William Blair Bonuses 2023?
Hear William Blair paid bonuses. Anyone have any detail?
If so, please share title/level, bucket and bonus
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What were Blair bonuses like last year?
Here's the thread from last year.
WB Bonuses | Wall Street Oasis
Thanks Joosh!
Interested
From another post, last years full figures were:
Aso1: 25k
Aso2: 60k
Man wth
Wow. That is abysmal.
Bump
bump
No need to bump this, our figures are disclosed tomorrow and I’m sure this thread will be very, very interesting.
Scary
Heard around that WB had another round of layoffs recently, not sure how extensive
Heard from a friend there that bonus will be as bad as last. TBD I guess.
We’ll find out tomorrow, but mgmt made it pretty clear bonuses will be worse than last year for most (though with higher variance)
Didn't think it was possible to be worse than last year
There was zero deal activity in 2023 lol
Confirmed from a close source bonuses will be significantly worse YoY and some will not getting bonuses
Which makes perfect sense
Curious
Were bonuses really 25k for asos last year?
Analyst 3, A2A, mid-upper tier, $90K base, $5K bonus, $10K "incentive pay"
$90k base??? Are you in IB??
Yep but it's Europe so pay is much less
Is this London? Ass compared to RJ/HW London comp
Ain't no way a 3yr analyst's comp is 70k GBP. If so, WB must be a pretty crappy place to work at. I earned 50k as a non-IB non-BB offcycle intern last year in London lol.
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If you’re an AN3 in London, which you seem to be based on your profile, you’re at $115k base, not $90k. You would’ve also gotten a half year bonus as a third-year (assuming you’ve been with the firm long enough) of $20k in addition to your YE bonus of $5k, which should be combined as your total FY23 Bonus.
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My bank (not Blair) pays £75k for AN3s … so £90 isn’t that bad 🤣
Associate 1 - 15k bonus (full year), 15k “incentive comp”
Why call the incentive comp something other than a bonus?
You have to stay through mid points in 2024 (2q and 3q) to receive it. So it is an incentive to stay
What bucket?
... no
This can't be right, can it?!?! Big if true
Unfortunately true
Not that I work there, but I would be rushing for the doors. Numbers I heard are TERRIBLE.
And go where? When M&A activity is as low as it has been for this long, nobody is hiring in droves in any part of the ecosystem
Oh, I don't know, anywhere besides Blair? Why would anyone with self respect work these types of hours for this pay? The common theme in the bullpen has become envying the people who were laid off last year.
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Anecdotal bonuses from what I’ve heard:
Aso1: 15k-20k
Aso2: 40k
Aso3: 45k
Can anyone confirm?
What about incentive comp? Hearing more associates in 15-30k range in terms of upfront
Have heard 25k for aso2s
My BF works in Boston office and said all A1 (Started Oct 23) got 2.5k stub
What is that annualized? 10k?
Some bottom bucket got $0.
Damn. And I thought Citi bonuses were bad
I hope there is a mass exodus amongst the junior ranks. Some people haven’t been punched in the mouth before and it shows
Let it rip guys
I would encourage people to leave, and ignore work to job search, interview, etc.
Big picture—yes, fortunate to have a job and get experience etc. We can acknowledge that.
That being said, it is insane to work banker hours to be slapped in the face for the SECOND YEAR IN A ROW at a private company that gargles all day long about partnership and culture etc.
Didn’t they have mass layoffs in 2023 as well?
Baird and Blair have lit their reputations on fire and can’t see another mba associate candidate ever taking them seriously again.
I’m truly sorry for all those at WB, please don’t accept this and work to move ASAP
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The culture has gone downhill too. They’ve lost their Midwest charm by hiring several tyrant MDs from other firms.
Tough look
There was an aso1 in my group who got laid off a couple months ago and got ~30k severance
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Blair Analysts:
Can someone shed some light on where Blair went wrong? Layoffs, horrible bonuses, low return offers and things don’t seem to be getting much better.
Ignore tile. Just a very bad year for the industry in general. Deal flow wise it’s doing good amongst peers but fee generation wise way down from ideal level. Many groups have huge backlogs that aren’t converting anytime soon. Source? Everyone in Blair IB has access to it. It’s pretty self explanatory.
It’s a down year for the industry yes but they stand out due to a) bad pay last year followed by b) significant layoffs followed by c) incredibly low comp this year
Not saying the market is in their hands but this many missteps in a row is not industry wide, uniquely poor management and thoughtfulness over the past 18-24 months
WB was hiring like the 2021 market was never going to cool down, definitely paying the price now
Sooo many deals being worked on that just die because bids aren’t high enough. Not a lot Blair can do about that
They could shut down low quality deals to enable rationalizing headcount equating to efficiency and higher comp. But wtf do I know? I'm not one of the geniuses running William Blair.
Several factors, some issues are market driven and others are self inflicted. In no particular order:
- Horrible market last two years for sponsor-oriented sell-sides which is majority of WB revenue
- No offsetting products (restructuring, large cap) to pivot to when sponsor sell-sides dry up
- Highly levered cost base (beautiful offices around globe, BB-type overhead [think big philanthropy / resource groups, overlay sales teams which are not revenue generating]) that is sized for 2020 levels of activity
- Last ones drinking from punch bowl in 2021 when market started to show signs of stress. Think lateral hires, spac teams, etc. coming over with guarantees
- No reserves to soften blow in down years - they pay out all profits in year earned. So people got paid in 2020/2021, but nothing left now
But mostly, a fixed cost problem. Too many people / committees hanging around in non-revenue generating roles. And that is on leadership
I used to work for a senior partner who’d just left Blair. This was 2021/2022 or so. He gave most of the same reasons you listed when I asked him why he left. Apparently there was strife between partners because some of them were apprehensive about opening new offices every year, launching new product teams, hiring tons of expensive people, etc. The market had started to falter a little at this point so he may have had the gift of hindsight, but he told me they had clearly built up too big of a fixed cost base and were going to get burned when the market cooled from all-time high volume. If I remember correctly the strategy was to go from a MM bank to more of a broader EB-style bank, but it seems they tried to do it all at once on the back of an unsustainable market peak.
Not surprising
My friends at Billy Blair, please make sure you mark yourselves safe when you can
Clearly they are not trying to retain and actually want to rationalize headcount. Too cheap to pay severance, so they hope a bunch leave voluntarily.
Consolidated Analyst Compensation Data:
AN3 Top Bucket: $155k Total Comp ($115k Base)
AN3 Mid Bucket: $145k Total Comp ($115k Base)
AN2 Top Bucket: $135k Total Comp ($100k Base)
AN2 Mid Bucket: $120k Total Comp ($100k Base)
AN1 Mid Bucket: $105k Total Comp ($90k Base)
Consolidated Associate Compensation Data:
A1 Unknown Bucket: $155k Total Comp ($145k Base)
A2 Top Bucket: $200k Total Comp + Unknown Deferred Incentive Package ($160k Base)
Other:
Delayed promotions across all titles
Significant layoffs during 2023 (~25% of IBD Headcount)
Low bonuses in 2023 as well (https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/wb-bonuses)
Do NOT go to WB aspiring monkeys!
How is AN1 mid bucket $105k if base is $110?
As mentioned, $105k is Total Comp ($90k Base + $15k Bonus)
Wow that base is even below street
How long will it take the partners at William Blair to hold senior management accountable for its precipitous decline? They’ve completely ruined their reputation as having one of the best cultures on the street in one year’s time, and any prospect should think twice before joining. Management has always praised themselves for the culture and how well they treat their people but continues to blame everything on market conditions without taking any responsibility for their missteps. In the end, the junior bankers bear the brunt of this mismanagement, and I hope everyone there is looking for the exits immediately.
The only way employees regain confidence in the institution is through the removal of senior management. In 2022, Facebook had the year of efficiency. William Blair needs the year of accountability.
What should incoming analysts do
Pray
Every associate should definitely quit tomorrow. This is like a 4-quadrant game theory situation where everyone can work together to get maximum collective gain or not work together and not get maximum gain. Here, the maximum gain is blowing a hole in the side of WB for gross mistreatment over TWO STRAIGHT BONUS CYCLES. I would quite quit and not log in and try to collect as many bi-weekly paychecks as possible. If you go totally dark for two months, that’s 2/12 * $200k of base for an ASO2 and you can look for another job. Might as well switch to a local Chicago boutique that does LMM deals.
Anyone excusing this pathetic pay as "market related" is too stupid to be a banker. Leadership obviously fucked up more than any other bank. First step is to end the gaslighting and admit it. Stop talking about your bullshit low quality backlog that mysteriously won't convert. Stop acting like you did everyone a favor by doing 20% layoffs instead of larger layoffs you should have done. Stop employing worthless MDs that will never bring in revenue in a higher interest rate environment. Stop employing learning and development / operation groups as large and costly as what you would expect at a BB. Start acting with urgency and recognize that if you repeat this for a third year nobody is being dramatic when they say this bank is completely and utterly finished
Heard 25k for aso2s
This thread delivers. Love it.
wonder if this goes into WSO HoF if we hit a recession. 2009 / 2010 threads had way more humble posters.
I don't think we're close to 2008/2009. Citi, not ever known to be a good payer, just payed certain ASO3's $450k. PJT and CVP paying over $400k to ASO1's. Compare that to ASO1 and ASO3 comp of $190k and $270k, respectively, at Blair. I made $180k as a second year analyst in 2019 at a BB. Citi, the always weak payer had a down year but dealt with it at least somewhat respectably. Goldman also paid like it was 2018/2019. Blair and Baird are just a total clown show.
Blair is significantly worse than Baird
I said recession. And compared the humble posts in 2009 where posters were thankful to have a job.
Blair is super leveraged to (1) tech and (2) SPACs with minimal deal flow this year…and people were expecting good bonuses?
for what? Blair IB didn’t do shit and got paid accordingly. They do not have counter cyclical businesses to offset weak M&A.
Yeah this is not a good look. How does anyone stay motivated for another 12 months without certainty of next year being really good?
They got way ahead of their skis in 2021. Doubled workforce in a year, many lateral hires, paid out absurd bonuses after pandemic. The music stopped and fixed costs are out of control. The market dried up this year, no doubt, but they are uniquely positioned (in the wrong way). Most of their own doing.
More importantly, this growth annihilated culture. I know it is easy to brush off soft topics, but this is a standard business school case study of growing too fast. You couple this with the way below average analyst pool that came out of COVID, and it’s a perfect storm for miserable people and culture. This bonus is icing on the cake, and a function of all of this.
I worked there pre-pandemic and still have many connections there. Hope they can turn this around but it is going to hurt. Bad.
A lot of their pain is because during this tough year BBs are going down market to grab mm deals that WB normally does. Can confirm my BB basically survived this year by doing these types of deals that WB would normally do and we wouldn't touch.
Honestly isn’t that just on blair for not being able to do deals where they have expertise?
during a down market with less mega deals, everyone moves down the market a bit. GS and centerview and MS start doing stuff BoA/Citi normally do. BoA and Citi doing UBS/CS/Barclays deals. UBS does WB deals. WB has to try and do all the stuff the noname banks do.
Any update on analyst figures? Saw in a comment above that these will be disclosed today
Scroll up slightly for a comprehensive summary
VP 1s, including myself (mid bucket) got 10k bonus. Bonus got lower and lower the higher the rank this year. Morale at all time low.
10k bonus for a mid bucket VP?! How???
Across all groups?
Say sike…
My boy works in their industrials group. He owes them money
Dont forget to tip your MDs!
Anyone quit on the spot?
Young bloods this is how it starts. It's coming for other banks as well.
Leadership isn’t dumb. They all know 3 things:
Two points y’all miss:
Yall can act like you have principles, but you don’t and they don’t either. Make the bag and go home. Also, don’t think y’all are safe at other places, it’s coming.
Holy book buddy nobody’s reading that
I empathize with you. I’m sorry and it sucks.
Being more productive than my other comment above, I would recommend the following:
Learning that employers aren’t your friend and they have no obligation to work in your interest is a painful, but very important lesson.
If you want to drive the the ship and not be affected by macro shifts that are out of your control, you need to find a new industry or be so good at your job that you know at the drop of a hat you can go find employment elsewhere. Being honest, the really smart bankers are either high enough at WB that they were somewhat part of the decision to screw the juniors or aware of it and ok with it or they have left the firm by now, or they just really like their group and are fine being underpaid for a few years because they see some long term comp play or flexibility.
This ignores the fact that by doing this, they encourage the majority of their work force to "quiet quit" including senior VPs, Directors, and some MDs even.
Yeah they are too risk averse to leave like you noted (and there are not many places to go), but they will be unmotivated, stop scheduling as many meetings as before, be less responsive to clients, and generally not pull their weight. Why would they work as a banker while getting paid what someone in HR makes.
Get a few years of this mentality, and you have a shit culture, shit recruiting, subpar MDs, and the firm works on shit deals with shit clients.
Doesn't surprise me you are in PE. You guys view the bottom line, margins, costing cutting and cheap labor as the main thing that determines success/risk in a business, when its the TALENT and CULTURE that actually separates the truly great companies from those circling the drain.
Not actually in PE. Further, lots of different ways to run PE shops, so this isn’t really accurate. Hell, if anything most PE shops the last decade have been less cost cutters and more “grow at all costs and pass to the next guy” shops. The view that PE shops just cut jobs is an outdated 80s/90s view of PE.
Ignoring that though, it’s business and capitalism, I’m sorry it sucks. Most people that are investors or partners don’t want the business run sustainably, they want as much profit in as short a time as possible.
One day you can hopefully run a business the way you like and never lay off employees. Gotta find investors that are willing to underperform competitors in order to hold on to moral principles though and that’s hard.
The entire firm should just go dark for as many months as possible and collect bi-weekly paychecks. It will ruin the firm. They deserve to go bankrupt. Might as well get a corporate finance job that has a decent base and super low bonus since that's effectively what Blair does now.
PREACH
Holy shit facts fr
Any other VP numbers?
VP mid-bucket - 10k bonus
Will have to agree with some of the sentiment above - ultimately it's easier to have people quit on their own than to do layoffs. One avg/underperforming VP in my prior group received no bonus for year end, and this was when deal flow was actually good and many others in the group received a decently high comp.
He got his act together and respectfully left the team, along with another VP who also got no bonus.
Adding a point to this too that people are missing, would you rather:
They actually did the nice thing by not doing layoffs. It allows people to find options and maximize for themselves without throwing anyone on the street.
They already fired ~25% of IBD HC back in March; bonuses in 2023 were extremely low as well; delayed promotions for good performers + horrible bonuses now.
They are not doing the “nice” thing.
They did not do the nice thing. In fact, the sentiment has become envying those who were laid off because most ended up somewhere better after a few months of severance.
One big thing you're missing in your theory. Do they still want some people to leave? Certainly, depending on group and level. Those are the people that got $0 bonuses. But for most of the firm, it's turning into a retention problem driving the decision to add in an incentive comp program. Considering that a lot of your points are just wrong.
WB vs Baird - anything new
William Blair?
more like William Blows
Although the senior partners maybe superb bankers, they haven't proven they can actually manage the firm well.
It is absolutely unfathomable that the partners never considered holding back some retained earnings/reserves to help the company navigate choppy market conditions. They simply paid everything out and started to commit to high fixed spending (lavish offices, expansion etc.)
That's the issue with these partner run companies. In bad markets, if the firm maintains strong payouts, it comes from the partners. With no reserves, the partners would have to take a big pay cut or even chip in some claw backs. Good luck trying to get a bunch of greedy partners to do the latter. Hence, this is the result.
The joke around the office was that one of the tech group heads out earned Jamie Dimon in 2021. Partners across the board made a fortune. Then they went out and hired MDs on guarantees who haven’t produced any revenue since.
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