How hard is it to make good by 30 years old?

The average Joe would not last 7 years on wall street.

I honestly can't speak for non BB, but you can easily make well over 100K as a 1st year analyst. So by 30, you'll likely be a senior associate, which'll have you pulling in 400, 500K on a fantastic year. But APT is half right-- most people don't spend that much time in i-banking-- people hitting that level are typically post MBA from something else Wall Street related or from another industry.

I mean it depends what your "average joe" does....if they are an "average joe" on wall street then they are probably in operations if anything and I have no idea what an ops guy at 30 makes

Hm. Severus is right-- for some reason I assumed you meant IBD. You need to be more specific in terms of what kind of role you're talking about.. there are all types.

ibd

there is no avg..... too hard to tell in 8 years... the path i thought i was on at 22 changed within 3 years... i am close to 30 and know what I make but the years of planning ahead are much different now.... the bonus of xyz peg to year zyx of exp are over...