And I've heard that, with the Wall Street approach, your bonus is the lion's share of your income for the year. If true, I don't know if I'd like to go to that, given the propensity for letting people go in this field.

I think this only applies at companies not using RSUs. Since I think you get taxed immediately (no capital gains) with RSUs.

I knew a guy at a fund who told me he hated the place, but he was locked in for the next 5 years due to several million being deferred. No motivation at all, the guy sounded very jaded.

With wall street bonuses, as long as you perform well, you get rewarded for it. Its a much more "meritocratic" system, there are cases when a hedge fund will lose money overall but individuals within the fund still get large bonuses because the areas they were responsible for did well.

If I stayed at a place a few extra years in anticipation of an IPO, this would have me seeing red.

Then there is the startup model. Where you're given stock of varying grades.

Stock always felt like a gamble. Give me enough for bills + saving, then treat the stock as a bonus. Not core compensation.