I graduated uni in 2017. Interned at two different (bulge bracket) investment banks in Sales and Trading, one US and one European. I won't lie: when I interned, it was 11-12h days and for projects, many of us came in on the weekends to work on group presentations/stock pitches etc as everyone wanted to convert their internships into full time grad jobs. Pay back in '16/'17 was £50k pro rata, which was nice. Definitely the highest out of all of my friends including tech. Nowadays US BigLaw firms pay pretty competitively (specifically US). Strategy consulting at MBB eg McKinsey can pay pretty well but not quite banking levels. UK law firms vary in comp after completion of training.
Tech pay is top at FAANG/crypto based firms. I know Google pays pretty well. Lots in stock comp though. But tech is a hell of a lot more well compensated in the US -- I know people who were making $500k at 26 at the same firms. Have a lot of friends working in software engineering. Lifestyle is the best in tech overall, though. Flexible working and better culture overall.
In sales, structuring and trading, no weekend work required on the actual job once you start but a typical trading desk will involve 11-12h of work, 10h sometimes, but they are pretty standard so outside of market hours (give or take 1-2h in the morning and COB) there's not much to do. On a trading desk there's risk being taken (obviously), although at an investment bank this is market making so you are quoting two-way to counterparties to provide liquidity and ultimately trying to benefit off bid-ask spreads (buy + sell margins). At a hedge fund, which is a typical exit opportunity with much less bureaucracy and unlimited ceiling in pay but less job security, you have a lot more freedom but your bonus is basically tied directly to your own PnL (profit + loss), and you are taking whatever bets you want unless you go into systematic trading. You set your own hours within reason but as eg typically you get 20-25% of your PnL as bonus, you can often find yourself glued to the phone, which can be more stressful than a trading role at an IB.
Pay differs by team performance, market conditions and other political reasons at banks. At the grad level/Analyst level it's a lot more standard with a few anomalies. You would generally expect at least 50% bonus (usually a fair bit higher), but bad overall team performance etc can even cause zero bonuses, even if you did decently, hence a lot of volatility. There's a bump in base salary each year and a steeper rise at promotion to each title, which can happen in 2-3 years from Analyst to AVP/Associate (pretty easy), and then 3 years(ish) from Associate to VP, a bit more difficult but standard nevertheless. From there promotions aee a lot more political to Director and MD. Some people never make it to MD. I think Analysts make at least £70-75k for base salary alone, what with inflation and all but I would have to double check. Culture wise? Male dominated in trading but generally meritocratic and less BS. Women tend to be more common in Sales roles (lots of client dinners etc). Salespeople also liaise between trading and the counterparty and provide market colour and pricing via the trader. No risk taken so a bit less stressful but can be seen as ..."less bright" than the traders (not my opinion - there are smart salespeople).
Trading desks run the gamut from bookish, PhD, nerdy types to laddish types. Hours can vary, too. Some desks are more quantitative than others eg exotic derivatives often want Maths/Physics/Engineering grads from top unis. Coding is very much desirable in trading roles, especially Python. In derivatives desks the work is less fast paced than a "flow" desk which has a much higher of volumes per day and is less stringent on degree (but STEM and Econ are desirable)..
Interesting for someone who finds intellectually stimulating the interplay between different macroeconomic events and financial markets and is an analytical thinker. A good environment to be surrounded by smart people. Definitely no two days are the same on the job. Not for people who want to coast (this will probably get you to VP max). Gets busiest over earnings season for equities traders and major central bank announcements (Fed, ECB etc), and volatile periods generally in world news. Involves reading lots of research. Helps to be motivated by making money..
Can also touch base on Structuring, but in short, they design bespoke solutions (asset-liability management, various hedging solutions, yield enhancements..) for institutional clients. Make pitches and price these bespoke products for those clients (there are in-house pricers as well as Bloomberg) eg you could design a product that takes the avg performance of three major equity indices and have a designed payoff. Many of these products can be replicated synthetically using a combo of options. Structuring desks are not on every desk but are usually attached to Derivatives/Options desks.
IBD (investment banking, which encompasses leveraged finance, M&A, equity & debt capital markets etc) has far worse hours; depending on the team it could be a 3am end (M&A is particularly bad) whereas DCM has nicer hours - around 9am-8pm or 9pm finish. Closer to deals closing there are obviously worse hours. I have a friend who was constantly having nosebleeds from lack of sleep. Described as more of a marathon.
Comp wise, IBD is the best. Exit opportunities usually private equity as an Investment Associate etc with better hours but by no means 9-5.
Sorry, on the plane and am bored so went off on a whole tangent.
With all of that said, I quit my job only recently to go into asset management, where the pay is lower but still better than the vast majority of sectors but has good work life balance and even one day WFH should I want. Have not closed off going into a hedge fund role later though as part of my role could be very transferable. Hope this was helpful (realised this was probably TMI)