It may look like an Office Space from hell cubicle farm, but trading floors at the big banks are actually pretty exciting -- very electric, fast-paced, no bullshit winner-takes-all cream-rises-to-the-top kinds of places. It's all about who has the the biggest balls (appetite for risk) paired with the best market instincts and quantitative skills to back it up.
I would say that 40-50% of the people in that pic (the full seniority traders) are pulling an average of 500k a year and working M-F 7:30am-6pm. The top 10-15% are clearing 7 figures, because consistently profitable traders are hard to come by.
If you got the skills & swagger and are fascinated by the markets, it's a pretty sweet gig. The downsides are that one or two big down years will put you on the curb, your life is dictated by the market, and you have to have nerves of steel and a high tolerance for ulcers.
No, I'm not a trader but I know many who are and have spent a fair amount of time on trading floors in a past life as a consultant to Wall St banks. It's definitely not my thing, but a lot of those guys LOVE LOVE LOVE their jobs and make bank at it.
