I read in one of Rosenberg’s books on becoming a partner that if current partners were way more willing to share their comp / potential comp and what it’s like being a partner, it would make PA way more attractive and significantly increase retention. Generally, I agree with this for smaller firms to an extent, but not so much for larger firms / B4. Thoughts?

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I had a partner straight up tell me his comp & structuring. I found it informative, but I’m not necessarily interested in money.

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@partner 1, I have a question on recent retention issues across the big4, you mind if I DM?

Median partner income is $1 million. In terms of what it’s like, best to just observe them and form your own conclusion. Talk is cheap but the longer you are at the firm, you get pretty good visibility into a day in the life of a partner.

In terms of motivating the future generation, a lot of younger peeps aren’t motivated by $1 million salaries. That is the problem with retention.

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Partner 1 thinks everything comes from nothing, and has the audacity to compare the word of God to Harry Potter. Silly chap

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If we could make partner in the same amount of time as earlier generations then the motivation would be there. But we can’t. They don’t want to retire and they don’t die early from natural causes at the same rate as they did in the past.

We can only get hazed for so long before $1M just doesn’t seem worth it. Particularly when you can make that in so many other careers, even ones started late.

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Another fact to consider is the chance one going to become partner. I heard someone in one other post said it is 1/6 senior managers make to partner and that is pretty low odd if let’s say counting the time you are staff.

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I mean let’s be honest that no one ever talks about a lot of senior leadership became partners when the bar was a lot lower to get into the partnership. I know the regional leadership in the northeast at my firm are like barely able to use a computer and its frustrating what they pressure us to do when they literally aren’t capable.

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Could not agree more. Not to mention the business development expectations have changed with the scale of he firm. Back when BDO was a 300M in revenue firm in the early 2000s if a senior manager built his book to $1M you were clearly in the partnership. Now you need to have like 1.8-2.5 million in revenue in your book to even be eligible to be considered, the range is obviously relevant to market location.

I tend to agree

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I definitely agree with you. When I was being recruited to RSM the partner was pretty transparent about partner comp and structure, but firms seem to keep it quiet

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What did they tell you?

Why don’t you think this info is relevant for larger firms? I think they are the most lucrative.

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I think it’s relevant, but not necessarily going to influence retention as much. I tend to find that most people I know at larger firms are pretty well aware of partner comp and what it’s like being a partner, but that’s usually not the case at smaller firms.

PwC Partner here - If you want to know what Partner comp is - simply ask! Partners do not shy away from giving you the average Partner comp for their firm. Now…they won’t tell you what they make though!

Further, the money cannot be the reason why you want to make Partner. The grind to make AND maintain your role as a high performing Partner is incredibly hard and requires a significant sacrifice from you and those close to you (family and friends).

If you have what it takes to make Partner, then the money will be there in other professional disciplines. There are a lot of company senior executives that make a ton of money - higher than B4 average Partner comp.

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Bdo1 I don’t think that’s true for me. As a senior I sometimes worked 80-100 hours a week and I also had at least one week straight where we slept maybe 2 hrs a day as a team and headed back to the printers. As a manager I’ve worked for 40 hours straight with no sleep. It’s interesting that many think we worked less which in reality we worked more IMO. It was every day 8-9 most nights except for some summer periods. I remember coming home to eat around 7 take a nap until 10 then work again until 2 am for many months. Then back at it at 8 am.

I don’t understand why they aren’t more open about it. Do they think it will cause resentment at lower levels? Everyone already knows partners make 10x+ staff and seniors so giving exact details would help people make a more informed decision about whether or not they want to stick it out.
Maybe they don’t want exact comparisons made amongst PA firms?

I could never understand why this was like a secret. As a partner in the business over 25 years I shared expected averages even with student recruits. Most had no idea how much you could make in PA.

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