Global Investment Banks Are Hungry For Canadian MBAs
The latest recruiting season for Canadian MBAs seeking careers in investment banking was much more robust than a year earlier in terms of the number of companies on campus, the amount of offers to be had and the starting salary potential.
For instance, starting salaries at The University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management - excluding bonuses - ranged from C$65,000 to C$100,000 last year, compared with C$80,000 to C$90,000 a year earlier.
Without question "2010 was a boom recruiting year based on the number of firms recruiting on campus, the number of positions available, and the number of students getting those positions," says Jeff Muzzerall, director of Rotman's Corporate Connections Centre. Based on last fall's recruitment effort, the number of firms recruiting MBA students for investment banking jobs and the number of posts available increased about 20 percent over the previous year, Muzzerall told EFC News.
What's changed? Recruiting by the major U.S. banks, for one thing: Now that the global economy has improved and TARP restrictions have been lifted, firms like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are hiring liberally all over the globe including Canada, Muzzerall says.
Other foreign-based banks - particularly UK-based Barclays and Japan's Nomura Holdings - were poaching liberally during the latest on-campus recruiting season and "left some of the banks leaner than usual," observes Sharon Irwin-Foulon, career management director The University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business.
Only one of Canada's major banks has significantly raised salaries this season, Muzzeral says. "Our Canada banks tend to cluster," he explains, adding that local Canadian banks have initiated little movement in investment bank salaries.
Research/Trading Salaries Up; Signing Bonuses Down
Whoever's responsible, the latest pay breakdowns for Rotman's investment banking grads show numbers trending upward. For instance:
- Equity researchers earned an average starting salary of C$86,000 for 2010, with pay ranging from C$70,000 to C$135,000. In 2009, Rotman's equity research MBA graduates earned an average starting salary of $82,000, with pay ranging from $C70, 000 To C$90,000
- Sales and trading hires earned an average starting salary of C$86,600 last year, with the range between C$70 and C$135,000. Signing bonuses are another story. Bonuses took the place of salary raises in some sectors back in 2009.
- Factoring in the activity of banking institutions, management consultants and marketing firms, signing bonuses for Rotman MBA graduates were actually higher for the class of 2009, at an average of C$17,459 for '09 versus C$13,600 for 2010. (It's important to note, however, that the signing bonus figures don't break out bankers experience from other, non-financial MBA talent.)
One reason for the improvement is the elimination of constraints TARP imposed on U.S. banks. "When TARP was active, any financial institution receiving benefits couldn't hire international students," notes Musserall.
