Silicon Valley
For years, Wall Street was the place to be for young and hungry new grads hoping to forge successful careers. Then, the financial industry’s reputation took a hit for its role in the subprime mortgage crisis and young recruits began flocking to buzzy Silicon Valley companies.
According to Glassdoor economist Lauren Thomas, the tech industry has solidified its place as a top spot for new talent in recent years. Two years ago, the tech industry represented less than half of the companies on Glassdoor’s highest-paying internship list. Now, Silicon Valley companies make up 68%.
“This shows how tech and finance industries are competing fiercely for talent and that competition for quality talent is only growing in today’s job market,” Thomas said.
Tech and Finance Battle for Young Talent | Median monthly pay for interns at major companies from the 2021 to 2022 internship cycle
Video-game platform Roblox Corp. topped Glassdoor’s list of the top-paying internships with a monthly salary of $9,667 a month. A spokesperson for Roblox said the company pays its interns $58 to $60 an hour.
But the tides may now be shifting as financial firms shell out as much as eight-figure pay packages for top talent, while big tech companies lose some of their luster as their stock prices fall. In 2021, the share of internships paying over $8,000 a month increased by 33% in finance and 22% in tech, according to Glassdoor data.
During the most recent intern recruitment cycle, savvy college students are showing signs that their sights may be set on Wall Street once again.
A record 236,000 people globally applied to Goldman Sachs’s highly competitive internship program, a 17% jump from 2021, Business Insider reported. Morgan Stanley also reported an increase in applications for the most recent internship cycle, but the bank did not confirm how many it received.
Curtis suggested that the surge in applications may be due to the unprecedented pay increase for junior bankers, who are now seeing six-figure offers to start. Earlier this month, UBS Group AG boosted salary for first-year analysts for the second time in less than a year to compete with Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., which set the new standard pay for junior bankers at $110,000 a year.
Still, he thinks Silicon Valley retains the power to lure talent away from Wall Street.
“I’ve never seen such an acceleration in pay for junior investment bankers in such a short period of time,” Curtis said. “But a dramatic rise in pay isn’t enough to stop the attrition and the brain drain to Silicon Valley.”
--With assistance from Jennifer Surane and Mary Biekert.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.