Though it's been interesting, in the sense of the chinese proverb, I sometimes wish that I'd just worked at a bank for the past 15 years.
I can understand that. I worked at a big consulting company, at a global bank client, for 4 years. From personal experience, however, I'd like to correct your perception a little.
1) Yes, the money is better and more regular, but you end up spending a lot more as well. So you won't make as much as you think you will.
2) While you constantly hear about people making astounding sums of money in banking, the reality is that unless you work your socks off and are lucky to be in the right place at the right time (hey, that sounds like startups!) you will stagnate at a decent but not particularly amazing salary. And if you work your socks off, you won't have that much time to enjoy the money anyway.
3) This extra money comes with a cost: your soul. I'm not kidding. If you're the kind of person who derives great satisfaction from loving your work and making a difference, working at a large corporation for a long period will slowly but surely strangle and kill something very precious inside of you.
Money is a commodity. Enjoying your life, doing something you love, feeling like you make a difference - you can't buy those things, no matter your salary.
How come? Is it a case of "Keeping up with the Joneses"?
And you soon realise that the clothes you wear make a difference to your career. You buy proper suits, proper shirts, proper shoes, and so on.
And after working your ass off like that all the time, you need a proper break every once in a while. So you take proper holidays in places far away from work. Those cost money too.
Thanks to this comment, not any more.
There are plenty of startups out there run by sharks (or sometimes idiots) looking to drain your talent dry for little or no reward. Working at a few of those can be just as soul sucking.
Also I'd like to add that if changing the world and leaving a legacy is your main desire, then yes working at a startup is probably your thing.
If you really just want to enjoy your family or extracurricular lifestyle without worrying about your paycheck then maybe something with a little more security is ok. I have friends who work blue collar non-technical jobs and enjoy the casual atmosphere and complete lack of stress.
What is certainly true about work in large corporations is that there is a lot of waste and politics, so much so that I think it's fair to say that a large percentage of the average job in a corporation is basically waste. If you're particularly unlucky (as I was on some of my projects), you can even end up doing a project which is a complete waste of time, where everyone knows that it's a complete waste of time, but it needs to be done in order to score someone somewhere some political points that will advance their career.
To me, that is soul-destroying. I can't work unless I care, and forcing myself to care when there is no reason to grinds away at an important part of who I am.