I want to chime in here because I took a job in this industry (high frequency trading in particular) right out of college.<p>I can't speak for the whole industry as I've only worked at one firm, but my experience has been generally positive:<p>1. The work environment is similar to the software companies I interned with. Nobody wears a suit, the hierarchy is relatively flat, free food/soda/etc.<p>2. The problems are really interesting. HFT is a competitive game and good (read: fast and reliable) technology is just as important as smart algorithms.<p>The only downside? It's difficult to leave. I've had coworkers that have been around a while say that people generally don't leave the industry voluntarily.<p>Why? Money. I'm not trying to be a braggart but I can say with a high degree of certainty that I will never make as much as a developer at a normal software shop as I do now, with the exception of launching or getting in at the very early stages of a successful startup.<p>Believe me, I get the whole "money isn't everything", "adding real social value is more rewarding" mindset, I do. The reality is though that it isn't easy to halve your salary based on a philosophical argument, however persuasive, especially when you're still working on cool problems.
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.<p>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.<p>That is my advice, take it or leave, but please, think about what you're doing.
This has been a well known phenomenon for quite a while. Even back in the 90s, when algorithmic trading picked up steam, wall st rushed to hire math Phds and now wall st wants algo geeks. It'll be really hard to woo hackers to work in the hierarchy driven wall st culture. Some hedge funds are opening offices around Berkeley and subscribing to the valley way of life.
For those that are behind the paywall: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=1320&q=Wall+Street+Battles+Silicon+Valley+for+Tech+Geeks+site:wsj.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=128...</a><p>Click the first link.
--"I've had people in interviews ask me point-blank what the social value is that we're adding," Mr. Chau said.<p>This is a question that shouldn't be uncommon, and should be easy to answer. If people at these financial firms can't easily answer it (and <i>don't</i> say "we increase market liquidity by 1e-30%!"), it's no wonder new hires with lots of prospects would avoid them. Why not work at, say, Facebook, where you're taking part in changing the way people interact, and every single person your age is using your product every day.<p>If the most interesting thing you do in a day is increase the wealth of others for a tiny tiny fraction of it, that's a huge opportunity cost. You could be be spending 40-60 hours a week doing something you find much more rewarding, and still have high enough a wage to meet all your financial goals.
Behind a pay wall so we can't read much...<p>The topic says it all though. It's true, Wall Street is on a hiring frenzy right now and they've started to realize how important good talent is.<p>It means they are going to have to start offering more to get the talent that typically dives off into silicon valley. NYC suits are also a hard sell to the t-shirt style of the west coast and that in itself may be a difficult obstacle.
FWIW, I just turned down an internship at a Chicago HFT company to work for Google this summer. I found the interview process and working conditions to be pretty similar to the tech industry, actually. The clincher for me was that I think it's easier to go tech -> finance than the other way around.