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I agree, in many ways finance is one of the most worker-friendly industries there is. Things like MDs who have a few too many bad years and get forced out being given (almost military style) promotions to some made up title and a couple million for a year or two while they look for a new job, long sabbaticals available to most longstanding employees, a real air of camaraderie. We had senior leaders take huge real pay cuts despite some of their individual sector teams doing well to limit layoffs early last year.
I have a friend on the business side of engineering who said that he almost got fired when he was late to a whole-team meeting with the CSO/global head of sales because they’d been drinking the previous night and he’d overslept, he’d been thrown under the bus. In finance that’s a rite of passage! I’ve seen a VP miss a critical pitch because they went too hard the previous night and everyone (including the MDs and relevant Vice-Chairman) covered for them, not to do so would have been dishonorable. I’ve seen guys give each other the shirt off their backs (literally!) if someone’s going out for a client meeting and they notice a stain and don’t have time to buy a replacement.
Seems sad that other industries lack that. There’s backstabbing in banking, but it’s pretty rare because it’s a small world and nobody wants to hire assholes after 2008, the money usually doesn’t justify it and clients rarely like them anyway.
Yes to all of this.
The dirty secret in banking is that it is a fantastically boring job with close to zero intellectual stimulation. It's a sales gig that also makes you work 60+ hours a week on busy work. The military analogies and military-like culture makes sense - the guys (and gals) who make it are 10-20% above average sales people and 80-90% "I can take relentless shit for years on end" tough.
The best hustle in the finance world is high-net worth / ultra-high net worth individual wealth management. If ever there was a job that was literally "I get paid to golf and go to cocktail parties" this is it. The hours are sane to luxurious (anywhere from 20 - 40 a week). The money can be seven figures easily. The rub - your first five years are often poverty wages, it is 110% networking (meaning that if your network is bad at networking, you pay the price), and everyone has their "lucky break" story. No one makes it through grinding alone.
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