What's the appeal of working on Wall Street?

[Anonymous]

From what I've seen investment banking is for scheming swots that don't have the capacity for medical school. Surgeon prestige > banker prestige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

You act like the people on Wall Street are breaking the cycle of poverty or something. Um, I mean maybe there's some of those, but let's be real. The vast majority of people on WS grew up perfectly comfortable.

[Anonymous]

I started out my career at Morgan Stanley in the late 1980's with a group of 55 other analysts. All of the analysts in my class were extremely strong college students from competitive colleges (The Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern as well as many from SLACs and the most selective state schools, like UVA / UMichigan / Cal), and most were leaders on their college campuses in some capacity. They were rarely from gilded backgrounds: Harvard hockey captain from a farm near Calgary, biochemist lacrosse player from Syracuse. Here is what this group is doing 30 years later:

2 are presidents of non-profits
10 are CEOs or CFOs of companies
5 are retired entrepreneurs
10 are in private equity or venture capital
5 are wealthy hedge fund managers
3 or 4 are in government - Treasury, Department of Energy, White House
A bunch are lawyers, from corporate to public interest
Several are teachers
A bunch are happy stay-at-home parents
Only a handful are still investment bankers

The intensity and rigor of IB provides great training for many, many future professions. And if you can make a few bucks and pay off your student debt while you are growing into who you want to be, no harm.

[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.

My response is a quote from Step Brothers, the best movie ever made: "I want to make BANK, bro. I want to get ASS. I want to drive a Range Rover." That's about it, at least these days.

My parents worked on Wall Street in the 60s, met at work, got married secretly (it was against company policy) and commuted from Scarsdale every day until I came along. My mother wore a hat and gloves to work every day.

In the past, it was a nice stable work environment. I've no idea why anyone would want to work there today, except for money. Plenty of people still commute to Wall Street from Westchester every single day.

They commuted from Arizona?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

There are plenty of professionals who work less than 50 hours a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Duh! The problem though is that a large portion of this bonus is in stock that vests over time.

No, it isn't. My first year, I saw lots of Maserati's come into the garage. Lots of friends got caught in the recession. The pattern was that they would take out home equity lines to live on and then pay them back when their bonuses came. Problem was that in 2008, there were no bonuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Duh! The problem though is that a large portion of this bonus is in stock that vests over time.

No, it isn't. My first year, I saw lots of Maserati's come into the garage. Lots of friends got caught in the recession. The pattern was that they would take out home equity lines to live on and then pay them back when their bonuses came. Problem was that in 2008, there were no bonuses.

The rules have changed. At least for the big banks. Read up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I started out my career at Morgan Stanley in the late 1980's with a group of 55 other analysts. All of the analysts in my class were extremely strong college students from competitive colleges (The Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern as well as many from SLACs and the most selective state schools, like UVA / UMichigan / Cal), and most were leaders on their college campuses in some capacity. They were rarely from gilded backgrounds: Harvard hockey captain from a farm near Calgary, biochemist lacrosse player from Syracuse. Here is what this group is doing 30 years later:

2 are presidents of non-profits
10 are CEOs or CFOs of companies
5 are retired entrepreneurs
10 are in private equity or venture capital
5 are wealthy hedge fund managers
3 or 4 are in government - Treasury, Department of Energy, White House
A bunch are lawyers, from corporate to public interest
Several are teachers
A bunch are happy stay-at-home parents
Only a handful are still investment bankers

The intensity and rigor of IB provides great training for many, many future professions. And if you can make a few bucks and pay off your student debt while you are growing into who you want to be, no harm.

I can't believe you keep up with your analyst class this closely. I'm 20 plus years younger than you are and I maybe know what two people are up to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

It is, but I left. Money was great, but I got NO fulfillment from it. Now, had I done it at 22, that may have been different. I ended up in IB with a law degree b/c the bankers were struggling with the docs. Long story. I stayed 4 years b/c it is a young person's game. By the time I went to structured finance, I was married with 2 kids. I got no fulfillment from it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

It is, but I left. Money was great, but I got NO fulfillment from it. Now, had I done it at 22, that may have been different. I ended up in IB with a law degree b/c the bankers were struggling with the docs. Long story. I stayed 4 years b/c it is a young person's game. By the time I went to structured finance, I was married with 2 kids. I got no fulfillment from it.

You are so out of touch. It is a privilege to think about fulfillment. Many people grind away at worse jobs and aren't paid enough to support their families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My response is a quote from Step Brothers, the best movie ever made: "I want to make BANK, bro. I want to get ASS. I want to drive a Range Rover." That's about it, at least these days.

My parents worked on Wall Street in the 60s, met at work, got married secretly (it was against company policy) and commuted from Scarsdale every day until I came along. My mother wore a hat and gloves to work every day.

In the past, it was a nice stable work environment. I've no idea why anyone would want to work there today, except for money. Plenty of people still commute to Wall Street from Westchester every single day.

They commuted from Arizona?

That's Scottsdale, Einstein. Scarsdale is in Westchesrer County, NY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

It is, but I left. Money was great, but I got NO fulfillment from it. Now, had I done it at 22, that may have been different. I ended up in IB with a law degree b/c the bankers were struggling with the docs. Long story. I stayed 4 years b/c it is a young person's game. By the time I went to structured finance, I was married with 2 kids. I got no fulfillment from it.

You are so out of touch. It is a privilege to think about fulfillment. Many people grind away at worse jobs and aren't paid enough to support their families.

Yes, because your options are to work monster hours making $500K/year or grind away at a job that doesn't support your family If you are smart enough to work on Wall Street, you are smart enough to find another less stressful/more fulfilling job if that's what you want.

Where do you people GET this stuff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

It is, but I left. Money was great, but I got NO fulfillment from it. Now, had I done it at 22, that may have been different. I ended up in IB with a law degree b/c the bankers were struggling with the docs. Long story. I stayed 4 years b/c it is a young person's game. By the time I went to structured finance, I was married with 2 kids. I got no fulfillment from it.

You are so out of touch. It is a privilege to think about fulfillment. Many people grind away at worse jobs and aren't paid enough to support their families.

Yes, because your options are to work monster hours making $500K/year or grind away at a job that doesn't support your family If you are smart enough to work on Wall Street, you are smart enough to find another less stressful/more fulfilling job if that's what you want.

Where do you people GET this stuff?

Are you purposely dense? Yes, you can get other jobs. That's exactly what people do after their 2-year stint is over. But there aren't really that many entry-level jobs that allow you to pay off $60,000 while also sending money home because your parents need your support too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not a good analogy. The number of people on wall st who end up with 7 figure income is a lot higher than the number of people playing in the nba or whatever. Plenty of people end up in very high paying jobs at hedge funds, senior leadership of companies, etc. if you are set on being wealthy and you're smart, it's probably your best first move after college. Or at least it was if you graduated in the 90s/2000s era. Not sure if things have changed since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people in here acting like making money isn't a desirable goal? FYI if you said something like that, you MIGHT want to check your privilege. The only people who say money doesn't matter are people who grew up with it and can't imagine life any other way.

These days, most highly educated professionals are expected to work AT LEAST 50 hours a week but usually more. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend 10 hours a day at work no matter what, I'd rather make the 500k + (extremely hefty bonus) salary rather than the 50-250k salary.

It is, but I left. Money was great, but I got NO fulfillment from it. Now, had I done it at 22, that may have been different. I ended up in IB with a law degree b/c the bankers were struggling with the docs. Long story. I stayed 4 years b/c it is a young person's game. By the time I went to structured finance, I was married with 2 kids. I got no fulfillment from it.

You are so out of touch. It is a privilege to think about fulfillment. Many people grind away at worse jobs and aren't paid enough to support their families.

Yes, because your options are to work monster hours making $500K/year or grind away at a job that doesn't support your family If you are smart enough to work on Wall Street, you are smart enough to find another less stressful/more fulfilling job if that's what you want.

Where do you people GET this stuff?

Are you purposely dense? Yes, you can get other jobs. That's exactly what people do after their 2-year stint is over. But there aren't really that many entry-level jobs that allow you to pay off $60,000 while also sending money home because your parents need your support too.

Oh please. The vast majority of college grads heading to Wall Street come from well-to-do families. They don't have college loans and they sure as hell aren't supporting their parents.