Ploymint

Every couple of years America is tuned in on what’s going down on Wall Street. Whether it’s acclaimed movies in popular culture like 2000’s Boiler Room or more recent and excessively debaucherous depictions like The Wolf of Wall Street, America has seen the good and the bad played out by our favorite actors. But Wall Street is also on many minds for more serious reasons, like the 2008 stock-market crash and ensuing recession that lost America $1.2 trillion in market value in a single day.

The truth is Wall Street affects virtually everyone on earth, as U.S. markets affect foreign markets across the globe. For an individual it means a fairly high-stress job in return for an entry-level wage upwards of $100,000 dollars a year. That’s a whole heck of a lot for someone straight out of college.

The term Wall Street has also changed over the years, as major financial firms aren’t solely located in Manhattan anymore. Anyone working in the financial services field for a major firm could be considered as working on Wall Street.

Real life isn’t always like the movies, here’s what it’s like to work on Wall Street.

Making the Money

Before the financial crisis, people working on Wall Street made obscene amounts of money. In 2006, the average person on Wall Street was making upwards of $180,000 dollars a year. In 2008, like many people’s salaries, Wall Street also took a huge pay cut, reducing bonuses and ultimately the median income to $100,000 a year.

However, rising incomes for people on Wall Street mean that if you’re planning on going into finance in NYC, you have nothing to worry about. According to the New York Comptroller’s Office financial service employees on Wall Street made $172,860 in 2014, and while the trend seems to be tapering off at this point, it’s not too far off from the highs in 2006.

They Will Compete for Young Talent

The reason for the steady rise of income after the crisis can be directed towards the millennial talent pool and the amount of 20 somethings that are going to the Silicon Valley and other technology oriented cities on the west coast. Employers like Google and Amazon are taking highly educated talent away from traditional companies like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, so there’s a mini brain drain happening in the financial services sector. Not only do these tech companies offer better salaries, they also posses a perceived benefit to society, which is starkly contrasted with the financial services sector.

So Stressful it Could Kill You

You know that term “postal” and how it refers to postal workers? Yeah, well, they should replace it with going “Wall Street.” As a financial services employee, your job is one of the most stressful jobs in the world. There have even been a long string of deaths that have been associated with working in the financial services sector. Everything from suicides, to epileptic seizures have been brought on by working too much.

There is virtually no work-life balance and people on Wall Street can work 100 hour weeks and endure incredible pressure from their superiors. Work is essentially your life as you have little time off. In addition, Wall Street has seen a lot of cases of worker rights violations which reveals the potential of an unhealthy work environment.

In the end you really need to evaluate whether you want to work on Wall Street. While you can make a lot of money, there is also incredible pressure and not much time to spend with friends and family. Markets are constantly shifting and changing so you need to constantly be on the pulse with trends and aware of changes in our economy. If you want to surround yourself with work, take criticism well, and are able to manage high pressure situations, working on Wall Street may be your thing.