[redschell]

Seems to be a case of career osmosis. Uncomfortable with the growing popularity of the tech sector, and noticing a distinct exodus of Wall Street-types (who will arrive late to the tech gold rush), they swoop in to fill the gap.

Hopefully they'll attempt to negotiate for better salaries and more reasonable hours, but, according to all my Wall Street friends, this tends to be an effort in futility.

The best of the best will always put in absurd hours doing the tedious work you describe. They need to show off this way to win distinction. In theory, hacker types could buck the system, but that system in high finance, which awards face time and man hours like few other places, is pretty damn robust.

[dasil003]

Wall Street's issue is one of filtering. Because they are the easiest perceived place to make money, they have to set up absurd barriers to maintain staffing qualities.

The tech world is also at risk of going in this direction as well as the wider economy collapses and startups actually start to look like a somewhat conservative career path. The symptoms are all around us. Look at the proliferation of accelerators and short-form bootcamp style tech programs. Google-style hiring process starts to make a lot more sense in this kind of environment.