Since first-year IBD salaries have gone up to £65k most small funds have struggled to compete so it might be a bit at discount now (~10% for starters and even ~20% for associates). Also useful to get intel about dodgy small HFs and 3-ppl shops (a lot in London) that you might want to avoid even losing time interviewing for.Īt the previous fund (REPE MM), comp was in line with pre-covid banking so think £50k + 70/100% bonus and £60k + 70/100% bonus for the second year going up to £80k + same bonus % as an associate. and you might even get a referral if they know each other well. Maintaining that kind of network helps a lot when you get calls from funds/teams you don't really know well and reaching out to your network of old colleagues can provide you insights on the track record, people, culture etc. That said, for me the most important part was keeping good contacts with people you worked with in the past. Even worse, you don't want to reach out to a person who is a friend of your boss and might tell them you reached out bcs you're looking elsewhere (happens). One last point is that REPE MF/UMM analyst/associate pool in London is small, maybe 100 ppl overall, so I think it is easy to spoil your reputation if you network too aggressively becoming "the annoying LinkedIn spammer". Moreover, teams being small means that if you cold-email someone at a certain fund asking for tips on the interview/process, they are likely going to be your interviewer so they're not going to tell you a lot or they would give you unfair advantage compared to others.
Teams on average are really small (like 4-20 people max) so they mostly recruit if someone leaves or they increase headcount (typically when they raise a new fund), there is no "on cycle" recruiting to network in advance for unfortunately. Maybe it's more a European thing but most of the recruiting happens exclusively via HHs. I wouldn't say that networking was a huge part of what ultimately got me the role or any offers.
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