We want to meet for 7pm dinner on a weekday, some friends say still working, 8pm can? By 8pm we are done and going for dessert. Over time your friends start to gravitate towards a certain group of people. Those who are working hard and making lesser slowly fall off, they hang out with their own colleagues who also work late together with them.

We are in a mix of finance and IT industries. IT is everywhere now and if you can use IT to make the company even more money, they are happy to pay you too. It cannot be compared with the traditional finance roles where bankers and financial analysts at places like GIC and Temasek make 5 digit monthly salaries from the start, but you're starting at 5k when your peers start with 3k on average.

In 5 years time who knows what will happen? Life priorities change, some might have mid career crisis and decide to change industries or try something new.