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If you are a college student reading this and have the slightest inkling of entrepreneurial flare, please please please do not work for a financial company/wall

by zmitri 16y ago

If you are a college student reading this and have the slightest inkling of entrepreneurial flare, please please please do not work for a financial company/wall street. I can assure it will be nothing compared to what you are able to accomplish by starting your own company and building something you care about. In finance, you will be fighting against transparency for the sake of maintaining profits when you could be doing something way more important... And yes the problem solving is fun at first, but then you realize that you could be problem solving on something that matters to you. A few thousand dollars more doesn't matter, and if you figure in the cost of living in NYC you're probably making less. That is my advice, take it or leave, but please, think about what you're doing.

j_baker 16y ago
On the other hand, working for one of these firms can be a huge motivator to start your own. Sometimes, it takes the experience of something you hate to teach you the value of something you love.
- zmitri 16y ago
  Definitely true. That being said, the advice of others in a similar situation can also help you realize that something is not at all what its made up to be.
sskates 16y ago
How about tens of thousands of dollars? How about hundreds? Millions? Tens of millions? Does that matter? "In finance, you will be fighting against transparency for the sake of maintaining profits" - not sure what you mean by this, if you could please clarify
- zmitri 16y ago
  Tens of millions maybe to some, but honestly the percentage of people making that is low and it takes years and years to get up there. Even then, waiting 15 years to make a million won't have the same affect on everyone. Have you read Tony Hsieh's book after he sold LinkExchange: he could either sit around for a year and collect his ~40 million just by showing up and not doing anything, or he could leave early, and take less. He left early and took the cut in pay. I'm sure he made the right choice. Banks don't make a lot of money from equities, they make a lot of money from over the counter (OTC) markets. These don't trade on an exchange, they are traded via phone calls and bloomberg emails. Banks try to keep pricing information as close to the chest as they can so that they can keep a wide bid ask spread (meaning they buy low, and sell for higher, and not because of appreciation or financial performance). Banks make money by offering 2 way markets (like a book keeper would) so the less transparent they are with their pricing, they more likely they are to be able to increase the bid ask margin. They don't have to disclose prices, and the traders can mark the bonds at almost whatever price they see fit, even if the price they have is super stale. Not only that, no one really knows what some of these complicated securities are really worth. As someone who comes from a science background, I was shocked to learn that "research reports" are more like marketing/advertising and they are not allowed to publish a negative outlook. In my opinion, it's a messed up system and I don't want younger hackers thinking its a cool thing to do.
loewenskind 16y ago
>and if you figure in the cost of living in NYC you're probably making less. This is hardly that simple. Lower cost of living means lower wages. That will be a wash with cost-of-living type products and services but not with, for lack of a better word, "international priced" items [1]. I don't understand why so many people in the self proclaimed capitalist hub of the world believe things like living in a lower cost of living area means you have more money. [1] A closer word might be "luxury" items but it's hard to call something a luxury item that people of literally all classes have (e.g. an iPhone).
- natrius 16y ago
  > Lower cost of living means [proportionally] lower wages. That is a false assumption. http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/LayoutScripts/Coll_Start.aspx http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/LayoutScripts/Coll_...
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    The greater the market efficiency, the more this will be the case.

by zmitri 16y ago

j_baker 16y ago

On the other hand, working for one of these firms can be a huge motivator to start your own. Sometimes, it takes the experience of something you hate to teach you the value of something you love.

zmitri 16y ago
Definitely true. That being said, the advice of others in a similar situation can also help you realize that something is not at all what its made up to be.

sskates 16y ago

How about tens of thousands of dollars? How about hundreds? Millions? Tens of millions? Does that matter? "In finance, you will be fighting against transparency for the sake of maintaining profits" - not sure what you mean by this, if you could please clarify

zmitri 16y ago
Tens of millions maybe to some, but honestly the percentage of people making that is low and it takes years and years to get up there. Even then, waiting 15 years to make a million won't have the same affect on everyone. Have you read Tony Hsieh's book after he sold LinkExchange: he could either sit around for a year and collect his ~40 million just by showing up and not doing anything, or he could leave early, and take less. He left early and took the cut in pay. I'm sure he made the right choice. Banks don't make a lot of money from equities, they make a lot of money from over the counter (OTC) markets. These don't trade on an exchange, they are traded via phone calls and bloomberg emails. Banks try to keep pricing information as close to the chest as they can so that they can keep a wide bid ask spread (meaning they buy low, and sell for higher, and not because of appreciation or financial performance). Banks make money by offering 2 way markets (like a book keeper would) so the less transparent they are with their pricing, they more likely they are to be able to increase the bid ask margin. They don't have to disclose prices, and the traders can mark the bonds at almost whatever price they see fit, even if the price they have is super stale. Not only that, no one really knows what some of these complicated securities are really worth. As someone who comes from a science background, I was shocked to learn that "research reports" are more like marketing/advertising and they are not allowed to publish a negative outlook. In my opinion, it's a messed up system and I don't want younger hackers thinking its a cool thing to do.

loewenskind 16y ago

>and if you figure in the cost of living in NYC you're probably making less. This is hardly that simple. Lower cost of living means lower wages. That will be a wash with cost-of-living type products and services but not with, for lack of a better word, "international priced" items [1]. I don't understand why so many people in the self proclaimed capitalist hub of the world believe things like living in a lower cost of living area means you have more money. [1] A closer word might be "luxury" items but it's hard to call something a luxury item that people of literally all classes have (e.g. an iPhone).

natrius 16y ago
> Lower cost of living means [proportionally] lower wages. That is a false assumption. http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/LayoutScripts/Coll_Start.aspx http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/LayoutScripts/Coll_...
- loewenskind 16y ago
  The greater the market efficiency, the more this will be the case.