Actually this is in no way surprising. I just graduated from school and let me tell you that the real brain drain is in our smartest students defecting to finance.
Why would someone with a 4.0 in a hard, rigorous subject go into engineering for a measly 60k a year starting salary + 20% raises when he can work in a finance industry where the top talent makes in the hundreds?
I had a lot of friends in the math department that were double business majors. I imagine that at least for quantitive finance positions, interviews such as these (if not way harder) are a must to separate the top talent from the elite talent.
60k starting? That sounds low, even for 6 years ago when I graduated in CS. Google/Microsoft paid 80K starting for college grads back then -- have no doubt it is > 100K or more now.
I can confirm that Microsoft still started at 80K last year. I've heard Google is a bit higher, but still under a 100K.
A trader at a top tier firm, on the other hand, might have a $150K+ base first year out of school. Adding on bonuses, it isn't unusual for them to be making $1mil/year within 3-5 years (although the vast majority don't make it five years ...). A quant programmer (slightly less competitive/stressful) can expect to be making $200K/year+ within five years at a top tier quant firm.
It isn't really fair to compare programmers to bankers since the hours aren't really comparable. But the traders/quant-programmers I know (usually) only work about 60 hours a week.
All based on my relatively limited experience (~5 people/company - although I have no reason to suspect bias in my sample).
Why would someone with a 4.0 in a hard, rigorous subject go into engineering for a measly 60k a year starting salary + 20% raises when he can work in a finance industry where the top talent makes in the hundreds?
I had a lot of friends in the math department that were double business majors. I imagine that at least for quantitive finance positions, interviews such as these (if not way harder) are a must to separate the top talent from the elite talent.