You seem to have a beef with finance and consulting jobs. That's fine, but it doesn't change the fact that they are the highest paying jobs (outliers aside) for students just out of college.
Top banking jobs are, for people who make it through the first year and collect a bonus, in decent economic times, the highest paying jobs out of school.
However, if you've ever actually worked a 90-or 100-hour week, you know that it's not a pleasant experience. Junior-level banking averages 70-80 hours[1] per week and spikes to 100+. I lived in a "banker dorm" building during 2007 and saw many, many wraith-like analysts coming into the building at 2:30 am after a day's work.
[1] The reason for this is multifaceted, but one of the problems with banking is that it holds the expectation that analysts (a title that has nothing to do with analysis; it just means "junior peon") arrive at 9:00 am, but work travels down the ranks throughout the day and almost always has a next-day deadline. The result of this is that junior-level bankers don't get started on actual work until 3-5 in the afternoon. If they were allowed to work a late-shifted schedule, they could probably cut their hours down to 55-60.
This is actually true, you've got to consider the amount of work they do for the money they get paid. But it's a totally different thing, that they get to work on a lot of stuff that helps them make money. In other words getting an opportunity to work such stuff is what makes those jobs special.
This is true even for software, if you are putting in enough effort in the correct direction and making those decisions right. Then there are good enough odds that you are going to make a lot of money.
Heck, this is true with nearly every profession ever. Do a little more than others and make right decisions. You will be pretty rich someday.
90% of success involves, merely showing up, doing the right thing, doing a little extra, taking an occasional calculated risk and making right decisions. If you can push 12-16 hours with these qualities, trust me there are very few people who can even compete with you. And this is true in any area of work.
To play the other side of this, while I was interning in a big bank my friends in M&A were in work at 6AM and getting in at midnight, every day, even the weekends. They loved it.
Bashing on it because it isn't your cup of tea isn't particularly fair.
Edit: I'd be interested to hear why I'm being downvoted. Some people I've met love the work and want to put the hours in, this is true across all industries - and especially in start-ups.
