for what it's worth

I'd err towards taking the longer term view.

Difficult when banks dangle large carrots in front of you but I'd try and keep in mind how you'd hope things to pan out over the next 10-15 years. You might take a bath on pay if you stay where you are for next five years (or possibly for the rest of your career) or it might be that once you get to a certain level the two will then be pretty similar. Typically you get lots of people who make very good money once they hit Director grade, which in itself is pretty hard to make, but then very few will progress to Managing Director or rake in the really big money.

As regards working for a bank... there are a few pros and cons. The main pro is what you've already identified - the money is excellent. You also get to work with - generally - smart people and will make lots of good connections. There'll be lots of egos no doubt but also lots of very good people too. The ratio varies by location, bank, department and seniority.

As for the cons... the hours can be brutal. Again depends on where you work. Traders do 60 hours a week, investment bankers upwards of 80+ hours. Working in a retail or corporate bank or in a back office support function (Finance / Legal / IT etc) of an investment bank is certainly better hours than that but you'll still probably be looking at something like 8am-6pm with regular evening working. Retail banking is typically easier going than investment banking, but even then I've been at a retail bank where lots of us pulled much longer hours than I ever saw in investment banking.

Much also depends on the bank you're joining. Most of the big British banks with the possible exception of HSBC are complete basket cases. Going to need to slash thousands of jobs over coming years and will be mass restructuring ahead (although that might be a good thing depending on your line of work). Will potentially be lots of competing for scarce resources and lots of arse covering required. Loads of threats from regulators, government and new technologies - it's an industry under the cosh at the minute.

Don't know if that's helpful or not but thought I'd weigh in anyway......

Posted By: pat_abb, Jun 28, 09:25:00