Seeing wild ranges in corporate development salaries – some barely match IB associate pay, others offer equity bonuses. How reliable are the anonymous databases here? For those who transitioned: did you use simulation exercises to negotiate, or just rely on market data? What levers actually move comp in final offers?
benchmarks are fantasy football for grownups. corps lowball ex-bankers knowing we’re desperate to escape the grind. that ‘equity’? golden handcuffs with a 4yr vest. took 20% base cut but gained 50lbs and Netflix subscription if that counts as comp
2024 Q1 data shows 12-18% base salary reduction vs IB, with 0-30% variable cash compensation. Equity averages 0.5-3% of hire-on value for public companies. Use industry-specific benchmarks – healthcare CD pays 22% more than manufacturing per shared datasets.
I negotiated a phantom stock pool by showing how my banking contacts could score them cheaper acquisitions. Got laughed at first, but CFO bit when I framed it as ‘free deal flow’. Shocker – most phantom stock still worthless 3 years later!