During a quasi reunion with some old college friends we were talking about each’s respective job, career, path, and of course salaries (total comp). We all went to a private business school so naturally most of my friends work in business - most technology. I was very surprised to learn about their rather comfortable situations. Quite a few worked in technology sales, worked from home, and essentially made their own hours -which most prefaced were 5 hour days jam packed with getting the shit they needed done to provide them the freedom to enjoy the remainder of the day. When the question of salary/total comp came into play, i was shocked how nice their salaries were along with their total comp figures.
So yours truly decided to cross paths and take a peek at the opportunities and i must say, friends, we are all getting fucked (with the exception of a few of you NYC based bsds). Let this be the start of my journey, a starting point of a few whiskeys and reminiscing on old college debauchery days (or better said, lack there of).
Technology is the future, my friend. But again, the meat of the discussion is at what level are we comparing people? I’ve worked in the tech sector so from my experience I think if you are a mediocre programmer then you really don’t have a bright future and probably you will be forced to go either in sales or project management (most of the people hate that). Jobs in the tech sector are pretty boring unless you are working on an interesting project. Service side is a hell, your bosses are expecting you to deliver a baby in two months. I also feel most of the tech workers exaggerate how cool is their job is but in reality, they are fearful of automation because the tech is the most vulnerable to automation. Again, it’s just my perception and it could be an entirely different for people who work at tech giants. But I think on an average a person in financial sector tend to have a better and an interesting career than a person in the tech sector.
What is the pathway to non engineering jobs in tech ? I’m assuming Stanford MBA ? I’m doing CS but I always think some 12 year old kid is gonna be better than me in doing pure tech stuff.
what’s surprised me in recent years is the comp of “executive level” employees at random companies Russell 2000/SP6000… a lot of these people get nice stock bonuses that add up after working there for 10+ years especially given the equity moves since 2009…
you see “insider sales” and Sally Sue… marketing director just sold 10k shares worth $2million and still holds 40k no big deal
point is you can make bank working at corporate HQ in non tech/ non finance… you hear a lot about the “CEO that left with 100s millions” but rarely about the random mid level guy that only got a few million in bonus
Yes, obviously some people will make more than that. However, the bulk of people are just foot soldiers. Probably 20% or less become management, and less than 5% of people will ever become vice president of anything. Maybe you have concrete figures. In finance, most people should be able to make like $500k I’d say. Some people make more, but promotion opportunities are not always common.
I know there are differences in geography, company, sub-specialty within Finance, qualifications, level of experience, etc… and I oftentimes have trouble reconciling those broad nationwide figures to my individual experience… but still saying that “most people should be able to make like $500k” isn’t even ballpark close to reality.
I like how all I keep hearing about is the death of the personal financial advisor because of the “rise of the machines,” yet this article purports that growth of personal financial advisors will be faster than average. Pick a narrative, people!
Actually, Ohai isn’t that far off. Just like we wouldn’t look to what tech jobs pay in Columbus, OH to determine the market for tech, it seems logical we’d look at NYC to determine what “finance” people will make. And I found this, which I suspect has a large positive skew in the distribution but nonetheless:
Average salaries, including bonuses, grew by 14% in 2014 to $404,800, according to a new report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.