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Well, for the sake of argument. Two downsides: 1) warehousing: as an engineer you are on ice in an insignificant project in the bowels of one of these tech cha

Well, for the sake of argument. Two downsides: 1) warehousing: as an engineer you are on ice in an insignificant project in the bowels of one of these tech chaebols but are locked in with golden handcuffs. Some people find that soul crushing, some are perfectly content with it and just focus on raising their families and hitting personal finance milestones. 2) Disconnect from true value-add. As horded talent at one of the tech chaebols you're not paid on your direct value add, but rather your value is in context with higher more nebulous corporate goals. One day one of the corporate game masters decides your initiative is no longer a strategic play, and you are axed. One thing sv engineers often don't consider when they say they want Wall Street like comp, is Wall Streeters have a very mercenary and "live by the sword / die by the sword" existence - there are tons of guys on Wall Street making a million a year and if they lost their current gig they'd never work in the industry again. This works for many people, but others hate it. Some things to consider.

chucksmash 10y ago
> there are tons of guys on Wall Street making a million a year and if they lost their current gig they'd never work in the industry again. Can you elaborate on this? Why might that be the case?
- jpeg_hero 10y ago
  One illustrative case: A guy I know was an expert at each of the legalese paragraphs in a high yield bond offering (aka "junk bonds"), his knowledge and experience could save issuers millions with a single tweak. After fin crisis of '08: junk bond market close for a few years, was let go. By the time the market came back, there was a whole crop of young guys that survived '08 and had come up the ranks, no need for him. For a more current example ask some FIC traders that are getting laid off at banks this year. Tweaking bond offerings and doing FIC trading is not a "leather tanner" type skill. Maybe coding is for reprograming the "moister harvesters" but it sure isn't for "$1m a year doing "other bets" at Google"

chucksmash 10y ago

> there are tons of guys on Wall Street making a million a year and if they lost their current gig they'd never work in the industry again. Can you elaborate on this? Why might that be the case?

jpeg_hero 10y ago
One illustrative case: A guy I know was an expert at each of the legalese paragraphs in a high yield bond offering (aka "junk bonds"), his knowledge and experience could save issuers millions with a single tweak. After fin crisis of '08: junk bond market close for a few years, was let go. By the time the market came back, there was a whole crop of young guys that survived '08 and had come up the ranks, no need for him. For a more current example ask some FIC traders that are getting laid off at banks this year. Tweaking bond offerings and doing FIC trading is not a "leather tanner" type skill. Maybe coding is for reprograming the "moister harvesters" but it sure isn't for "$1m a year doing "other bets" at Google"