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I wonder if the banking thing isn't as much of a problem as it seems. I work as a financial recruiter, and one of the patterns I see is an on/off relationship w

I wonder if the banking thing isn't as much of a problem as it seems. I work as a financial recruiter, and one of the patterns I see is an on/off relationship with startups and banks, e.g. working two years at Goldman, then one year at a new search engine, then a year at Credit Suisse, then three years starting up a new wiki-based whatsit. If you know you can quit and -- within a few months -- be earning a great living writing trading algorithms in C++ or reporting systems in Java, a startup is a much saner risk. This also applies to quants and physics majors: many smart folks are lured into the private sector, but many many more smart people can consider a Physics PhD because of the money they can make (if they need it).

dpapathanasiou 18y ago
If you know you can quit and -- within a few months -- be earning a great living writing trading algorithms in C++ or reporting systems in Java, a startup is a much saner risk. That cuts both ways, though: it's too easy to bail at the first hint of trouble at a startup, which is why there are relatively few great startup stories out of NY.
- benjamincanfly 18y ago
  It's easy for a programmer to cover higher living expenses in NYC because tech jobs pay well here. If you quit your job to make a go of it with a startup, you had better start making money quickly, or your reserves will be depleted before you know it. This has happened to me twice in two years.
hugh 18y ago
It doesn't work in quite the same way for physicists/quants though. Once you leave physics and go into finance it's extremely hard to make the jump back -- a few years in finance puts you way behind your peers in the race for publications, and you're pretty much stuck there forever. The startup scene is far more forgiving to its apostates than the physics scene is. I personally wish it were easier for physicists to spend just a few years in finance to find out whether they like it, and/or to save up some money.
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  This gentleman managed: www.ams.sunysb.edu/~frey/Biographical/Resume_RJFrey_20060907_11.pdf
ig1 18y ago
It seems similar in london, I went to the london techcrunch meetup a few weeks ago and quite a few of the people there were ex-banking.

dpapathanasiou 18y ago

If you know you can quit and -- within a few months -- be earning a great living writing trading algorithms in C++ or reporting systems in Java, a startup is a much saner risk. That cuts both ways, though: it's too easy to bail at the first hint of trouble at a startup, which is why there are relatively few great startup stories out of NY.

benjamincanfly 18y ago
It's easy for a programmer to cover higher living expenses in NYC because tech jobs pay well here. If you quit your job to make a go of it with a startup, you had better start making money quickly, or your reserves will be depleted before you know it. This has happened to me twice in two years.

hugh 18y ago

It doesn't work in quite the same way for physicists/quants though. Once you leave physics and go into finance it's extremely hard to make the jump back -- a few years in finance puts you way behind your peers in the race for publications, and you're pretty much stuck there forever. The startup scene is far more forgiving to its apostates than the physics scene is. I personally wish it were easier for physicists to spend just a few years in finance to find out whether they like it, and/or to save up some money.

byrneseyeview 18y ago
This gentleman managed: www.ams.sunysb.edu/~frey/Biographical/Resume_RJFrey_20060907_11.pdf

ig1 18y ago

It seems similar in london, I went to the london techcrunch meetup a few weeks ago and quite a few of the people there were ex-banking.