Why Wall Street Is (Still) a Great Place to Start a Career

Every few years, someone declares that Wall Street is over. The bonuses are smaller, the culture is duller and the best graduates are going somewhere else. In March 2023, with Credit Suisse collapsing into a government-brokered takeover by UBS, the obituaries were everywhere again.

John LeFevre started his career in banking and later wrote Straight to Hell, his memoir of Wall Street. That month he answered the question he says he gets asked constantly in an issue of The Graze, "Why Wall Street Is (Still) A Great Place to Start A Career." He began by conceding every complaint:

With the death of Credit Suisse, we were served with yet another reminder: Banks aren’t sexy anymore. The big bonuses are gone. The culture is boring. The industry is shrinking. Work life balance still sucks. The wild antics have died down. The colourful characters have moved to the buy-side. Wall Street’s just not cool. College kids don’t want to work there anymore.

There’s no need for me to unpack any of that; it’s what we’ve been hearing steadily since the Great Financial Crisis. But since I wrote a book about pervasive deviance and systemic corruption on Wall Street , I get asked all the time, “Is Wall Street still a good place to start?”

So here are 10 reasons why Wall Street is a phenomenal place to begin your career, and not just because of the occasional debauchery:

Then he made the case. Here are his 10 reasons, exactly as he wrote them. The notes in between are ours.

1. Training

Wall Street has one of the most prestigious training programs on the planet. Where else could you show up with an Oxford Philosophy degree and learn the fundamentals of valuation, finance, economics, accounting, modelling, computer and presentation skills in the span of six weeks? Some hedge funds are stepping up, but very few companies generally devote the resources to training that the big banks do. And all you learn at Big Tech is how to make “Day In The Life” TikToks and DEI team-building.

Training is the reason most people give for starting on Wall Street, and it holds up. The six-week program John describes takes a liberal arts graduate and turns him into someone who can build a model and defend it in front of a client.

2. Mentorship

Most junior bankers get two mentors. One is only a few years older (usually an Associate), who can relate to your day-to-day life, and is there to provide typical mentor-y guidance. The other is more senior – probably a Managing Director making $2-3m or more a year. They’re smart, accomplished, at the top of their game, and are at your disposal to help not only with your career, but also in life. Where else do you get that kind of access?

Access is the underrated part. In most first jobs, the most senior person you'll speak to is your manager's manager. On Wall Street, a junior banker spends time with people at the top of the business from the first week.

3. Resources

Fresh out of training, I’m sitting in front of four screens, a Bloomberg terminal, a dealerboard with 100 phone lines and instant access to all major financial centres across the world, and am surrounded by near-infinite resources. If I have a legal or documentation issue, a research or markets question, or an IT problem, everything is a button away. But if you think it’s cooler to have a free iMac, a Ping-Pong table in the conference room, and the green light to work from home, maybe Silicon Valley might be better for you.

The contrast with the tech perks of the time is the point. Free snacks are nice. Being able to get an answer to almost any question in minutes is what actually makes you good at your job.

4. Working Environment

Every banker I know who has left the industry for a career outside of banking is thankful for having cut his or her teeth on Wall Street. You’re surrounded by the so-called “best and brightest” in a fiercely competitive, stressful, gruelling, and singularly focused ($) environment. Learning how to excel as a junior banker on Wall Street is an invaluable life skill.

"An invaluable life skill" is the key phrase. The pressure is the training. Very few jobs teach you to work this fast, this carefully, for this long.

5. Validation

People – tech startups, the buy side, big corporations, business and law schools, friends and family, even possible romantic partners - know how hard it is to get a top banking job. They know how rigorous the training programs are. They know you work well under pressure, have a solid work ethic, and an appreciation for intelligence and efficiency. Having Wall Street on your CV is a timeless stamp of approval.

This is the résumé argument, and it's the most durable one. A few years at a top bank tells every future employer something specific about how you work.

6. Connections

The job can be all-consuming. Your peers, colleagues, and many of your competitors will become some of your closest friends. Besides, most of your old friends from university can’t afford to keep up with you. Over time, these people (your new friends) will become more successful and influential and gradually disperse all over the world and across all facets of our economy and society.

The people you start with become your network for life. That's true in any industry, but the Wall Street class of any given year scatters into private equity, hedge funds, startups, corporate jobs and government.

7. Location and mobility

First of all, you’re starting out in city like New York or London, not Detroit or Cleveland. Second, you have unmatched opportunities for short and long-term mobility. There aren’t that many other careers where you can do a stint in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Sydney. And sure, Austin and Boulder are cool, but save that for your 30s.

Mobility is one of the least discussed perks. Few other first jobs offer a realistic path to working in Hong Kong, London or Dubai before 30.

8. Exposure

Many college kids aren’t sure what they want to do for a career, or even if they are, they probably don’t fully comprehend what they’re getting into. Quite often, they end up hating their first job, but can’t do much about it. Whereas, when I started, I was getting exposure to a wide range of industries and clients, doing deals for General Electric, Unilever, Rolls-Royce, AIG, or even Chinese tycoons and Indonesian thugs. Not only did I get great exposure, it was quite often at the CEO and CFO level. Even if I had hated banking, that kind of exposure gave me the knowledge and opportunity to do something about it.

The breadth of exposure is what makes the job valuable even for people who leave.

9. Excitement

You’re working on deals that appear in the Wall Street Journal the next day.

One sentence, and it's enough.

10. Money

Wall Street pay structures have been overhauled and continue to trend lower. Boohoo. You’re still probably on track to retire before you turn 40, depending on what your “number” is.

The pay has come down from its peak. It's still among the best-paid places a 22-year-old can start, and John's point stands: even reduced, it buys you options.

Two or three years later

John closed with the question every graduate should ask about any first job: where does it leave you?

So let’s assume you heed my advice and pursue a career on Wall Street. Where does that leave you in two or three years? If you love your job (for many of the reasons above), there’s nothing left to say. You’re welcome.
If you hate it, then you’re still well-positioned and connected, and better informed and qualified to go into anything you want: tech, the buy-side, a corporate gig, your own startup, or back to school. And even if you just want to sail around the world, you can probably afford it.

That is the real argument. A first job isn't a life sentence. It's a starting position. The best starting positions are the ones that leave you with the most options, and on that measure, Wall Street is still hard to beat.

Source: John LeFevre, "Why Wall Street Is (Still) A Great Place to Start A Career," The Graze, March 22, 2023.