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I started working at a large bank straight after college as an entry level position in NYC and have slowly made it to the ranks of "Vice President", which is just a fancy name for someone who has a higher job grade than most. I make about 78K per year with a modest bonus. Over my 8 years at this company, I maintained a pretty decent and growing network of people.
I'm probably the best person in my group at work, but I feel like I'm the tallest person in a class of midgets sometimes. I'm just looking for a new challenge that comes up with a higher compensation, let's say, 100K, that sounds fair for NYC, right?
The problem is that while I have a pretty good base of knowledge for the finance and banking industry, I'm not sure where my hard skills are. I'm an excel guru but also have a strong knowledge on Access and VBA. But where I think I stand out is my general knowledge of the different products and services done within the financial industry. I just don't think any of these stand out as "hard skills". Is there a certification that can help?
As for networking, not everyone outside my company stays in contact as much as I'd hope, but at the same time, I'm continually trying to meet new people at my job to make more contacts. I've been told I should go out to drinks with some of these people multiple nights per week, but in reality, no one works in the same office and everyone leaves at different times (we all have families), so the advice I get from people of my parents' generation doesn't seem to bring much.
The few times I've gotten responses on applying for other jobs, I think my issue is that I expect too much money. 100K might be too much, but given the research I've done on NYC, that sounds about on point or maybe even too conservative for someone with my age, experience, and education (I have a masters).
So this is kind of an open-ended thread. I just wanted to get my thoughts in one place and see if anyone had any general advice. I just feel like I'm at a stand-still here. On one hand, I'm fairly safe at my company, but it's not paying enough and I live very modestly already.
Your analogy might be accurate. The quality of your company might be low if VPs are only making 78k/year. Alternatively, they might be giving out titles instead of raises, which isn't uncommon in larger institutions. To put it in perspective, I'm in a lower COL city than NYC, and mid-level analysts (several levels below even an Assistant VP) in my company make over six figures (I'm in investment management, for whatever that's worth, we have a lot employees moving to/from major banks to us).
What's your specific job in the bank, and what's your masters degree in?
Your analogy might be accurate. The quality of your company might be low if VPs are only making 78k/year. Alternatively, they might be giving out titles instead of raises, which isn't uncommon in larger institutions. To put it in perspective, I'm in a lower COL city than NYC, and mid-level analysts (several levels below even an Assistant VP) in my company make over six figures (I'm in investment management, for whatever that's worth, we have a lot employees moving to/from major banks to us).
What's your specific job in the bank, and what's your masters degree in?
I'm more investment SERVICES. My job is a mix of revenue analysis and cost accounting. I have an MBA (which was thankfully sponsored by my employer). .
I'm more investment SERVICES. My job is a mix of revenue analysis and cost accounting. I have an MBA (which was thankfully sponsored by my employer). .
I don't think it's unreasonable at all to want above $100k, if not more. Do you have anyone reporting to you? What is the progression you see for yourself at this point? The three options that immediately come to mind are becoming a manger, moving into consulting, or moving into an IT role (someone with your background who gets into work as a business analyst or business systems analyst would do very well, IMO).
Also, what does your masters program give for salary statistics? You should be able to call their alumni office any time and get career help, average salaries, etc. It's a resource a lot of people don't use as much as they should. You're in a good place, though. The higher up you go, the less 'hard skills' matter. Soft skills, learning how to navigate politics, how to deal with people, how to think strategically about the future, etc., is what moves people up after they get to a more senior analyst type role.
An experienced MBA making 78K at NYC?? You're definitely selling yourself short.
You mentioned that you do accounting. You can make well over six figure working as an Assistant Controller at the right company. Ever looked into that?
What about trade associations. Every industry has them. Anything local that has regular meetings. Maybe a yearly conference. These can be a gold mine for contacts. Also continuing education.
If you are great at excel check out data analytics and data science career options. Tableau. Big Data is the future. For big, publicly traded companies I've never seen a job listed under 150k.
If you want 150K you will have to become a manager and manage people. I'm not sure how you feel about that. But yes, it sounds like instead of money, they gave you a fancy title of VP without really becoming a true VP.
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