How much am I worth? Assistant manager, project finance

A panel of specialist headhunters give their assessment of typical pay packages:

Salary of assistant manager, project finance:35,000-60,000, bonus 10% - 75%

Project finance has been coming into its own. Ten or 15 years

ago it tended to be "at the very end of corporate finance, down by the dog

basket," says Mark Horlock, head of project and structured finance at

the headhunting firm Longbridge. Today, he says, it is a more mature and sophisticated area.

One of the main salary differentiators for project financiers at assistant manager level is where they have been hired from.

There are three main spawning grounds recruiters look at: corporate finance

departments of banks, the big accountancy firms and industry (for example,

someone with an oil industry background brings useful sector knowledge

for financing oil projects).

In all cases employers are looking for highly numerate people, dab hands at

Excel, often with a maths or engineering background.

Those recruited from corporate finance tend to command higher salaries, closer to the 60,000 level than those switching from industry, where salaries are more modest, explains Sam Dewhurst, consultant at the headhunters, Odgers Ray & Berndtson.

The banking types will typically be those with financial modelling and

analytical skills, "probably someone who could structure a derivative as

well," says Dewhurst.

As for bonuses, these depend on the amount of revenue generated by the

team, and to some extent by personal contribution.

"Assistant manager is a modelling and structuring role. That is how you learn your trade on the way up. If you come up with a sexy idea for how to structure a deal, that is a

greater contribution than someone who is just putting together something

thought up by their boss," says Horlock at Longbridge.

The market for project financiers is a bit quiet at the moment, says our

panel of headhunters, but demand for people is strongest at the lower and

middle ends.

"The world of PFI [private finance initiative] is fuelling this in the UK and Europe and it needs a lot of people to come in at the ground floor," says Horlock.

Dewhurst adds: "In the 1994-96 slowdown a limited number of people came in, so

there's now a shortage of people at the assistant manager and up to senior

associate director level. People aged 25-30 are in quite a lot of demand."

Figures and commentary for '"How much am I worth?" are provided by the following firms: Alexander Mann, Longbridge, Odgers Ray & Berndtson and SHP Associates.