As a student who's done an internship at a Silicon Valley company(non-financial), I'm curious to know what it's like working for a financial company doing software development. I'd expect the hours to be longer, and the pay to be higher. Specifically, I have the following questions:

1. What's the work/life balance really like? Are you expected to work 80 hours a week most weeks? For those who have worked in non-financial software engineering jobs, how does being a financial software engineer compare in terms of work/life balance?

2. How much does it pay? I'm curious as to starting(i.e. just got a BS) pay, as well as "top out" pay. (I'd prefer concrete numbers - ballpark is fine). Also, bonuses would be useful information.

3. What jobs do financial programmers typically have? Are most just general software engineers, or do people typically have very specialized(i.e. AI or systems) backgrounds? Also, do most programmers have PhDs?

4. Are programmers typically required to be at work, or are financial companies generally flexible about letting programmers work from home? When at work, do programmers have to dress formally?

5. What are the technology environments like? Are finance companies using state-of-the-art hardware and software, or are they generally more conservative in upgrading their equipment?

6. What programming languages are typically used? If VBA(shudder) is used, is it a large part of a finance company's workflow?

7. If you could turn back the clock, would you still be a financial programmer?

I'm going to keep this post open a little bit longer to get some more responses.