[jleyank]

Of late, US folks coming out of university optimize for money and head for things like finance - people who hire STEM people. Those more interested in the field than the bucks go for advanced STEM degrees. And if the Yanks don't go for the bucks, they go for the MD.

[cyberax]

Yep, and we end up in a situation where the US-born people are working on "people skills", getting MBAs, and then going into management positions to manage the financialized companies.

Except that there aren't that many management positions. And once _everyone_ is doing complex financial stuff, you end up losing competitive edge against other countries.

[alephnerd]

> US folks coming out of university optimize for money and head for things like finance...

Not really, and I say this as someone who works in VC with peers in PE, Growth Equity, and other segments of high finance.

If you have the resume to get hired as an IB Analyst you will also get hired as a new grad SWE or APM at OpenAI, Google, or Roblox where they would earn the same or more than as an IB analyst with chiller work hours.

People overestimate finance salaries - it's the same as big tech with worse hours.

> And if the Yanks...

I don't think you live here in the States or Canada and as such haven't experienced our job market.

Please butt out of the convo.

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Edit: can't reply

> Have you experienced the US job market outside of the Valley and NYC

Yes.

Before I switched to VC, I've managed teams and hiring for teams or product lines that reported to me in North Carolina, Georgia, Virgina, Texas, Washington, Massachusetts, and Colorado, and helped open my previous employer's Prague and Warsaw offices.

I also started my career outside of Bay Area or NYC tech before my stint as a staffer.

Additionally, the majority of tech hiring in the US remains consolidated in a handful of geographical locales [0].

[0] - https://www.bls.gov/oes/2022/may/oes151252.htm

[jleyank]

Judging from your career path, you shifted from tech to money towards the start. I hope you were a good boss when you were starting up, as such people are rare and wondrous creatures. Forgive my choice of jargon - I divide the world into people who do the work and those who talk about the work. And the latter group tends to set the rules and collect the profits. I preferred the hacking. And tech != STEM, as biotech/pharma is rather different than selling ads and harvesting information.

And FWIW, I've worked all over N America.

[alephnerd]

> Judging from your career path, you shifted from tech to money towards the start

What the hell does that even mean?!?

I started my career working on on low latency computing at a networking company and was paid roughly the same I would have earned as an IB Analyst at JPMC. If I kept climbing the tech ladder I actually would have ended up earning more than I do today.

> I preferred the hacking...

Vast swathes of the tech industry are working on actually innovative stuff AND being paid top dollar, such as my stuff in HPC being dual use.

> And tech != STEM, as biotech/pharma is rather different than selling ads and harvesting information

I know. Not all "Big Tech" is AdTech. And salaries for scientists in the biopharma industry are comparable to big tech salaries as well (not for the SWEs in that industry though - they're cost centers not generating IP that matters).

[jleyank]

Have you experienced the US job market outside of the Valley and NYC?