Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has raised concerns over the increasing trend of young talent gravitating towards careers in high finance, emphasising the societal risks of an economy overly reliant on financial systems. In a thought-provoking post on X (formerly Twitter), Vembu reflected on his personal experiences and urged a renewed focus on solving critical real-world challenges.
Vembu observed a growing shift among Indian-American youth, particularly those from engineering or tech backgrounds, towards high finance—echoing a pattern seen in the United States for decades. Drawing from his own life, he shared how he was once encouraged to join a Wall Street trading team after earning his PhD from Princeton in 1994 but opted for a lower-paying engineering role at Qualcomm instead. “I did not find the idea of making money on money appealing—probably my father’s admonition from childhood,” he noted.
He expressed concern that educated and talented individuals are increasingly choosing finance over sectors like technology, infrastructure, and healthcare, where their skills could have a more tangible and positive impact on society. “Making money on money feels easy, but a finance-driven economy would destroy society,” Vembu cautioned, adding that this is “ancient wisdom” that should not be ignored.
Read Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu’s post here
Smart Indian-American children, whose parents work in engineering or tech, are moving to High Finance.
This mirrors what smart Americans have done for well over a generation -when I got my PhD from Princeton in 1994, a former engineer from silicon valley, who moved to a Wall Street job, tried to persuade me to join their quantitative analysis and trading team and I instead took a lower paying job as an engineer at Qualcomm. I did not find the idea of making money on money appealing – probably my father’s admonition from childhood.
Recently I have noticed that smart well-educated Indians are gravitating to Finance. This is not good.
We need to apply our talents to solve hard engineering and tech problems, hard urban and rural infrastructure problems, hard health care problems and so on.
Making money on money feels easy but a finance-driven economy would destroy society. This is ancient wisdom, and we must pay heed.
‘Wise advice…’ commented users
The post has garnered significant attention, with many users engaging in discussions about the implications of finance-centric policies on societal well-being. “Basically, the essence of engineering in engineers must not fade. Wise advice ! But for grads with liabilities like 1st house, car, & marriage, how do they prioritize their love for engineering over higher-paying jobs? Not yet in college but would love to know your view,” commented one user.
“Completely agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately solving hard engineering problems doesn’t pay high money. Something we’ll have to look at the incentives and compensation structures and the ecosystem. Ppl shouldn’t find it an aversion as they have to go through hoops to get the resources to work in hard engg problems. Some abundance mindset needed by capital allocators,” said another user.
