Is start-up culture changing Wall Street?

Just four weeks after Barclays shocked Wall Street with its new "supercasual Fridays" policy, Goldman Sachs went even further last week, announcing it would start discouraging junior staff from coming in on weekends — a huge cultural shift for an industry where young employees and interns often pay their dues with 100-hour workweeks and regular all-nighters.

"The simple explanation is that Goldman is trying to retain its best talent," says Matthew Klein in Bloomberg, pointing out that the $140,000-a-year entry level pay is no longer enough to retain top talent, who quickly leave "for the sunlit uplands of private equity and hedge funds as soon as they start getting good at their jobs." Klein also suggests that Goldman may be cutting hours so they can also cut pay — "a clever way to help the bank adjust to coming structural changes in the market for big expensive deals."

But another trend may be driving these changes, as well. This morning in The Wall Street Journal, Melissa Korn reported that the country's elite MBA grads are increasingly choosing jobs in the tech industry over finance — in spite of the Wall Street's higher entry level pay.

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At Harvard Business School, 18 percent of grads took their first job in the tech sector this year, up from 12 percent in 2012, reports Korn. Meanwhile, 27 percent of grads chose finance, down from 35 percent a year ago. MIT, Yale, and Cornell all saw a similar shift, while Stanford for the first time sent more grads to tech than finance — 32 percent versus 26 percent.

So if entry-level Wall Street jobs still offer better pay — some by more than $100,000 a year including signing bonuses and guarantees — why are grads opting for big tech companies and start-ups? One reason is that the finance world took a blow in 2009, right at a time when some large tech companies matured and started seeking out management talent.

Another may be cultural. Google, Facebook, and start-ups throughout Silicon Valley and New York, have famously popularized worker-friendly perks, including free haircuts, pets in the office, and masseuses on location — often in the name of attracting the best talent and sharpening their competitive edge. The finance industry's hierarchy, where beginners may suffer for years before advancing, may be turning off the brightest grads.

Furthermore, grads may be attracted to what they perceive as more meaningful work at tech companies. "[S]tudents have seen their own lives changed by tech innovations, and are increasingly eager to work in a fast-paced sector," reports Korn. B-school grads are hungry for "work that gives them both autonomy and impact," — which they may not be able to find on Wall Street.

Autonomy, innovation, luxurious perks, and meaningful work: That's a lot for the finance world to compete with, even with the potential for those who stick around to earn enormous rewards. But perhaps Goldman and Barclays' new relaxed attitude will help put a dent in the trend.