Do people in IB make more than those in tech?
I’m currently a junior in college at a T20 school studying physics and comp sci. I’ll be joining a top boutique as a summer analyst but unsure if I’d want to do ib ft. I was wondering how ib pay compares to software engineering
My school doesn’t have a business program and I’m the only person I know going into ib. A couple of my friends are doing software engineering and tell me that big tech pays more than ib. I think in a few rare instances this could be possible for a top top coder, but I still believe finance pays more if you compare people with the same years of experience in most cases. Does anyone have any insight on this?
I would say starting out the comp could be similar
However, it seems like big tech companies often overhire swes and it’s hyper competitive both to get in and to do well there, meanwhile people get laid off all the time.
So you’re essentially taking a position with similar entry pay, lower ceiling and less job stability but equally as difficult to break into by going into big tech compared to if you went into finance.
Bro what are you talking about? Job stability in tech does not appear to be much different than in IB. In fact it sounds like people are getting laid off all the time these past two years
What are you smoking? Be sure to share.
I heard big tech used to give people great hours and pay so all the smart people would study coding and join, but now they’re upping the hours and people are working 60+ hour weeks in many places but still making analyst level pay?
Tbh this is an easy one to answer and the answer is: you should choose one you are good at + preferably also the one you like.
If you hate finance and reading about transactions, then you are not going to last long nor get top bucket.
If you are dead bored of coding / debugging and cannot see yourself mingling with people who are a bit awkward with Indian/Chinese majority, then you choose finance.
If you survive in either field enough (+5 years), hitting +$1m is easy.
This is the only right answer. Finance and SWE are VERY different day to days, pick whichever plays to your strengths and you are good at. In fields where you're making $500k+/year eventually, you need to be good at and enjoy your job.
The social component cannot be stressed more
IB will pay the median person more. The floor is much higher.
However, tech will have a higher potential max earning simply by, if you choose to and get lucky enough, tech being a space where you can get in early with a company that pays you at least partially in stock that can 10x in 7 years.
On balance IB pays more at each level but if you're massively talented or massively lucky (stock options) in Tech you can make a lot more.
That said, I have two buddies working for FANG companies that have some the easiest jobs in the world, work 40 hours a week tops and clear $250K-$300K / year (stock comp included) and literally don't even know coding. I'm not an expert on Tech just have a couple buddies in it but I assume they sort of just got lucky. They're on nichey teams and just so happened to have direct experience and definitely never made that much before finding roles with Amazon & Google. I'm sure I have other friends that work in Tech who make a lot more than I think that have similar experiences but I've never talked salary & comp with them. The one at Amazon is on some weird contract though which is only 3 years and idk if he'll ever make that much again, after his tenure at Amazon.
Bottom line, go with what you like, you'll be more likely to excel and be a part of the higher earning contingency in either career path if it's something you're naturally interested in and/or good at.
The only way you will make more in tech in the long run is if you get a lot of equity in a start-up that gets acquired or goes public.
Looks like comp on levels.fyi is really high. Most SWE say it’s a good indicator of where pay is in the present. I could guess finance jobs could have a similarly high number of good paying jobs but unsure
Tech has far greater potential but IB has a higher EV
Delete
Just do what you want to do.
finance doesn't require the same hard skills as tech, it's more about soft skills so it's easier to progress (but not to enter)
It’s much harder to do tech. Basically every other person around you is some socially awkward loser who ended up getting a 3.8-4.0 from berkeley, caltech or some other SWE centric school. GL trying to stand out technically
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