Also called: Direct Lending Associate
Decides whether to lend money directly to companies, without a bank in the middle, a fast-growing corner of finance.
You review a software company's finances, model whether it can repay a $150 million loan even in a recession and negotiate protections in the loan contract.
Not tracked separately by BLS; figures are typical total compensation from industry surveys. Senior investors also earn 'carried interest' (a share of fund profits) that can be worth far more than salary, or nothing if the fund does poorly.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in finance or accounting.
Ways in: 4-year college, Certification. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Finance, Accounting, Economics.
Growing much faster than average. Private credit is one of the fastest-growing parts of finance.
Medium risk for 10 years. Private credit is growing fast, which offsets AI doing more of the credit memo and modeling work.
Classes: Accounting, AP Statistics, AP Macroeconomics, Computer applications.
Official data: O*NET occupation 13-2041.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.