Questions about other professional salaries vs. investment banking

hapaboii · #1 10-23-2006, 03:21 PM

The numbers people have been posting are pretty accurate for this year. Thremp is correct that a few years back bonuses were significantly lower. It's a cyclical biz so going to have ups and downs, right now I'd say it's in the ups.

Usually analysts do a 2 year stint, 80-100 hr weeks as has been stated. A lot of them get burned out or disillusioned, others get consumed by greed, but either way most are unhappy. The star analysts will sometimes get promoted to associate in 3rd yr, but most of them just go back to b-school and if they stick with banking will return as associates and move up the ladder.

You mentioned that you graduated a top 10 school in engineering. Sounds like you'd have a good skillset for trading or quant analysis. An MBA is useless and even looked down on in these fields. You also mentioned you could get a masters in CS. If you want to be a trader or QA, that will definitely help. Pay for juniors at an investment bank in trading will be pretty similar to banking, bonuses will likely be a bit lower at first, but can quickly surpass banking bonuses.

Exit opps: Bankers can go on to VCs, PEs, stay with banking, even join hedge funds as analysts. Or just leave the field.

Traders will go on to be... well, traders, sometimes jump to sales, portfolio management. Or just leave the field.

Goodnews · #2 10-24-2006, 09:26 PM

wtf? i am a junior in university studying mechanical engineering. I am here because of spite (my guidance counselor said i couldnt do it) and money. Big emphasis on the money part...

Am I in the wrong field? Seriously? Is the money in engineering not as good as it is in banking?

NoTalent · #3 10-25-2006, 12:08 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Am I in the wrong field? Seriously? Is the money in engineering not as good as it is in banking?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am a computer engineer. I've been working in the field for 6 years now. I was expecting a lot more since I was in school from 1996-2000 when anyone with 'computer' attached to their name was making 6 figures in silicon valley. When I got out in 2000 the bottom dropped out...

You certainly won't make $145K to start that's for sure.

eastbay · #4 10-25-2006, 01:57 AM

[ QUOTE ]
wtf? i am a junior in university studying mechanical engineering. I am here because of spite (my guidance counselor said i couldnt do it) and money. Big emphasis on the money part...

Am I in the wrong field? Seriously? Is the money in engineering not as good as it is in banking?

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe your guidance counselor was onto something. You spent three years in college without looking this up first? wtf indeed.

Of course finance pays better than engineering, with the bottom being significantly higher and the top being wildly higher.

eastbay

jimmyfingers · #5 10-25-2006, 08:29 AM

[ QUOTE ]
wtf? i am a junior in university studying mechanical engineering. I am here because of spite (my guidance counselor said i couldnt do it) and money. Big emphasis on the money part...

Am I in the wrong field? Seriously? Is the money in engineering not as good as it is in banking?

[/ QUOTE ]

where did you hear that mechanical engineering was a huge money maker? you're at western, switch to actuarial science.

Genesis · #6 10-25-2006, 01:17 PM

[ QUOTE ]
wtf? i am a junior in university studying mechanical engineering. I am here because of spite (my guidance counselor said i couldnt do it) and money. Big emphasis on the money part...

Am I in the wrong field? Seriously? Is the money in engineering not as good as it is in banking?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you are not in engineering because you enjoy it, get out now before you've wasted a few years of your career and decide you want to change. Although my reasons for entering engineering (CompEng '99 grad UIUC) were slightly different from yours, they certainly were not for love of engineering. Seven years later I feel as though I've wasted a lot of time on something I just don't enjoy and am now planning how to exit this field and get into something more along financial lines. Entering any field to prove someone else wrong, or simply for monetary reasons will only make you unhappy in the future.

1011101 · #7 10-26-2006, 12:23 AM

spite? are you [censored] kidding us? you made a major life decision out of spite? You need to grow up.

Secondly, there is no money in mechanical engineering. I would not suggest doing it for the money. Actually I would not suggest doing anything just for money as you will be miserable.

If you like mech e, then stick with it, but also minor in economics or finance. In case you change your mind, there are plenty of banks that recruit engineering majors for finance jobs because they know that they are smart.

shark6 · #8 10-29-2006, 01:47 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Secondly, there is no money in mechanical engineering.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am a Mechanical Engineer. I do get paid more than "no" money, or else I would do something else.

BLS wage data:
http://www.bls.gov/oes/oes_dl.htm

download the top link as an xcel file and sort it by annual wage. Engineering Managers make on average $105k/yr. If you want to make more, you pretty much need to be a doctor, dentist or lawyer. If you're talented, get lucky and work hard, you can make mangement in 7-10 years.

The average Mechanical Engineer makes $70k/yr and I would bet only works 40-45 hours a week. The people above that in wages are working long weeks, have highly stressful jobs, require advanced education, or are other engineering types.

People who make over 100k/yr earn it by having skills that few other people posses. Companies don't just hand out that much money to anyone just because it's chump change compared to what some people make.

An ME degree will give you lots of flexibility after you graduate. If you combine it with another degree like MBA or law or finance, you will be worth a lot of money to someone.

Don't get too concerned about wages right out of school. You're not worth much in engineering until you have 3-5 years of experience. Before that, you just won't be able to contribute much to projects because you will lack experience. As you prove yourself, gain technical knowledge, are able to work on your own and be valueable on projects, you can start to look around for other employers and make a lot more money with your barganing power.

midas · #9 10-29-2006, 10:58 AM

Shark:

There are only about 1,000 corporate finance analyst job openings per year - thus I don't think they are tracked in gov't job data.

I disagree with you on short-term salary concerns - more and more students are graduating with tremendous student loan amounts. If you are going to borrow big $$$ for a degree you better be able you earn the big $$$ when you graduate.

shark6 · #10 10-29-2006, 08:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Shark:

There are only about 1,000 corporate finance analyst job openings per year - thus I don't think they are tracked in gov't job data.

[/ QUOTE ]
Financial analyst is listed at $73k. Of course you need to adjust that number with the city code, which for NY City would push it up quite a bit, but as it would also for an engineer. It's like one of the previous posters said, these jobs are concentrated in high cost cities so it skews their apparent wages.

[ QUOTE ]
I disagree with you on short-term salary concerns - more and more students are graduating with tremendous student loan amounts. If you are going to borrow big $$$ for a degree you better be able you earn the big $$$ when you graduate.

[/ QUOTE ]
For an engineer the payoff is in making management, not scaping out a few extra thousand right out of school. The high and low fields for ME's isn't too far apart in terms of wages right out of school.

You're much better off going into a field that you really enjoy so you can do your best work and move up the chain into management and make over $100k down the road. If you take a job designing bumpers for GM just because you can get $50k out of school, but know you'll hate it, you'll miss out on the real money down the raod.