[idsmct]

I'm from the UK and going to be doing an internship at an investment bank this summer, I do Comp Sci at university. Here are some of my thoughts and motivations.

Banks recruit ALOT of people and have offices across the country, they are very accommodating to your needs.

Applying for a bank seems much less intimidating than applying to a big tech company. The view is that only the very best even have a shot at interviewing at a company like Google/Amazon/Facebook, this puts people off.

Banks are at every school actively recruiting.

Banks host events like hackathons and advertise them. Amazon also do this in our area to be fair to them, but that one is usually after the academic year. Banks host theirs round about November time, and competing can allow you to skip portions of the interview process.

The offices are stunning and the entire place (Canary Wharf) has a feeling of being important when you're a kid in jeans who has never had a real job, and lots of important looking people are walking about in their expensive suits.

They pay very very well.

One other motivation that is personal to me but slightly different. I don't really want to work in banking. I want to run my own business, but I'm not ready to do that yet. I feel if I work at a company like Google that I'll never want to leave, and that's not how I want my life to be. So a bank is a great option. It's good money, I'll learn a lot, and it's a respected name, and I will never be so happy with my field of work as to never want to leave.

[dba7dba]

When I say other economies, I meant places like China/Japan/SKorea. Their top science/engineering graduates have NO choice but to enter science/engineering fields. I think a lot of it is due to language/culture.

Please stop bringing up Google/Amazon/Facebook. These are not the true engines of a nation's economy. The true engines imo are companies like GM/Boeing/Tesla who design and make things at cheap enough cost to be competitive. And these companies are losing top prospects to Wall Street.

You are wrong about people working at Google not wanting to leave. Many of those people want to and do leave to start something on their own. But again, I don't really care about such 'high' tech companies. I'm worried about other industries like medicine/science/engineering in America losing the competitive edge due to top young prospects joining in Wall Street instead.

[idsmct]

Tesla are recruiting quite well and have their pick of a lot of the best graduates. They only employ 6000 people though, so their recruitment won't be huge.

I can only talk about this from a UK perspective because that's where I have experience in this. Most companies like that do not actively recruit, they don't come to my university and talk to me. They don't host student events. And often, even when they do come talk to me, they send HR people. I'm not interested in HR people, I'm interested in technology. I want a technologist to come talk to me, I want a decent conversation and want to feel like I'd fit in if I went to work there. A HR person is fine to come along, introduce themselves and give a talk about the culture etc, but I want some tech insight.

Banks recruit very pro-actively and very early. They do this much better than any other company. They'll be at 2/3 events in my university. If I send them an email it will most likely be replied to within 30 minutes. They do everything to make students comfortable with them.

And yes, people at Google might want to leave. But I'm concerned that I wouldn't, and that's a risk I don't want to take.

[twic]

> the entire place (Canary Wharf) has a feeling of being important

Heh. To those of us who work in the City, the Wharf feels like Siberia - somewhere you get exiled to if things don't go well for you.