Interestingly, I came from a very modest family (rural south, one parent was a teacher, the other disabled), so I never knew how expensive “city” life would be that most professionals aspire to. So I was mostly interested in interesting and meaningful work, and assumed literally any salary for a college graduate would be more than I ever need.
Wow was I wrong.
So current tech gens are making a killer salary as early and often as possible are making the wise choice. I do also thing the class of grads who used to go to investment banking and consulting now go to tech, and they were always “mercenaries”.