This is a bigger issue than simple exposure. Students studying finance/econ at Ivy League schools are on a track that starts early (our author, I assume, applied directly to Penn's Wharton School). The expectations and goals start in high school then, sometimes earlier. It's hard to get away from those expectations and pressure, and students emerge at the end of the conveyor belt onto Wall Street before they even know it, ready to earn their "seven in seven" (a milly in seven years).

I think the bigger deal here is talking about start-ups as a viable career option all around (cultural shfit?), and encourage kids (high school and college) to experiment while in school, since risk is relatively low and time is readily available for most. A better system of on campus incubator/meet-up programs would be a nice complement, too.

> "passion is a big part of it"

Right, and having known a lot of the "Wall Street" type engineers in college, I'm not sure if I really want them in my field.

Yeah, they're smart and bright (you kind of have to be in those environments), but I know more than a few who went into engineering position at major investment banks - soul-crushing, mind-numbing work that it is solely because of the compensation.

Maybe this is me being too startupy-self-important, but that speaks to a complete lack of passion, that you're willing to take on the IT equivalent of coal mining, where the only real upside to your job is the gigantic paycheck. On this side of the divide I'd rather have people who place an utmost importance in the, well, work of their work - someone who will take a high-paying, rewarding position over a ludicrous-paying soul-crushing job.

This isn't some justification to pay people less - if we can sweeten the pot for new grads I'm all for it, but I'm not sure I really want to attract Wall Streeters to our side of the industry.