Is tech all that or nothing more than a buzz word?

I think there are two key benefits when it comes to tech/TMT banking roles\ that excites people/draws them to the groups.

1) Although you're specializing in an industry vertical you are essentially a generalist that will plug and play across groups getting to work on some of the most exciting deals in each end market. When you're working on a deal for an EV manufacturer like Tesla you're generally working in concert with the industrials team, diving into consumer auto trends, and learning about a very different business model from a software company. A ton of internet companies are consumer focused/marketplaces and so you might be working with your banks CRG team and learning about retail (Amazon, Wish, Goat, TheRealReal) or even more niche end markets like real estate (Zillow, Redfin) and obviously FinTech which has some overlap with FIG.

Essentially you gain experience/are building a toolkit of skills covering the most exciting/disruptive businesses in many of the traditional groups in addition to standard tech verticals like infrastructure (networking and cloud), software, semis, etc.

2) The exits are much more diverse. Obviously a ton of banking analysts want to exit to the buyside and even though ~85% of banking jobs are in NY, I'd guess close to half of the buyside roles are in the Bay Area or LA (PE, Growth, West-coast HFs), with an increasing shift as firms continue to see their existing PortCos disrupted by tech as well as the returns generated by Vista, Thoma, etc and start up their own tech arms/funds.

While you can definitely recruit for these roles from NY, there's a bigger hurdle to explaining why tech, acing tech specific question in interviews for Growth/tech funds, and convincing someone of your willingness to move across the country if you're not already working in SF and/or tech coverage.

Adding on to this. while you can similarly recruit for Corp Dev/Strategy roles in tech from any group, similar to buyside roles the story is much more natural/believable if you're working in tech coverage. This is a more minor point because obviously its true that almost every industry will have hiring preferences for bankers who covered their sector, but I think more people are excited to work in strategic finance/CorpDev etc at a high-growth tech company vs a mature paper/cardboard box manufacturer if you're in industrials.