Finance as a career option
Finance is a popular career option amongst graduates from elite universities: with about 20% of Harvard, Princeton and Yale graduates getting jobs in the field. Tyler Cowen has suggested that people with high intelligence have a significant edge in the field.
Compensation
Salaries in investment banking, private equity and hedge funds can be very high:
- Careers in finance reports that somebody with ~5 years of experience at an investment bank typically makes ~$450K/year.
- In 2006, Richard Rusczyk at Art of Problem Solving [1] wrote "While it's not expected that you'll make a million dollars in year 5, neither is it impossible. If you're not making at least middle six-digits by year 6-8 as a quant in a hedge fund, then something has gone very wrong for you."
- Some of the most wealthy people in the world, such as George Soros (net worth $23 billion) and James Simons (net worth 11.7 billion) made their money in these fields.
Work-life balance
The high pay in investment banking is counterbalanced by