What's the appeal of working on Wall Street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Judging by this board, that seems to be a goal of many. I grew up in the South and never heard of anyone aspiring to work on Wall Street, so I have to wonder what the big deal is with it. Yes, I assume the money is good, but aren't the hours horrific? And when people say "work on Wall Street" is that just a euphemism for going into finance or do people literally mean work on Wall Street? That would entail living in Manhattan, which certainly appeals to some, but would be considered dreadful to many others.

The best school in the south (Duke) is a huge pipeline into wallstreet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Judging by this board, that seems to be a goal of many. I grew up in the South and never heard of anyone aspiring to work on Wall Street, so I have to wonder what the big deal is with it. Yes, I assume the money is good, but aren't the hours horrific? And when people say "work on Wall Street" is that just a euphemism for going into finance or do people literally mean work on Wall Street? That would entail living in Manhattan, which certainly appeals to some, but would be considered dreadful to many others.

The best school in the south (Duke) is a huge pipeline into wallstreet.

Duke is not the best school in the south.

[Anonymous]

Karen Ho, an anthropologist, wrote an entire ethnography about this. Besides the money, it's about considering yourself "smart" and Wall Street as the ultimate destination for "smart" people.

[Anonymous]

to say that you worked on wall street

P.S. this is outdated the trend for several years has been work in silicon valley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to say that you worked on wall street

P.S. this is outdated the trend for several years has been work in silicon valley

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. Nothing else.

I like money as much as anyone else, but to have to live in NY and work 70+ hours a week to get it? No thank you.

If you're successful it's A LOT of money. Crazy money. Like multimillion dollar apartment in Manhattan and multimillion dollar Hamptons beach house money. And many people work that many hours in non Wall Street jobs and don't make nearly that kind of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. A friend moved with family to make $500k a year plus bonus. Plan to make that much for 5 years and then go elsewhere.

That's not that great of a plan, especially with family.

First off it takes around 500k to support a family in Manhattan and send two kids to private school. A two bedroom apartment (kids sharing a room) will be around 5-6k a month. Private school for two kids is 100k a year. Income taxes are extremely high. Buying into a decent coop requires at least 50 percent down and a year of majntenance and mortgage payments in the bank.

In terms of the bonus, bonuses vest over time and only a portion is in cash. So if your friend leaves at year five then he or she will be leaving a lot of money on the table and that will include some of what he or she earned in years 2-5. Most firms vest over a period of three years.

Also then what is this person going to do? It's hard to match a Wall Street salary except maybe out in Silicon Valley. After you're making close to a million a year it's hard to give that up and people are going to find it strange if you are applying for 200k jobs in flyover country. In fact they won't interview you as they will assume something is wrong.

Thanks. I'm not saying I agreed with his plan it's just what he ended up doing. kids are super little and mom SAH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. Nothing else.

I like money as much as anyone else, but to have to live in NY and work 70+ hours a week to get it? No thank you.

If you're successful it's A LOT of money. Crazy money. Like multimillion dollar apartment in Manhattan and multimillion dollar Hamptons beach house money. And many people work that many hours in non Wall Street jobs and don't make nearly that kind of money.

that's like saying if you are a successful ballplayer, it's a lot of money and crazy money.

With the up and out structure and burn out rates - most who start on WS don't see that kind of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is easy. If you are already at the right school it is a fairly mindless path to go into banking or consulting, and if you don't know what you want to do, you might as well make some money for a few years in a job that doesn't close any doors.

Yep. It's like law school but at least you are getting paid a lot. A lot of elite college high achievers have been on a very narrow track, always doing what's expected, never stepping aside to think about what they actually want from K-college. College graduation is the first point where they might have to make some scary decision for themselves. Easy to follow the same path as others and either go to wall street or law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is easy. If you are already at the right school it is a fairly mindless path to go into banking or consulting, and if you don't know what you want to do, you might as well make some money for a few years in a job that doesn't close any doors.

Yep. It's like law school but at least you are getting paid a lot. A lot of elite college high achievers have been on a very narrow track, always doing what's expected, never stepping aside to think about what they actually want from K-college. College graduation is the first point where they might have to make some scary decision for themselves. Easy to follow the same path as others and either go to wall street or law school.

Yes. I went to work on Wall Street and it launched my career. It also helped me avoid graduate school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. A friend moved with family to make $500k a year plus bonus. Plan to make that much for 5 years and then go elsewhere.

That's not that great of a plan, especially with family.

First off it takes around 500k to support a family in Manhattan and send two kids to private school. A two bedroom apartment (kids sharing a room) will be around 5-6k a month. Private school for two kids is 100k a year. Income taxes are extremely high. Buying into a decent coop requires at least 50 percent down and a year of majntenance and mortgage payments in the bank.

In terms of the bonus, bonuses vest over time and only a portion is in cash. So if your friend leaves at year five then he or she will be leaving a lot of money on the table and that will include some of what he or she earned in years 2-5. Most firms vest over a period of three years.

Also then what is this person going to do? It's hard to match a Wall Street salary except maybe out in Silicon Valley. After you're making close to a million a year it's hard to give that up and people are going to find it strange if you are applying for 200k jobs in flyover country. In fact they won't interview you as they will assume something is wrong.

Yep. A family member of mine works on Wall Street and is unable to give it up, even at great personal/family sacrifice. It's pretty sad to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. A friend moved with family to make $500k a year plus bonus. Plan to make that much for 5 years and then go elsewhere.

That's not that great of a plan, especially with family.

First off it takes around 500k to support a family in Manhattan and send two kids to private school. A two bedroom apartment (kids sharing a room) will be around 5-6k a month. Private school for two kids is 100k a year. Income taxes are extremely high. Buying into a decent coop requires at least 50 percent down and a year of majntenance and mortgage payments in the bank.

In terms of the bonus, bonuses vest over time and only a portion is in cash. So if your friend leaves at year five then he or she will be leaving a lot of money on the table and that will include some of what he or she earned in years 2-5. Most firms vest over a period of three years.

Also then what is this person going to do? It's hard to match a Wall Street salary except maybe out in Silicon Valley. After you're making close to a million a year it's hard to give that up and people are going to find it strange if you are applying for 200k jobs in flyover country. In fact they won't interview you as they will assume something is wrong.

Thanks. I'm not saying I agreed with his plan it's just what he ended up doing. kids are super little and mom SAH.

Of course the wife stays at home. There's no other option really. It's a very gross and sexist place, still, both structurally and expressly.

[Anonymous]

Listen, I worked on Wall Street, but was a little older. It's a great spring board for so MANY careers! I wish I went to Wall Street after college or grad school. I didn't understand the world of VC or hedge funds, etc until I was an investment banker.

FYI - $500K is just base. The money is in the bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Money is the main thing but there are some people who really just like the deal aspect. I went to a top b-school and there are indeed plenty of people who dream of working on Wall Street - at least 1/2 my class went that route.

This. The convoluted HYPS poster seems fairly full of his/herself. I went to 2 of HYPS, and the above describes everyone I know who went to WS. Many of them did parlay their finance jobs into working on the finance side of companies in fashion etc, but if that was their goal going to WS upon graduation they were pretty tight-lipped about it.

My degree(s) are very much in demand on WS, and I do enjoy the intellectual exercise of finance, but I can't bring myself to work in a sector that I perceive does so little in comparison to what it pays. But then I think how much wealthier I could have been, and I think maybe I chose the wrong path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. A friend moved with family to make $500k a year plus bonus. Plan to make that much for 5 years and then go elsewhere.

That's not that great of a plan, especially with family.

First off it takes around 500k to support a family in Manhattan and send two kids to private school. A two bedroom apartment (kids sharing a room) will be around 5-6k a month. Private school for two kids is 100k a year. Income taxes are extremely high. Buying into a decent coop requires at least 50 percent down and a year of majntenance and mortgage payments in the bank.

In terms of the bonus, bonuses vest over time and only a portion is in cash. So if your friend leaves at year five then he or she will be leaving a lot of money on the table and that will include some of what he or she earned in years 2-5. Most firms vest over a period of three years.

Also then what is this person going to do? It's hard to match a Wall Street salary except maybe out in Silicon Valley. After you're making close to a million a year it's hard to give that up and people are going to find it strange if you are applying for 200k jobs in flyover country. In fact they won't interview you as they will assume something is wrong.

Thanks. I'm not saying I agreed with his plan it's just what he ended up doing. kids are super little and mom SAH.

Of course the wife stays at home. There's no other option really. [/b]It's a very gross and sexist place[b], still, both structurally and expressly.

The world is sexist. There are still plenty of women working on Wall Street. The problem is that it's extremely difficult to have both a husband and wife working on Wall Street with children in the picture. The children would basically be raised 100 percent by nannies. It makes sense for one parent to stay home and keep the family and household intact.