Such positions are more the exception than the rule. The overwhelming majority of new grads at selective colleges who take high salary finance positions do not go into the listed fields, and the overwhelming majority of new grads at selective colleges with CS degrees choose more traditional “software engineering” positions, rather than the listed fields.
As an example, Brown’s public information at https://www.brown.edu/campus-life/support/careerlab/undergraduate-post-graduation-employment-by-industry-employer-sector is especially detailed, and has some unique filter options. Over the most recent class, the average for CS majors were are below. Only 3.6% took jobs in finance fields. ~Half of those who who did take finance jobs majored major in economics and variations, but there were many other non-economics majors as well.
Most common industries for CS majors
58% work in computing
13% work in entertainment (likely includes gaming)
5% work in retail
3.6% work in finance
Most common employers of CS majors
- Microsoft
- Adobe
- Amazon
- AppnNews
- DropBox
Top CS colleges with high average CS salaries show a similar pattern. For example, CMU’s 2018 SCS career destination and salary report is at https://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/2018_one_pagers/scs/1-Pager_SCS%20BS%202018%20rev%202.1.19.kc.pdf and summarized below, listed in order of number of hires. Few go into finance, and instead software engineer positions at Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and similar well known names dominate.
- Facebook (27 hires) -- Most are "software engineer"
- Google (21 hires) -- Most are "software engineer"
- Microsoft (13 hires) -- Most are "software engineer"
- Amazon (6 hires) -- Most are "software engineer"
- CMU (4 hires) -- Most are "research associate"
- MemSQL (4 hires) -- Most are "software engineer"
- Uber (3 hires) -- Most are "software engineer"