[cletus]

That's really apples and oranges. In many ways, Wall St and startups don't want the same programmers, at least not as much.

Working on Wall Street--or most large companies for that matter--is largely transactional. You provide a service. You get paid for that service. You tend to get paid quite well to make up for the abuse you often end up taking. This is particularly true if you work in financial markets (as most Wall Street programmers do) where there are two kinds of people: traders and people who don't matter (being everyone else).

With a startup--particularly an early stage startup--you're taking a long term stake in the company, possibly a significant stake. If it's particularly early that stake but will largely be in lieu of a market wage (or any wage at all).

In my experience the profiles of the people in both categories (in an ideal sense from the company's point of view) don't quite match.

[saikat]

Wall Street is large, and there are many types of firms there. Technology is a lot more important in a lot of Wall Street firms now than they used to, and, at the hedge fund I used to work at, programmers were the first class citizens and made many of the large decisions. The startup type is the perfect fit for these places - they want people who, with little management, can make innovative tools from scratch that will earn the place millions of dollars. And they pay a lot of money for this kind of person.

[asanwal]

With respect to recent grads (bachelors, master, PhD), if you have loans to pay off, the allure of Wall Street is significant and understandable as it puts more money in your pocket tmw vs. 99% of startups.

In the case of these grads, it's not an issue of profile but simple arithmetic that results in Wall St winning.

[yannickt]

I would say that Wall Street is probably more appealing to experienced professionals than it is to recent grads. People have goals (e.g. comfortable retirement) and very real needs (paying the house, providing for family, etc.) that take money to accommodate. Most people would gladly accept a salary that allows them to reach these goals faster than most alternatives.