Originally Posted by
NASA
The front office investment banking analysts on Wall Street you are referring to are treated like crap..They start at 80k base and their bonus is around 40k first year bringing their total first year pay to 120k..Keep in mind, this is for working 80-100 hours a week..These analysts are usually kids from top tier schools(HYPSW,Columbia, Cornell,etc..You get the idea) and have stellar grades..You can't compare them with pilots..Also, investment banking has a huge weeding process..Less than 5% of these analysts ever go on to become Managing Directors( where the money is at)...You just make it sound so simple, truth is, it's a very difficult career path...Being an airline pilot is a fairly easy job that you can do with average skills...Investment Banking itself is not hard, it's getting in and staying there/moving up...I have plenty of investment banking MD's in my family so I know what I'm talking about...
You missed my point. I have good friends/family in IB as well.
The point is that while only a small portion of new analysts will become MDs, they all have good salaries ("only $120k" - still more than double the median FAMILY income at age 22), very well defined career paths (analyst->associate->VP->MD), and great exit opportunities even if their first bank does not work out.
Meanwhile pilots looking to get into majors seems to be working at a regional for anywhere between 5-10 years (or more??), while making middling wages and hoping to one day get a call from a major. And, oh yeah, your skills are really not transferable to any other industry.
I went to a school that is just outside of the ones you listed. And the difference in career security was a major reason why I didn't look towards aviation (outside of the USN I mentioned in my initial post) until a program like this came along.