Do you think most people in finance (ib,pe,hf) are from the northeast originally?

I feel like most people I’ve met in finance are originally from NY, NJ, CT, or somewhere close by like Boston or philly. Obviously I’m not stating that everyone in finance is from the northeast (I’m from Michigan), but it still feels like well over 50% are. Not sure what I want to do long term, considering moving closer to home at some point in the long term. Do transplants who move to nyc for finance typically leave after a few years, given the relatively limited set of opportunities outside the city?

6 Comments
 

As someone who grew up in the tri-state area, I have noticed that most of us who grew up there have a good balance of work ethic and social life. Perhaps it is because the grew up in middle & upper-middle class households with parents who worked a lot and provided a lifestyle that is appealing to most. Most of us are driven and pursue careers that value hard work with an opportunity for financial independence. That is why you see a lot of lawyers, doctors, engineers, and finance people coming from these places. It is what they know and what they aspire to become. 

 

I would say yes. I'm from the Silicon Valley and am incoming SA, but fall into a minority of the people pursuing finance from my HS. Most pursue tech (no surprise there), medicine, a couple consulting, and only one other guy who went for finance and struck out on recruiting. IB really isn't in your face the way tech is in the Valley, so that probably plays a pretty big role too.

 

Yeah and most importantly the north east revolves around the grind and hustle. Anyone from the east coast knows that working long hours is the norm not the exception compared to the west coast or south where there is more preference for W/L balance. 

 

It's just a byproduct of the fact that most finance jobs are in the NE so kids grow up with family members and friends who work in finance so they naturally gravitate towards it. I'm from the south and a much higher % of my friends are engineers probably due to the national labs in NM, NASA in AL and TX, and other major firms like Lockheed and TI also in the area. I knew zero bankers growing up because that's just not a relevant part of the local industry.

 

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