Reply to: long term perm bonus beats day rate?

[chef]

did anyone get a bonus this year or expected to get one in the next? performance reviews, extra wink etc.....

Last weekend I got an excellent bonus from gf Chef, I'd like to think it was based on my performance

[FarmerPalmer]

That is why I took my last permanent job - The permanent staff salaries were comparable with my turnover and then they had huge bonuses, pensions, healthcover as well.

Within 10 months of going permanent I was at risk of redundancy and that carried on for another 7 years before I took voluntary redundancy.

Never again !

[Francko]

If you earn £800 a day for two years and invest 200K in the stock market it will double in 10 years.

become worthless

[Mich the Tester]

I don’t care. Dante’s visions of hell cannot come close to the nightmare of permiedom. In the words of Sir Alan, ‘wild horses wouldn’t drag me back into working for someone else’.

[BlasterBates]

The 100K bonus will come after 10 years, for the first 5 years you earn bog all. Also it depends on you running a department, programmers don't get that.

If you earn £800 a day for two years and invest 200K in the stock market it will double in 10 years. Currently I would say stocks will double in the next 18 months.

[b0redom]

[QUOTE=d000hg;833443]

Good point, except for the minor point that hordes of contractors are also out of work and are only experienced in the IB world.

Never worked in the banking/finance industry myself, just pointing out that holding out for a 200k bonus in 10 years time might not be the best idea, but then I don't make £800/day either

[lukemg]

Not just IB's. My friends are in a range of professions, lawyers, buyers, bean counters etc. I expect career earnings to be similar to mine, even though I have often been on a higher rate. Their 'packages' seem to be on an inexorable rise, mine is up and down, with bench time as well. I enjoy the variety, but not sure I expect to end up any better off by the time the pensions have been collected !

[ChimpMaster]

At a certain IB that I know of, IT permies are told they they can get up to 40% of salary as bonus at year-end. So if they earn £60k, they will get £24k max.

To get £100k bonus, they would have to earn £250k, which is unheard of here. Having said that, at year-end they always complain about how they got more like 10% instead of 40% (and that was in boom times!).

I cannot believe that any IT permie would receive such large bonuses unless they are very senior, or working at the cutting edge front-end side of Trading desks etc.

I'd rather take my meagre daily rate than leave my income to chance.

[scaramanga]

In the long term, if you stick around an investment bank as a permie for 10 years - eventually your bonuses will leave you far richer than if you contracted all that time. IT permies who stick around for 10+ years can be on 100-200K annual bonuses.

If so there's nothing to stop you contracting for most of the 10 years and then joining the dark side. They really don't care, especially in boom times. Anything can be bull-tulipted.

I joined an IB on a grad program in 2005. I left to contact at another firm in 2007 where I have been since. A friend who joined on the same scheme and is younger than me left about the same time as I did to be a developer at a hedge fund. His bonus was 100% of salary and he can invest as much of it as he wants in the fund which will be matched 50% by the firm. So he puts in 20K, firm adds 10K.

At the moment I am slightly better off, primarily because of tax (sadly I am not on 800 a day though!). Unless of course the fund goes up astronomically.

To return to your original point, anything is possible in IB/hedge fund world. Contracting may have a lower top ceiling than permie. I suspect my mate will overtake me on a 5 year view unless I change my strategy!

As a caveat, he works much longer hours than me. You take your choice...

[aussielong]

You missed the best option:
Get a massive salary that beats the average contractor income PLUS all the benefits.

HTH

I can't beat 800 pound a day as a permie programmer.

Can you SAS?

[swamp]

£800 a day is nearly £200K a year. The contractor makes £2m gross in ten years.

Meanwhile the permie makes £200K bonus after ten years' hard service.

Contractor has retired to the sun to enjoy the fruits of their labour, and the permie is only just starting to earn their wad.

[sasguru]

You missed the best option:
Get a massive salary that beats the average contractor income PLUS all the benefits.

HTH

[aussielong]

It's the pension that makes the difference in the long term. Even the relatively junior people I've worked with over the past 20 years now have decent pensions sorted.

Do you mean that if you contract you have more cash earlier. So you can put it into a pension earlier and in the long run compound interest will leave you considerably better off than if you slowly drip feed in cash like a permie would?

[dozer]

did anyone get a bonus this year or expected to get one in the next? performance reviews, extra wank etc.....

[d000hg]

[QUOTE=b0redom;833440]

In the long term, if you stick around an investment bank as a permie for 10 years - eventually your bonuses will leave you far richer than if you contracted all that time. IT permies who stick around for 10+ years can be on 100-200K annual bonuses.


Unemployed after their institution has collapsed.

Good point, except for the minor point that hordes of contractors are also out of work and are only experienced in the IB world.