ivy24

I've been looking at careers and ive narrowed down top salaries to Physicians and Finance.

However, I wanted to ask if anyone here would be able to affirm or disagree with the salary ranges for Finance according to Collegegrad.com (Salary.com).

Also, what is the difference between a financial analyst and a financial associate....apparently, the salaries are drastically different:

Level 1 Financial Analyst (0-2 yrs exp): $48,167
Level 4 Financial Analyst (7+ yrs exp): $84,067

Level 1 Corporate Finance Associate (0-2 yrs): $72,867
Level 2 " " (3-5yrs): $250,716 ($103K base, $147K bonus)
Level 3 " " (5+ yrs): $333,596 ($112K base, $221K bonus)

As you can see, the salary shoots up from "Analyst" to "Associate". My question is, are the Associate salary averages given here reliable? And if they are, then what is the difference between an analyst and an associate?

Thanks for any help

dell123

First, define "finance."

If you mean Investment Banking, an Analyst is post-Undergrad while an Associate is post-Grad. You can jump from Analyst to Associate generally after three years.

Starting salary at bulge bracket firms is usually 60k, with bonus ranging from 40-90k in recent years.

Associate salary base starts around 80-90k, with bonuses of ~1.0-2.0 of base. (Thats first year)

Analyst -> Associate -> Vice President -> Senior Vice President -> Managing Director

cbreeze

This looks like salaries of people within the finance department in corporations like Fortune 500.

This is more like the salaries people who work in investment banking. Most corporations except investment banks don't distribute such big bonuses especially with only 3-5 years experience.

What you are seeing differences in pay in different industries.

ivy24

Thanks alot dell123, that clears up a lot. And wow bonuses ~1.0-2.0 of base, thats amazing!

cbreeze, is investment banking the only industry that yields such high bonuses? Or are there other business/finance careers that do so as well?

kindofblue

Are you choosing your career by which one has the highest salary? =/

ivy24

No, im just curios. Im interested in business regardless. I just came across some high numbers when i was researching and I was a little skeptical.