When I compare the possible paths of finance (hedge fund or PE) and tech, it seems that tech is going to be the winner over the next 30 years from both an upside and downside perspective.
Starting with the greatest successes: all the biggest tech founders became billionaires in say 4 - 6 years from the founding. Now there was work before that, but once they started, it was fast. On the finance side, Buffett took 30 years. And many of the other hedge fund/ PE billionaires took decades. And they only got there by managing LOTS of other people's money. You'd have to slave away for 10 - 15 years to get the kind of pedigree necessary to raise the kind of capital that leads to becoming a billionaire after probably a decade.
Now looking at mid-tier success: There are plenty of founders in tech who have exits of $10, 20, or $100 mill. But they just don't make the news that often. And they often do it fast, too. On the finance side, I'm sure there are a good number of people making a $1 - 2 mill so it adds up to $10 - 20 over a decade, probably about the same timeline for the mid-tier successful tech founders.
Onto the downside or entry-level case: starting out, you can probably make total comp of $125 in either tech or finance. After slaving away a few years, you could get to $300 - $500 in finance. I imagine you could do the same in tech? Maybe long-term in finance you make $500 - $1 mil. Say you work for someone your whole life and never venture out on your own. That's a pretty safe, steady, very good life. In tech, you leave to found a startup, and it fails. Now you've lost those years of career progression and income and returns on any investments from that income. But you can go back into tech and get back to a similar salary?
Obviously, this is an oversimplification. But on the broad strokes, is this way off. Or is the opportunity cost of pursuing finance now larger than that of pursuing tech?
On the non-financial front: in both fields, you work with intellectually curious, sharp, ambitious people. You can have interesting work that engages you. You probably live in large cities with the same pluses and minuses. Seems pretty similar otherwise except for the obvious day-to-day tasks.
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