High Pay Still Found in Finance
Though the stock market remains wildly prone to fluctuations and the United States barely saved itself from veering off a fiscal cliff at the new year, the high pay of finance jobs has remained a steadfast thing. And the number of people seeking such jobs has, if anything, been on the rise-even as the amount of spots available moves the other direction on the number line.
“I’m looking to go into finance” is a common phrase among soon-to-graduate and recently graduated college students. But what exactly does “going into finance” look like? Finance is an industry, and the term blankets a lot of different positions. Finance jobs include everything from being an analyst to being a trader, from being a researcher to being a consultant. When most people think “finance,” investment banking, also called iBanking, is what first comes to mind. Specifically, bulge bracket banks like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley come to mind. But these firms only comprise a small (if highly profitable and reputable) piece of the finance pie. Job-seekers can also break into the finance career bubble through sales and trading divisions, corporate finance, hedge funds (a harder point of entry for fresh BAs), consulting firms, (McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group’s HOLT associates division), private wealth (Charles Schwab, PNC Wealth Management) management firms, and even ratings agencies (Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s). And within iBanking alone, there is further job breakdown into three types of groups: capital market, product, and industry groups. Basically, “finance” is deceptively simple-there are dozens of ways to wriggle into the finance sector.
The pay, of course, differs from position to position and from company to company. At a big investment bank, first-year analysts will typically make around $70k base salary plus a $10k signing bonus and $50k …
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