SF, 3 days in person, $80k

Prev Year bonus $1.5k as a formality since 0.5 years of experience/deals fresh out of college was almost nothing.

This year's bonus: aiming for $8-10k high ball, but $5k expected across the board given the market environment and the "situation" I ran into. (Also, please let me know if $8k is a realistic aim)

 

"situation":

Created middle market financial modeling step by step guide and reorganized existing resources to help new analysts. 4 months of work, got bad rep due to my hasty intitiation to email beta version to the entire credit organization of 200+ people; more so, it was because management thought I was bashing on their program because I stated analyst feedbacks bluntly when writing the inteoductiory email for the guide. I originally sent the email to do batch testing. I did apologize and accept all feedbacks to make it up after.

However, many analysts I talked to have faced the issue with a lack of modeling experience. Even though we were taught for weeks to do this one job well, we were diverted to other deals and did not get to model until 3+ months later. By that point, many of us have forgotten how to model already. 

I proposed (1) reorient resource page to mirror work process flow, so new analyst can extract resource they need in the order of the deal flow process and get more familiar with their job. (2) step by step guide as mentioned above, broke down 3000+ lines of excel in sections mirroring common modeling process flow based on my past year of experience. (3) proposed to management to add more modeling practices in the website where it is highly visible so analysts can practice modeling during down time. (again, also a feedback I got from chatting with analysts.)

My brag sheet for bonus discussion:

Year 1: 33 deals ranging from less than $1mm card program, to $10-50mm cash burn life science company working cap revolver, to $50-500mm term loan for M&A, de novo in healthcare services, some direct lending. Biggest deal participated was $450mm unitranche term loan.

Year 2: 11 deals in a brand new team, lead the deals from beginning to end like an associate, mentored new analysts and interns on modeling and entire credit process, composed the ste by step tool guide, worked with our tech people to draft sketches, frameworks, and prototypes of a more streamlined work platform. 

I personally like technology and finance, been studying web dev, user design, back end data analytics, investment, tech management throughout past 5 years during uni and post-grad. This is why I came to do all these works. I know that the skills I acquired and the works I put out is value adding. but because of the bad rep after the "situation", Idk how I can even bring up the bonus discussion. I have a 40hr job but works on weekends and after work hour to get shit done for my deals and also to alleviate my underwriter's stress. It seems fair to me to ask for $8k when I am only earning $80k in a high LC area during a historical inflation that will whiplash until at least end 2023.

What do you think?

Should I bring up the discussion actively with manager?

Should I look for alt job?

Does another job fit my initiations better?

Does my compensation seem to be already high or can be higher?