Software Engineering vs. Finance vs. Consulting
I'm sure this has been discussed countless times, but at a time when the tech industry is booming with disruptive technologies like AI and machine learning, it becomes all the more relevant for college students to decide which field to study and which industry to enter into post-graduation. As a student deciding between engineering and business, with likely the intellectual capacity and means to study and focus on either, going back to your freshman/sophomore years of college, which industry would you pick in the present day? Software engineering or finance? I'm really struggling to decide whether to focus my efforts in software engineering, finance (banking/trading), or even consulting.
Hello,
Your question: "going back to your freshman/sophomore years of college, which industry would you pick in the present day?"
Used to work in IBD and now work for one of the big tech firms. I don't work in software engineering area but sit close to them. To answer your question, if I was a student and knew what I know now - I would pick software engineering over IBD for a few reasons:
1) The pay is higher (yes, I know, I was shocked to find this out). A director in software engineering in the US office get $750k-$3mm a year if you work for one of the 'big' tech firms. In the UK office, software engineering interns get paid around £13k per internship (not pro-rata) and when I worked in IBD - IBD interns got around £10-11.5k per internship (pro-rata). The 'pro-rata' part is the biggest difference here - IBD interns get paid full time salary whereas software engineering interns get lower pay than full time, but they still get more than IBD interns.
2) Life/work balance. They work 8/9am to 6/7pm and get free breakfast/lunches/sometimes dinner. Allowed to leave for external appointments like dentist and so on when they want.
3) Future prospects. Lets be honest, IBD is not growing and is contracting whereas software engineering are booming. Plus they will always need software engineers in the future.
Please remember that this is my own personal opinion. Really it depends on what each individual preferences are. For example, if you are interested in finance and not interested in software engineering then you should pursue what you are interested in. Just choose something that you actually enjoy doing (obviously nothing is 100% enjoyable but just find something you feel content with).
Happy to answer any questions you have.
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