What's the appeal of working on Wall Street?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Money. Nothing else.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

For some it's better than working 70+ hrs in a DC non profit and not making any money.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Quick money in NYC. Lifestyle.

[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.

For some it's better than working 70+ hrs in a DC non profit and not making any money.

And even better than working 70+ hrs in DC for some narcissistic politician and not making any money.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

For some it's better than working 70+ hrs in a DC non profit and not making any money.

I agree with that. But most don't work 70+ hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Money. Nothing else.

no - it isn't the money to most people at target schools (except for perhaps Wharton). At non-targets or semi-targets, yes it is the money, but not to kids at targets.

I can tell by your answer you didn't go to a target school where all the firms recruit for front office jobs.

The main appeal is the exit options and career path flexibility.

What i mean is this:

Imagine that you are a young bright HYPS or Williams grad at age 21/22 who majored in a social science or some other kind of soft major and come junior or senior year you don't really know what to do. You have a few interests but don't want to really box yourself in and you dont want to go grad school yet because you don't know where you want to take your career.

"Wall Street" at target schools swoop in and present a very structured and clear recruiting path that appeals to kids who already conquered such a path by getting into target schools.

Wall Street (it is changing slightly now but in the past) also presents itself as something for UG's to do for 2 or 3 years so they can get 'work experience' on their resume from a top firm, gain analytical skills, provides opportunities for you to show others you can work in high pressure situations, but most importantly without a long term commitment.

Industry and government knows that wall street has done some of the 'screening' for them already so after your 2-3 year stint at a firm, you leave all the aforementioned experience but also with the flexibility of knowing industry firms want you to staff some of their 'high profile' teams that more closely report to the c-suite.

when you look at job descriptions for teams that do interesting firm-wide work at a top company, a lot of them ask for "2-4 years IB or top strategy consulting experience" even if its everything from cpg to auto oems to appareal to whatever sector you want to name.

Real examples:

cute princeton history grad, dreams of working in fashion -> JPM IB analyst -> after two years applies and has offers for great paying jobs doing strategy and corp development at three well known fashion and luxury brand houses. She would've had a much harder time breaking into the industry without going to JPM first or if she did go out of UG would've been stuck on a different career track in the industry and not a more 'accelerated' track without the ib experience.

Top LAC grad, wants to work in sports -> IB analyst at top firm -> after 2 years joins Nike corp strategy and development, uses that as a platform to join an elite team at Nike that does their cutting edge demand creation work.

I can go on and on but that's the appeal of wall street (and consulting) to students at targets.

Wall street is a quasi 'finishing school' where you get paid to attend.

the actual work as an IB analyst and associate is fucking boring and tedious.

Trading is a different animal - kids that go into trading, do it for the money and interest in markets.

[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.

when was this? WS as a career route is not popular at HBS these days

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-06/for-harvard-mbas-congrats-on-a-bank-job-really-means-i-m-sorry-

wharton and booth are probably different but the overall trend is down in terms of attractiveness of finance for top mbas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. Nothing else.

no - it isn't the money to most people at target schools (except for perhaps Wharton). At non-targets or semi-targets, yes it is the money, but not to kids at targets.

I can tell by your answer you didn't go to a target school where all the firms recruit for front office jobs.

The main appeal is the exit options and career path flexibility.

What i mean is this:

Imagine that you are a young bright HYPS or Williams grad at age 21/22 who majored in a social science or some other kind of soft major and come junior or senior year you don't really know what to do. You have a few interests but don't want to really box yourself in and you dont want to go grad school yet because you don't know where you want to take your career.

"Wall Street" at target schools swoop in and present a very structured and clear recruiting path that appeals to kids who already conquered such a path by getting into target schools.

Wall Street (it is changing slightly now but in the past) also presents itself as something for UG's to do for 2 or 3 years so they can get 'work experience' on their resume from a top firm, gain analytical skills, provides opportunities for you to show others you can work in high pressure situations, but most importantly without a long term commitment.

Industry and government knows that wall street has done some of the 'screening' for them already so after your 2-3 year stint at a firm, you leave all the aforementioned experience but also with the flexibility of knowing industry firms want you to staff some of their 'high profile' teams that more closely report to the c-suite.

when you look at job descriptions for teams that do interesting firm-wide work at a top company, a lot of them ask for "2-4 years IB or top strategy consulting experience" even if its everything from cpg to auto oems to appareal to whatever sector you want to name.

Real examples:

cute princeton history grad, dreams of working in fashion -> JPM IB analyst -> after two years applies and has offers for great paying jobs doing strategy and corp development at three well known fashion and luxury brand houses. She would've had a much harder time breaking into the industry without going to JPM first or if she did go out of UG would've been stuck on a different career track in the industry and not a more 'accelerated' track without the ib experience.

Top LAC grad, wants to work in sports -> IB analyst at top firm -> after 2 years joins Nike corp strategy and development, uses that as a platform to join an elite team at Nike that does their cutting edge demand creation work.

I can go on and on but that's the appeal of wall street (and consulting) to students at targets.

Wall street is a quasi 'finishing school' where you get paid to attend.

the actual work as an IB analyst and associate is fucking boring and tedious.

Trading is a different animal - kids that go into trading, do it for the money and interest in markets.

Wow. What a long and convoluted way to say "to make lots of money for a few years to then get a different job making lots of money."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money. Nothing else.

no - it isn't the money to most people at target schools (except for perhaps Wharton). At non-targets or semi-targets, yes it is the money, but not to kids at targets.

I can tell by your answer you didn't go to a target school where all the firms recruit for front office jobs.

The main appeal is the exit options and career path flexibility.

What i mean is this:

Imagine that you are a young bright HYPS or Williams grad at age 21/22 who majored in a social science or some other kind of soft major and come junior or senior year you don't really know what to do. You have a few interests but don't want to really box yourself in and you dont want to go grad school yet because you don't know where you want to take your career.

"Wall Street" at target schools swoop in and present a very structured and clear recruiting path that appeals to kids who already conquered such a path by getting into target schools.

Wall Street (it is changing slightly now but in the past) also presents itself as something for UG's to do for 2 or 3 years so they can get 'work experience' on their resume from a top firm, gain analytical skills, provides opportunities for you to show others you can work in high pressure situations, but most importantly without a long term commitment.

Industry and government knows that wall street has done some of the 'screening' for them already so after your 2-3 year stint at a firm, you leave all the aforementioned experience but also with the flexibility of knowing industry firms want you to staff some of their 'high profile' teams that more closely report to the c-suite.

when you look at job descriptions for teams that do interesting firm-wide work at a top company, a lot of them ask for "2-4 years IB or top strategy consulting experience" even if its everything from cpg to auto oems to appareal to whatever sector you want to name.

Real examples:

cute princeton history grad, dreams of working in fashion -> JPM IB analyst -> after two years applies and has offers for great paying jobs doing strategy and corp development at three well known fashion and luxury brand houses. She would've had a much harder time breaking into the industry without going to JPM first or if she did go out of UG would've been stuck on a different career track in the industry and not a more 'accelerated' track without the ib experience.

Top LAC grad, wants to work in sports -> IB analyst at top firm -> after 2 years joins Nike corp strategy and development, uses that as a platform to join an elite team at Nike that does their cutting edge demand creation work.

I can go on and on but that's the appeal of wall street (and consulting) to students at targets.

Wall street is a quasi 'finishing school' where you get paid to attend.

the actual work as an IB analyst and associate is fucking boring and tedious.

Trading is a different animal - kids that go into trading, do it for the money and interest in markets.

Wow. What a long and convoluted way to say "to make lots of money for a few years to then get a different job making lots of money."

You are better man than I - i stopped at "What i mean is this"...

[Anonymous]

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.