Former BB SA to Big Tech Engineer

Feeling inspired in writing this post as software engineering vs banking is constantly and heavily in depth discussed topic on these boards, and as one of a few who has been through both fields I would like to give my 2 cents from a first person viewpoint. Another reason that I am writing this, is to give back to the community for their advice to when I was a student (posting under new account as old one had too much identifying information) and general personal financial advice whenever I periodically lurk here.

My story:

Like a few other academic all star posters here, I majored in both economics/CS at a target school, seeking to target my academics with the most professional + financially lucrative career path. Come junior year I maintained a high GPA, was able to snag a couple solid banking internships and a couple solid big tech internships. After an intense back and forth debate of whether to do banking or engineering, I choose the former as the "prestige" of the banking internship weighed heavily on my mind. Though, after completing my internship, I felt a sense of regret in my previous choice. Having to wake up before sunrise and then get packed like a sardine on the subway and only being able to go to sleep past midnight racked my body to no end, and all for some dumb PowerPoint formatting issues? Though, I received a return offer from said bank, I pretty much immediately declined it the next day. When senior year arrived I successfully re-recruited for tech and that is where I am today.

Facts/Myths :

There are some "facts" that are regularly posted on this site, that I would like to corroborate/dispute based upon my observations and some general guidance I would like to give

1. Anyone can get into FAANG.

Not true. I have the internal hiring statistics for my FAANG, and we regularly reject > 80 percent of undergrad applicants for full time software engineering positions from our target schools. Even for Amazon, the vast majority of my mid bucket CS classmates get rejected there. Leetcode technicals are at least five times harder to master than banking technicals. I like that in my current role, I get to do technically challenging but meaningful work instead of the mundane banking stuff.

2. Comp Ceiling/Distribution in Tech

True. Senior Software Engineer making 400-600k seems to the general ceiling. For reference, last year my company hired ~3,500 entry level USA engineers but only ~300 or so past the senior software engineer level. Though t it is relatively quick to make senior engineer with the average time being about 5 years from entry level, with the majority of new hires doing so. I assume the MD to analyst hired ratio is slightly better, though maybe not by much.

3. Ageism/Sexism in Tech

VERY untrue. At least in my experience, the most respected and acknowledged engineers in my extended team are age 40+, with their expertise and knowledge being thoroughly involved in all the critical system developments, with the two most senior being women of color. Such distorted biases may stem from the generally perceived cultural of the field before modern day FAANG took off. Though, for those interested in the diversity department, my department of 100+ engineers is 60 percent Indian, 20 percent Chinese, 20 percent white/other asian, 1 black(African immigrant), 1 Hispanic(pale as snow).

4. Return to Office in Tech

Not true. While, some tech companies have introduced a policy of RTO, this is generally unenforced. Take my advertised job description,  it has a "hybrid" office requirement, but I haven't gone into office for a day of work. Competing firms that my colleagues have departed to that have come with a  "hybrid" job description and been in the news for RTO, have also seen such policies unenforced.  You can take your 400-600k salary and comfortably work remotely in Iowa these days.

5. Low Hours in Tech

Not true. I have worked quite a few 50-60 hour weeks. Some days with only two/three or so hours of sleep. Much like banking, if a client needs a response or there is a tight deadline you have to just power through. In this aspect tech hasn't been what I imagined.