I'm a banking brown townyst
I also work in the financial sector, but as a software developer for a company that provides a core system for credit unions to run. As far as fulfillment goes, I don't go home with a warm fuzzy feeling that I've changed a life today. However, the work is interesting and it does really feel like I'm doing something important,
even if it is something as simple as adding a field to the database to support federal compliance measures or
configuring connections to the credit card network so that people can access their money after their financial institution converts to our system.
Stress is relatively high, but I work well in high stress environments. If it's due tomorrow, I'm definitely gonna work on it today. If it's due next week... ehhh.. it can wait until the day before it's due. But being understaffed is just part about working for a company that's growing really quickly, and I'm glad that I joined when I did. As far as pay goes, I'm a "Developer II" and my pay is in line with national average, so I'll let you do that research if you really care.
Regarding our company culture, I couldn't ask for a better place to work. We act like a real business (unlike Google which is more like day care for ultra-smart adults) but we're also a family.
So, do I like my job? Yeah, I do. I guess I'm pretty lucky that my first job out of highschool w/o a college degree ended up being what it is.