Maybe. I currently attend McIntire @ the University of Virginia, a top undergraduate business school (http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_b...).

The majority of our class majors in finance, and 30% of the recent graduating class ended up at I-banks and 20% at consulting firms (http://www.commerce.virginia.edu/career_services/Destination...). With that said Lehman Brothers was the sixth top employer and I doubt those recent graduates still have jobs.

People are still applying to I-banks, but now every person is now applying to one of the top consulting firms as well (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Monitor, etc.). Offers were being rescinded to a lot of my friends in the class of 2009 (I'm 2010) and Goldman Sachs just cut it's salary 45% (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQjV...). For many it's been a rather depressing year. Our new business school is flooded with 50 inch plasmas and stock tickers all over the place so the class of 2009 literally saw many of their companies collapse in real time. I found it very exciting from an academic perspective however.

A lot more people are looking at corporate jobs as well with GE, G.Mills, Rolls-Royce, P&G, Fortune 500 etc. and the accounting firms such as Deloit and Ernst and Young being overrun with applications. Some of the recruiters I've talked to from larger and smaller firms that never see the "I-bank crowd" are now getting swamped with top applications.

I think it's important to remember that complex instruments that properly evaluate risk and allow for huge influxes of money into companies that make, "cars, phones, computers, teaching tools, Internet programs and medical equipment that could improve the lives and productivity of millions." is rather important. When that stream is turned off it's more than the financial industry that suffers, it's the lifeblood of our economy. Although you may be able to bootstrap an internet startup it's not as easy to bootstrap a revolutionary new technology or new cancer drug.

The reason people go after jobs at I-banks and consulting is the top salaries and more importantly the chance for fast advancement based on pure meritocracy (in theory) that most traditional corporations lack. Us B-students are a bit of a sucker for prestige as well. Until more traditional companies allow for greater meritocracy and faster advancement they won't be able to hold the top talent. The top talent is more than willing to work hard and produce results, they can't help it. Many of them have a sort of irrational drive for success even in the face of the philosophical absurdity of the concept of "success". They want to be rewarded for it. The problem isn't so much finance, it's that other companies didn't create programs to attract top talent and finance did.

With that said as I write this I'm working on my cover letters for consulting summer internships. The vast business experience and name attached to a consulting firm is still worth the investment, even if it's only for two years or a way to kick start a career (or become a career, depending on if you like it I guess).

Ultimately, however I plan to continue my entrepreneurship which I've been doing since a kid (three past internet startups; and two I'm involved in right now). Then again at 21, who knows what I will be thinking in two...five...ten years.

I must say it does help starting out with some nice savings in the bank from these ventures, and knowing that if things get worse I'm confident I can always find ways to scrap things together to pay the rent.