I've only ever done tshirt and jeans stuff. I couldn't imagine wearing a suit every day, but it might be fun to have a "dress up Fridays".
Ideally, anyone could wear whatever they want whenever they want. In practice, it doesn't seem to work out this way, even at the tshirts and jeans companies.
Only if you are a Trader or an Investment Banker (note not the other 98% of people working at the firm i.e. Tech, Quant, Operations, Finance, HR) in which case you are already the handful of people such as the ultra high paid at Google as either your career is going to be very short once they find out you can't make money or you are very good (very few people) and you will make a fortune.
In London at least this was not the case. Startup salaries today are often at the same level as bank internships. The US (particularly SF) is a very different market.
You are comparing a bank to a startup which is an absurd comparison. Compare Goldman to Google and guess what Google wins (even in London).
Banking salaries have been static for 10+ years. Bank internship salaries are designed to allure and impress but 5+ years in and the salary does not change.
On another note there are some startups who can pay very very well in London but they do not advertise these salaries.
I honestly think finance is overall a worse deal, I used to think it was the panacea of making money. There is the chance that you can make 600 - 800k in finance as a senior developer, but you need to either be incredibly intelligent or incredibly hard working, generally you need an ivy league degree.
A year or so ago I received an offer from a well known quant hedge fund, I spoke to a google recruiter to see if they could match, to my surprise right there on the phone he told me they never get beat out and that they would beat the offer by 50k.
The hours are much better in tech, you get treated better, and at Facebook/Google/Amazon/other big tech firm you have less variance in pay.
That recruiter must have been pretty inexperienced to talk like that.
You should seriously question your compensation if a recruiter is willing to top you up 50k without a second thought. Chances are you are severely underpaid.
When you have another offer on the table the best move for the recruiter is to make the serious offer then and there and try take care of the situation to avoid any further bidding.
They want you for as cheap as they can get you but if someone else is willing to pay more then almost always they can afford it.
There are also a lot of fintech firms which pay more, and specifically advertise themselves as more 'hip' (e.g. Jane Street et al). Though I would imagine the good jobs are very hard to come by these days.
Started family, needed stable income and insurance, salary was still plenty to finance savings and a comfortable life in NYC. They also let me go remote without a second thought when I asked.
I quit last year to look after my kids and do my own thing, although the decision was driven more by boredom than any desire for more pay.
