How much am I worth? MD, fixed income sales, European global bank

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

Salary of MD, fixed income sales, European global bank: 125,000 - 150,000, total package 700,000.

There are plenty of unhappy people in fixed income these days, smarting over what they see as the paltry size of their bonuses.

In the sea-saw world of financial markets, equities' loss has been debt's gain. Money that was going into the equity markets a couple of years ago has flowed steadily into the safer haven of bonds.

Performances at some banks have been very good indeed, so people employed in the fixed income sector are not impressed that their remuneration is in many cases pretty much the same as last year. For a head of fixed income sales that is likely to mean 500,000 - 1,000,000, depending on the house.

How to divide up the bonus pool is a perennial problem for investment bank bosses. On the one hand, the City of London is a fiercely meritocratic place and people expect to get paid on their own performance and possibly that of their team. But in a market like the present one where equities and corporate finance have had a dreadful year, overall profits are down and layoffs have been substantial, it is very hard to give one set of people a pay rise.

&quotInvestment bankers are not very collective folk," says Tony Tucker managing director of recruitment company ERG and a former bank HR director himself. &quotThere are always jealousies between debt, equity and corporate finance.

What a sensible bank does is divide the bonus pool into three parts to reflect individual performance, team and the institution as a whole. But not many banks do that because of the fear that the prima donnas will leave."

As for the job market in fixed income, it has had a reasonable year. Very few of the banking layoffs have hit fixed income teams and as Peter Win, a recruitment consultant with Alexander Mann Global markets puts it: &quotWe've not been asked to look for hundreds of people, but people are recruiting."

Win says that there has also been a bit more internal recruitment than usual, especially among sector specialists. &quotIf I were looking for a fixed income credit researcher in telecoms, for example, the first place I would look is in the equities department for a telecoms analyst to switch into fixed income. It's looking at the same market, but a different product. That's happened a bit this year," he says.

Overall, says Win, this is a good time to be in fixed income. It is a tough market due to the state of the economy and competition for mandates is high. But there is business waiting in the wings.

&quotA lot of European companies were looking to come to the bond markets for the first time last year and then held off," says Win. &quotFixed income is on a cusp."

Figures and commentary for How much am I worth? are provided by the following firms: Alexander Mann Global Markets, Executive Resourcing Group and TMP Worldwide