How much am I worth? MD, Head of Convertible Bonds, Europe

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

Salary of MD, Head of Convertible Bonds, European Sales and

Trading: 90,000 - 150,000, with bonus of 200% - 600%+ of salary

People at this level will be expert salesmen (or, in a handful of cases,

saleswomen) with perhaps a decade's experience.

Typically, convertible sales people come from a fixed income or equities background - ideally, though less commonly, they have experience of both.

Ingrid Gottschalk, a structured products and ECM headhunter with Odgers

Ray & Berndtson, says that to make it big in convertible bonds - and to command the best pay packages - you need the background to be able to talk knowledgeably to a wide range

of clients.

Convertible bonds are bought by four types of client: hedge funds, pure

convertible funds, fixed income funds and equity funds.

Duncan Gray, managing principal, convertible bonds and derivates, at Alexander Mann, says:"If you're a junior person, you service one type of client, but at the head of desk level you

have to talk to all the different funds, and that's where the big money

is, that's what sets the best people apart."

There has been quite a lot of movement in the convertible bond market in the

last six months, according to our panel.

"Convertibles are very much in vogue, despite the economic climate," says Gray.

"Packages of $1 million are not unusual for the senior guys."

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