Forum Post: Do You Know Anyone on Wall Street?

Does anyone on here actually know people that work on Wall Street? And if you do, are they greedy, lying, blood-sucking scoundrels its seems people are making them out to be?

I very good friend of mine worked very hard in college and early in his career. He put himself though business school and got a job as an M&A banker in 2009, when it seemed like every bank was laying thousands of bankers off.

He works over 80 hours a week and eats dinner most nights from a cardboard box at his desk. He gets very little sleep. He routinely has to say no to social activities because he can't afford it - after paying taxes (he pays about 50% of his income in taxes), student loans and New York City rent there simply isn't much left over to spend. A lot of his compensation is in the form of unvested company stock that he can't sell. He doesn't know how he is going to buy a house in a couple of years after he gets married.

Wall Street is not glamorous. The junior people work very hard for average cash hourly wages equivalent to a good auto mechanic, yet have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their education. It is not what the media make it out to be.

My friend did all the right things professionally and even he is having a hard time making ends meat. He is not the problem - we need more motivated people like him to help make this country great. He is Wall Street. Leave him alone.