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June 30, 2026
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It doesn't matter if you work in IBanking or as a cashier. ":Some" of the same concepts apply.
There's some truth to this survey.
When you graduate college, you are strong on spirit and short on cash. After five years in banking, you are flush with cash and your spirit is crushed.
People leaving at 23 are probably either total burnouts and/or folks who couldn't make it in banking. People leaving in their late 30s probably want families or are retiring. My hunch had always been that most people leaving in their late 20s are perfectly happy to walk away from hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to try and regain some sense of humanity in their lives.
I am sitting here at a Starbucks in southeastern Wisconsin looking at a cornfield as I work on some of the code for my portfolio allocation engine. The smell of freshly cut grass fills the air as a gentle breeze passes by. People are sitting around talking about their relatives as international jazz music plays in the background.
Tomorrow I will spen a nice long day on the lake going waterskiing with friends. And I don't have work on Monday. I don't have to put on a suit. I don't have to sit next to a bunch of traders shouting at each other and interrupting my modeling work. And I've gotten more modeling and pricing work done this week at a nice relaxed pace than I've ever gotten done in the corporate world no matter how stressed I got.
I'm not sure I want to go back and work for a bank. Or a hedge fund for that matter. If I can pay for health insurance and take home $60K/year in Wisconsin, I will be very happy working for myself.
Interesting that 88% say they don't regret it among those who have gotten out. I think it speaks to the fact that people often hate it while they're doing it, but later have the ability to look back and realize it was a great step in their career path and an amazing learning opportunity (both skills and life in general).
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