Finance roles with high compensations

Career Advice
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What are the finance roles that are salaried roles with generous compensation?

I am looking at other roles and the majority of them are commission-based. Aren’t there any salary-based roles in finance?

I am clueless about the career path. Obviously, being generously compensated matters but would love to learn about the roles that are generously compensated.

Thanks!

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We’ve written a blog post about this topic!

How much money can you make in finance? (with finance salary infographics)

Compensation amounts and structures vary substantially across companies, but generally:

  • For sales-focused roles, having a commission element to compensation in addition to a salary is extremely common. Some places do solely commission-based, but I think it’s most common to see the commission portion being around 10-50% of your total comp. For great salespeople, this could go WAY higher. Commission-based pay can be a risk to the employee and not everyone has the sales personality, but the highest performers tend to make way more money than salaried employees at the same level.
  • For advisory/analyst-focused roles, you can expect an annual bonus that correlates with the firm’s overall performance. I think it’s most common to see an additional 10-25% of your salary as a bonus. In bad years, you might get a small bonus with no salary increase, or possibly get no bonus at all. I believe it’s also a fairly common practice to not pay a bonus to first-year analysts.

Compensation is a tricky subject that employees and employers both struggle with. It’s important to think of what’s most important for you. If you’re early in your career, able to take risks, and enjoy sales, leaning more towards commission-based pay might be the right call. If you plan to buy a house in a couple of years, a higher salary might be the better option, as lenders are most interested in seeing stable pay history.

I personally feel that enjoying your day-to-day work and having a good work-life balance is more important than getting the highest monetary compensation.

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Yeah, I am 38 and looking to settle down in a few years. I am not a fan of commission base which is why I am hoping that the employer I end up working with will be ok with me having a few OBAs to supplement my primary income.

Thank you for the blog link. I’ll have a look.

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