance at Top 25 school, MBA at Top 10 school

2011 Compensation: $144k ($118K salary + $26k bonus)

Future Salary Projection: Likely a 3-5% raise each year with target 15%/max 30% bonus potential. Shooting for promotion to Associate Director promotion in 2-3 more years where salary will be bumped to $140-150k and higher bonus potential)

Benefits: High deductible Health, with firm depositing $1,100/yr into HSA, Dental, Vision, 401k (4.5% match), Basic Life/disability, $5k/yr tuition reimbursement, 23 PTO + 8 Holidays/yr (Only 5 PTO roll over a year though, so PTO is basically use it or lose it)

$55-100/day tax free cash meal Per Diem for each day onsite, $170/month smartphone/data card reimbursement, frequent travel points/miles, personal weekends where you can change flights to places other than home base and only pay the differential cost if the new airfare is higher than the Client site to home city fare.

What's the job like?
I spend my days like any traveling consultant, travel weekly (Made Delta Diamond frequent status this year), work onsite with clients and fellow consultants, guide/oversee junior team members, assist with business development to renew and land new contracts and staffing resources.

One advantage of working in a smaller practice focused in a niche market is I have a great deal of autonomy when working, as long as I keep the client happy and the billable hours up, anything goes. Most projects I work independently with the client project team with the occasional project with a much larger consultant presence and then the attendant mandatory team building aka boozing sessions after hours.

My practice is pretty fair with SC utilization expectations of 75%+ (so 1560hrs/yr) and even with myself averaging 103% utilization in 2011, the typical work week is 45-50hrs (Excluding the 10hr/wk business travel of course and the 60-80 weeks when approaching a deadline) and I got to take a good number of vacations.

I didn't target the MBB firms(elite consulting such as Mckinsey, Bain, BCG) during MBA recruiting because I had a good in at a niche firm and I preferred a more reasonable work life balance. While the ~$200k first year all in comp ($130k salary + $23k signing + $30-40k year end) of a MBB offer my classmate landed is very nice, I definitely don't envy his regular 60-70 hour workweeks.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Definitely, as long as you don't mind working hard and are personable. If you value work/life balance in your 30s, will be tough to slog all the way through to the pinnacle partner track but there is great industry exit opportunities along the way. Typical drawbacks of consulting, have to work your way up and pay your dues, essential to develop relationships with high ups to maximize being staffed on good projects, and of course the non-stop business travel 3/4/5 and unpaid overtime in hopes of higher utilization being rewarded by way of higher bonus at year end.

I followed the typical consulting track of being hired on as a Business Analyst out of undergrad for IT consulting, $51k salary+$3k bonus first year, $66k salary + $6k bonus second year, then went to industry and worked for two years as a senior analyst for $63k salary/$3k bonus luxuriating in the 4x10 weekly work schedule and brushing up on my snowboarding skills before going back to get my MBA. Then did the MBA recruiting thing to lever up to the Strategy/Operations/Management consulting field.

Key thing with the MBA track is to make sure to get in a good top 25, preferably top 15 school and really maximize the on campus recruiting (A summer internship is key for getting a leg up). I feel my MBA investment ($52k/yr tuition over two years) was worth the payoff.

linussbugg said:   they don't get to play with the woo-woos!
Life's all about playing with the woo-woos!

Frojoe747 said:   Gender: Male

Age: 22

Location: Large Mid-Atlantic City

Occupation: Finance Analyst

Education: BSBA from a large public university in Finance and Accounting (ranked in top 15 nationally for both majors), planning on starting part-time MBA in the fall at a top 20 school

2011 Compensation: $50k + $5k signing bonus

Future Salary Projection: Likely a 3% raise in March after 6 months of work; then hopefully a raise once I finish the rotational program in the fall and move on to my more permanent placement; hoping for a large pay hike post-MBA

Benefits: Medical/Dental/Vision for ~$110/month; match 4% of 401k; 21 days off (10 holidays, 1 personal day, 10 vacation days) pear year

What's the job like?
I only started six months ago, but so far it's been a great learning experience. Day to day work can get a bit dry if you're tasked with generating daily reports or something like that, but I've found myself mentally stimulated a lot more frequently than I expected. I'm in a rotational program where I rotate through different finance departments for three months each for a total of four departments over the course of a year. From what I can tell, people in the program are promoted much more quickly and many are Project Managers/Senior Financial Analysts after only one year which is not typical for finance jobs so that's a big plus. In addition, I'll have solid experience in four departments after only a year of working while it make take someone else a few years to get a similar experience.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Yes, it's a great way to start out, but I'd recommend finding a way to move on to bigger and better things if you see a lack of upward mobility after a rotational program. It seems too easy to get stuck somewhere in the finance world if you're working in industry. I hope to pursue my MBA (part-time) starting this fall and get a job in consulting post-MBA. Average salaries for graduates at the school I plan to attend is in the neighborhood of $100-120k.

Sounds like I was in your position 6 years ago Frojoe747. Congrats on getting in what sounds like a pretty good management training rotational program!

You are pretty accurate when describing how easy it is to get pigeonholed when working in Finance in industry. I know lots of 40-50 year old Financial analysts who because they were afraid to job hop or take risks, are still stuck working as senior analysts making $60-70k during their peak earning years.

When working full time and going to a good MBA program part time, be sure the MBA program offers the PT students the same access to the career center as the FT students. At my Alma mater, the career center gave priority to FT MBA candidates when bidding for interview slots, and the really lucrative (and demanding) positions in IB and MBB (& arguably Accenture/Deloitte S&O practice) greatly favored FT candidates with solid 3-4+ years of experience.

And if you plan on taking advantage of your employer's tuition reimbursement/MBA sponsorship, be sure to read up on the clawback provisions. I knew a couple friends in consulting who got sponsored to take 4 semesters off to get their MBA full time but when they came back, because their employer picked up the $100k+ tuition tab and had a 3-4 year clawback contract, was promoted to Senior Consultant or Jr. Manager roles with much less pay than MBA new hires (Like $85-95k returning sponsored MBA'ed employee vs $115-125k +$20-40k signing bonus MBA new hire w/ 4+ years exp)

Of course, keep the long term view of 3 years post MBA in top consulting jobs where you're promoted to senior/engagement manager and the salary gets bumped to $175-200k before perf bonuses. And for a materialistic top MBA grad with the ability to function well on very little sleep, the big money still lies in IB followed by a switch to PE or Hedge funds but the barriers to entry and up-or-out competition is pretty darn high.

aranaxon said:   Age: 25
Location: US financial hub
Occupation: Investment Professional (Private Equity - title: Associate)
Education: BSc Engineering (Chemical), BSc Economics (Finance)
2011 Compensation: $330k (113k base, 217k year-end bonus). ~$50k of highly-illiquid phantom equity

Future Salary Projection: Hypothetically if I was to stay in the private equity industry, probably 500k-1000k w/i the next 5 years (Business school typically required to move up to the next level of titles, which is VP / Principal / Director, varies by firm). The funnel from "associate" to the next level of titles is pretty severe. I would estimate 1 in 4 make it (and accordingly, another 1 in 4 make partnership)

Benefits: Lots of fringe benefits.

What's the job like?
Varies between highly procedural and entrepreneurial. Private equity is in the "buy-out" business - which involves taking companies or divisions of companies under corporate ownership. Improving them via growth or efficiencies (or not) and selling them off at a profit versus our basis (or not). It can be highly procedural when you're evaluating a company undergoing a corporate auction process. Receive bid letter w/ instructions from investment bank / corporate development team and follow their process to hit the various stage-gates in a deal. On the other hand, you're frequently out thinking about new ideas / opportunities, based on long-term industry trends or short-term financial dislocations.
Hours can range from a 9-5, to chained all-nighters depending on the intensity and timeline of each deal.

Would you recommend the career to others?
If you have the natural propensity for it, private equity (and much of the financial industry) is a fascinating place to be. On the other hand, people have sharp elbows, firms are frequently partnerships and politics may have a role to play, and the penalty for failure is sometimes being blacklisted from the industry.

That being said, financial jobs typically allow those who take relatively low levels of risk to achieve entrepreneurial returns... so on a risk-adjusted basis, the job is quite rewarding... Did you like the M&T program?

Created new account to remain anonymity.

Gender: Male
Age: 26
Location: Boston, MA (but travel along most of East Coast)
Occupation: Channel Manager

Education: BA in Intl' Relations/Economics Focus from public university

2011 Compensation: $110k base + commissions (total ~$200k)

Future Salary Projection: I've been steady at $200k last 2 years, hoping to stay in that area. Higher earners in this position/industry will make $300k+ typically and much more..

Benefits: Pretty good medical benefits/dental/vision, 401k match up to 8% I think, you get 3.5 weeks PTO first year and gradually get more, I've been with company for 5 years now so get 4.5 weeks I think.

What's the job like?
Pretty fun if you have a good amount of sales skill, and are willing to learn about datacenter server/storage/virtualization technologies. I work for an OEM and the space is very hot right now with lots of competition. Once you get in the industry you realize it's all the same people but they just change Polo Shirts every few years so relationships are everything. I travel a great deal, which has it's perks but over time can be tiring. It's no fun eating expensive dinners if you have to stay up very late in hotel rooms at night by yourself doing quotes / emails.

Like any sales job, it can be unstable if you don't hit your numbers, however with a good amount of work/persistence/luck, I've seen some people make a great deal of money along with excellent work/life flexibility since everyone always works remote.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Yes, if you're interested in IT Sales, travel, and money. This isn't something I want to do for the next 25+ years but strike while the "iron is hot" and save $$. It can be extremely stressful at times, and a common saying I've heard is 'heart-attacks' are common in this business due to stress, so it's always good to keep things in perspective. I started with the company in Inside Sales and managed to move up each year. No interest in getting MBA down the road, but maybe a move to product marketing if I want to travel less...or potentially a more local position

Frojoe747 said:   Gender: Male

Age: 22

Location: Large Mid-Atlantic City

Occupation: Finance Analyst

Education: BSBA from a large public university in Finance and Accounting (ranked in top 15 nationally for both majors), planning on starting part-time MBA in the fall at a top 20 school

2011 Compensation: $50k + $5k signing bonus

Future Salary Projection: Likely a 3% raise in March after 6 months of work; then hopefully a raise once I finish the rotational program in the fall and move on to my more permanent placement; hoping for a large pay hike post-MBA

Benefits: Medical/Dental/Vision for ~$110/month; match 4% of 401k; 21 days off (10 holidays, 1 personal day, 10 vacation days) pear year

What's the job like?
I only started six months ago, but so far it's been a great learning experience. Day to day work can get a bit dry if you're tasked with generating daily reports or something like that, but I've found myself mentally stimulated a lot more frequently than I expected. I'm in a rotational program where I rotate through different finance departments for three months each for a total of four departments over the course of a year. From what I can tell, people in the program are promoted much more quickly and many are Project Managers/Senior Financial Analysts after only one year which is not typical for finance jobs so that's a big plus. In addition, I'll have solid experience in four departments after only a year of working while it make take someone else a few years to get a similar experience.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Yes, it's a great way to start out, but I'd recommend finding a way to move on to bigger and better things if you see a lack of upward mobility after a rotational program. It seems too easy to get stuck somewhere in the finance world if you're working in industry. I hope to pursue my MBA (part-time) starting this fall and get a job in consulting post-MBA. Average salaries for graduates at the school I plan to attend is in the neighborhood of $100-120k.

I'm not much older than you in a similar line of work and I have some suggestions to think about (using only your post to guess your timeline).

1. In the employers I've worked with/networked with, a person with an MBA a 1 year of experience is now overqualified for everything. I'm going to be starting my MBA soon with about 2.5-3 years experience and by the time I finish I'll have 4-5 years experience + the MBA. I'm told that's the sweet spot for great MBA offers.

2. Much of the value of the MBA is sharing your and learning from the experience at others. 3 month rotations in 4 departments isn't much to offer and anything you learn that you attempt to apply isn't going to work because you'll be in a new department before you can see if it worked (and more importantly, the why).

3. As another poster said, be careful about clawbacks/payback periods. I recently changed jobs because of a huge pay bump (enough that I can pay for an MBA out of pocket). This will allow me the flexibility to entertain job offers right out of my MBA that could be an easy $20-30k pay bump. Sure, I can't go buy a new car with that money that I'm putting into my head, but in 4 years if I can be at three times the salary I was at with the job I just left, I'll be laughing all the way to the bank. But, if your employer pays, you're going to owe 2-4 years of service...or they're going to want their money back and it might be hard to come up with the $50-75k they want back within 90 days of taking your new job.

Reader's digest version: You sound a lot like me, I had to learn to slow down a bit (even though slowing down kills me) and make a plan to make the smartest moves given your situation.

nm back to the game

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Location: Santa Monica, CA

Occupation: VP of Finance at tech startup

Education: BA in Economics

2011 net pay: $175K salary, ~$200K-700K stock options (my estimate based on peer acquisition in 2011)

Future outlook: If the company gets acquired I get option windfall but probably will be out of a job shortly after merger depending on who buys us. If we IPO then probably will go to $200K. I am always being recruited by local tech companies and recruiters have told me VP/CFO with my background very difficult to find. As next gig I expect VP of Finance again. I'll need a couple more rounds of experience before being taken seriously for CFO.

Benefits: Standard socal tech co package.

What is job like: Outside of standard "easy" reporting, challenging ad hoc projects commissioned by CFO (very "intellectually" driven guy). When we decide to get acquired/IPO I expect to work late hours.

SpeedingLunatic said:   soupcxan said:   LockeCoIe said:   I guess I'm at the low end of the salary range...

Age
24

2011 Compensation
~$80k
Only on FW Finance can a 24 year old making $80k consider himself poor...

In Texas no less

Could you please elaborate .. I know things are going great in Texas but .. don't know specifics.

VAIndigo said:   SpeedingLunatic said:   soupcxan said:   LockeCoIe said:   I guess I'm at the low end of the salary range...

Age
24

2011 Compensation
~$80k
Only on FW Finance can a 24 year old making $80k consider himself poor...In Texas no lessCould you please elaborate .. I know things are going great in Texas but .. don't know specifics.What he meant is that 80K in Texas is a lot more than 80K in California or many other places.

[EDIT] Looks like Mike beat me to it... Guess I ought to refresh pages before replying. mikeg1 said:   I think he is referencing the pretty low cost of living in Texas. Housing, especially, is relatively inexpensive.