New associates - be friendly or keep my guard up?

Recently joined a boutique firm. Since we don’t have as many associates as BB, been trying to befriend other associate virtually for now. How is the comradery in Wall Street? I know it depends on each associate’s character, but are we all competing against each other? Am I safe to complain to them about workload since we are on the same boat? Can we hang after work post Covid to vent about work? Or is it better to befriend your analysts or upper management or even HR? I just want to get along with everyone but I hear a lot of back stabbing in finance, so I was jw....  

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