I find it amazing that people are willing to sacrifice their health and relationships for more money. Even if I was offered a million dollar salary I wouldn't do it. Aren't these grads from top notch business schools supposed to be smart and see that it's not worth it?
It's really no different to being a medical resident in THE US. 8 years of college, $250k in student loans and you make $25k salary working 80+ hours a week for 2-6 years. Why do that? Because at a later point you're a specialist or a surgeon who can make $300k-1m+ (depending on specialty).
These investment bankers are all trying to get promoted from being an associate. By the time they're 30, assuming they've survived that long, they'll likely have 7 figure salaries.
Back in the mid 2000s I remember reading about top Wall Street traders taking home $50m annual bonuses.
So that's why they do it. What's wrong with that?
Is it really any different to working 100 hours a week on a startup for nothing, possibly for years?
Glad someone brought up the residents. Guarantee any IM or surgical resident taking care of you at SF general, Columbia, NYU, Mass Gen, UPMC, etc. is spending at least 80hrs/week in the hospital and probably at least 10 more a week studying when they get home. They even grind the pediatrics residents into dust and there is no payout on the other end for pediatricians who only make 180k on average.
Hospitals are hiring more and more nurse practitioners, who study for 18 months, part time, online while working full time as nurses, who are only required to get 500hrs of "clinical experience" aka shadowing (only 3mos at 40/wk...), and have somehow managed to get independent practice to harm you in >20 states. Schools have no requirement to be a nurse beforehand (not that experience being a nurse is the same as coming up with treatment plans as a doctor...) and have 100% acceptance rates. A quarter to a third of the credit hours they take are courses that boil down to how to lobby state governments for independent practice. Hospitals love them because, to make up for their complete lack of experience, they order a ton of imaging, labs, and referrals which all generate more $$$ for the hospital at your expense (and they don't know how to interpret). You pay the same for an MD/DO vs an NP/PA, but only one group is trained well. All of this is to say, that the payout at the end of residency is going away quickly for a lot of specialties, particularly ones like peds where mismanagement isn't as obvious to lay people as it is in neurosurgery.
Resident salaries are more like 55-70k nowadays but minimum wage at $15/hour would mean a pay raise for a lot of residents.
As long as your young and healthy you don't think you are going to be the one having problems before it's too late.
And even then it often takes a long time to admit to yourself that you have a problem.
>What about those who work on oil rigs, or in mines, or on fishing boats, or providing humanitarian services in a war zone?
Most of the people working on boats or in mines don't have a chance to risk their healt in finance.
It's the best paying opportunity that is possiple for them.
There was a discussion on fintech and one of the HN users chipped in that he was making 7 figures but at the end of the day he never had time for family/kids and now sitting in huge empty house was reflecting that this was pretty sad way to approach life.
So part of getting on the ride at Six Flags is knowing when to get off.
How much money is enough, exactly? To cover your needs and a comfortable life, that'd be $2m of even lower.
If you're making 7 figures, you could make that pretty damn quick and then get out if you wanted to. Some people do this. I've seen stories about people who quit finance by the time their 30 because it's not what their passion is, they want to spend time with family or whatever.
But money can be a trap. If you're making $5m/year, it's easy to think that if you stay another year you'll walk away with another $2-3m (after taxes). I bet that's hard to walk away from. Also, people's standard of living often rises with income so you might be making $5m/year but now you have to pay the mortgage on a 4000 sq ft apartment overlooking Central Park, your house in Southhampton, your 4 cars and a boat.
Anthony Levandowski was a classic example of this. Paid $120m+ by Google. That's more money than any reasonable person needs for a lifetime. But he got greedy. Think about that. Why get greedy when you have more than you could possibly need?
For some I suspect it's not to much the money but it's the power and the ego. You like being seen as a huge success. You like the attention that gets you.
So I have no issues with business grads seeking to make their fortune in investment banking (even though I think that industry as a whole adds pretty limited value to humanity; but that's a separate topic). But if you can't get out and lose everything else as you chase even more money... well, that's on you.
This is actually a valid point. I don't care about money as such. It's nice to have and being able to buy luxury is great. But being able to buy stuff for your wife and children and having the time to spend with them is even better.
These guys presumably see present ambition and future riches as a net benefit to their dating lives. Also it is easy (if wrong) to take a similar mindset towards intense knowledge work as towards endurance sports: cultivation and display of manly virtue, stamina, prowess, etc. Once trapped in this mindset, it is normal working hours that will seem unhealthy: lazy, weak, entitled, etc.
