I think most finance jobs are somewhat better than what he described-- it sounds like he's taken some crappy jobs-- but I don't doubt what he is saying. Code quality issues in finance are well-known and seem to be systemic. Hours are widely variable; there are 9-to-6 IT jobs and there are others that involve more stereotypical (read: awful) finance hours.
I think finance is a great place to work (yes, even as a full-time programmer) if you have a strategic reason for being there (VCs like financial experience, there are some interesting machine learning problems) but I would say that, in general, you're best off if you know you have the social and political skills to get the best work and, if you don't, finance is not likely to treat you well.
I think finance is a great place to work (yes, even as a full-time programmer) if you have a strategic reason for being there (VCs like financial experience, there are some interesting machine learning problems) but I would say that, in general, you're best off if you know you have the social and political skills to get the best work and, if you don't, finance is not likely to treat you well.