“With innovative talent more attracted to other industries such as software and computer services, it may challenge the banks’ ability to respond to threats from non-bank challengers such as FinTechs and tech titans”

By: Eli Karam

Ah yes, the good old “My dream is to work in banking on Wall Street” saying that any person in the business/finance world has imagined for themselves. Many males studying Finance, Economics, or Business around the age of 18-26 have this embedded in their mind the minute they went to business school. I know many guys around my age that fell in love with working on Wall St. after watching the classic 1987 film and hearing Gordon Gekko’s infamous quote “greed is good”. Fast forward twenty so years and films like The Boiler Room (2000) & The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) add on to this euphoric effect. People viewed Wall St. as the gold mine to land a job in. Where if you put in the grueling amount of work, the money, women, cars, pent-houses, money, champagne, and did I forget…money, will come!

For my ambiguity, working on Wall Street was different. I’m not going to lie, yes the money aspect is awesome, but in all honesty I fell in love with the drive. I was infatuated with the idea of always being busy, being pushed, thrown to the wolves and forced to fight your way to the top. It’s a new era, and Silicon Valley is the new place to be.

While Vice President of the Bentley Venture Capital/Private Equity club, I had the privelge to interview many venture capitalists and learn more about their start up success stories. It was here that I realized the business technology & software scene was my true calling! Tech has been the new hot spot to be over banking. Wall Street isn’t the same, it’s not what it used to be in my opinion and the amount of money to be made is not that attainable as in the startup/entrepreneurship scene. According to Nicki Richards (view link under photo), “Banking has lost some of its glamour, Banks are just not seen as engaging or interesting places to work as much as they were before”.

It’s not the 80’s anymore where some Jordan Belfort’s can just come in and sweep up some easy money. After multiple fraud, ponschi-sceme, and corporation scandals, the SEC has cracked down on Wall Street banks. Add the 2008 financial crisis, and the golden mine that once was Wall Street starts to drift away. What do you think? S.V or Wall St?