Why go into banking when top tech pays just as well?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/silicon-valley-tech-intern-salary-wage-average-google-facebook-snapchat-a7002211.html

Tech interns are earning loads, and it looks like their pay is rising, unlike the pay for bankers and traders. It's also a less risky job, has lower hours, less likely to be replaced by machines and algorithms, and is a growing industry compared to banking. So why would people go for banking now when tech is now the best paying sector? In the future, software engineers will still be in demand while bankers and traders will be replaced by algos.

Have you tried a technical interview before? Those things are no joke mate.

Banking interviews in comparison are piss: some competency questions, some basic maths puzzles, some accounting/finance/market knowledge questions.

You don't have to do any weird algorithms without a computer at hand, without a compiler and whilst being the most efficient taking note of space complexity and time complexity of your algorithm.

Basically, not everyone can become a software engineer at a top tech company without learning hard skills and prepping like cray for interviews. With banking, you don't really need to have any hard skills nor do you really need to prep technicals as much since they form a smaller part of the process.

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I understand tech interviews are hard but banking isn't exactly easier to get into in terms of competition. If someone develops the hard technical skills and interview technique before an interview they have a chance. In the future, tech is going to grow and more engineers will be needed. The opposite is happening to banking, fewer bankers and traders are needed due to machines taking over. It seems like tech is the more wise career decion to make

Machines will never take over banking?

I understand tech interviews are hard but banking isn't exactly easier to get into in terms of competition. If someone develops the hard technical skills and interview technique before an interview they have a chance. In the future, tech is going to grow and more engineers will be needed. The opposite is happening to banking, fewer bankers and traders are needed due to machines taking over. It seems like tech is the more wise career decion to make

I'd argue tech is a much, much harder job than banking from an intellectual standpoint. I'd be terrible as a software engineer.

Also, pay in tech flattens out around the £200,000-£300,000 mark. That is the ceiling for the majority in tech. The ceiling in banking is much higher.

If I could go back though, I would probably spend my early teenage years learning about programming rather than banking though. I think if you have the choice and are good at it, tech is a better prospect.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/silicon-valley-tech-intern-salary-wage-average-google-facebook-snapchat-a7002211.html

Tech interns are earning loads, and it looks like their pay is rising, unlike the pay for bankers and traders. It's also a less risky job, has lower hours, less likely to be replaced by machines and algorithms, and is a growing industry compared to banking. So why would people go for banking now when tech is now the best paying sector? In the future, software engineers will still be in demand while bankers and traders will be replaced by algos.

Bankers will always be needed, traders will of course need to become more technical than they are now.

The case is, unless you are really into the practical (and theoretical) side of CompSci, you will struggle to pass the bar for these tech companies. Merely prepping and hoping for the best is not enough to get you through 7-8 hrs+ of raw problem solving interviews for each company.

Sure, if you like tech and want a better work life balance - do tech. Otherwise, there's not much point. Banking you can at least BS your way in, and decide it's not something you want to do and move on.

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Just curious what you meant by this... are yu saying they should learn to code and create trading algos?

Also, pay in tech flattens out around the £200,000-£300,000 mark.

Bankers will always be needed,

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True, though currently it looks like the sector is going to shrink by about 30% in bankers in the next 10 years with elite boutiques selling niche advisory in their sector, cutting out competition, and the second group focussing on IPOs and advisory in one or two specific sectors then the rest lumped together under 'general' advisory, forming smaller groups- equity capital markets will shrink most with cooling market.

Tech is so damn hard though.

And Imperial students get 2/3 of the jobs.

True, though currently it looks like the sector is going to shrink by about 30% in bankers in the next 10 years with elite boutiques selling niche advisory in their sector, cutting out competition, and the second group focussing on IPOs and advisory in one or two specific sectors then the rest lumped together under 'general' advisory, forming smaller groups- equity capital markets will shrink most with cooling market.

True, though currently it looks like the sector is going to shrink by about 30% in bankers in the next 10 years with elite boutiques selling niche advisory in their sector, cutting out competition, and the second group focussing on IPOs and advisory in one or two specific sectors then the rest lumped together under 'general' advisory, forming smaller groups- equity capital markets will shrink most with cooling market.