The WTF are u doing with your life thread

[t3hcoke]

how to get into IT?

[shinobi2000]

Gonna finish my didactic part of pharmacy school soon and start rotations. Probably going to pursue to residency to enter a hospital/clinical career.

Medicine = a lot of hard work but very gratifying. you get to help your friends, family and loved ones with their problems!

jesus almighty, help Thyallmighty see the light! -- Medicine is a TERRIBLE field to go into if you're not prepared for the ass whipping and no amount of helping family and friends with their problems makes it gratifying. Do yourself a favor and stay in pharmacy. Why would you want to go back to medical school?

[akuma no uta]

After spending a few years working with film, I've completely burnt out on it. I do enjoy watching movies, and I absolutely loved being a part of the creation, but there's so much fucking bull shit. Pretentious know nothing directors that get deadlines fuvked up, editors who just won't finish the fucking cut, investors who start crying for a finished product 2 weeks after that first check is handed over.

So I've decided to retire from it pretty early. It's just too cut throat and up/down for me. I want a job where I have to be somewhere every day at a certain time. I'm gonna go back to school and possibly work into going to either teaching, or the business side of the clothing industry. Probably teaching, and slanging jawnz on the side...

Goodbye good money for the next few years hahaha.

[gettoasty]

^i feel like i see that everyday

* * *

i am just a junior associate? i am in pwm actually with the general staff atm, assisting the main team when i can

just got offered a full-time position but i feel the salary is a bit low =\

i can't be complaining though i guess, but ~$36k (perhaps ~$25k post tax) is not sustainable... (i do have full benefits though) perhaps this means i should bust my ass the first year for that annual review come December

[djrajio]

^i feel like i see that everyday

* * *

i am just a junior associate? i am in pwm actually with the general staff atm, assisting the main team when i can

just got offered a full-time position but i feel the salary is a bit low =\

i can't be complaining though i guess, but ~$36k (perhaps ~$25k post tax) is not sustainable... (i do have full benefits though) perhaps this means i should bust my ass the first year for that annual review come December

Which bank or asset management firm?

$36k is way too low IMO.

Are you in a major metropolitan area, i.e. Chicago, NYC, LA?

[gettoasty]

silicon valley

only positives i see atm is close to home, benefits (full after 1 year including employer match, s-corp), mobility in small firm ($50m AUM), edu reimbursements for licensing/certifications. not sure about MBA

i have ~ $25k loans and a mortgage perhaps coming my way if all things fall together

mind you i graduated 9months ago, 6 of which was interning ... i did expect at least ~ $40k

and to be absolutely honest with full disclosure, i have no client interactions aside from the phone. they are expecting me to be though by years end, which is why i am assuming they are starting me low.

Edited May 2, 2012 by gettoasty

[djrajio]

Silicon vally has one of the highest per capita income areas in the USA.

I recall back in 2005-2007 rent for a single male was anywhere from $800-$1500 USD per month.

They are getting you for cheap man though I recognize its a very small PWM fund ($50mio AUM is a drop in the financial market bucket)

For first-year analysts aren't they offering anywhere from $50k~$80k base now adays?

[gettoasty]

this shop is literally a mom&pop type of joint.

i don't have any credentials aside from undergrad courses to be an analyst and that spot currently is filled by our CFA =\

fwiw, this place is less investment and more retirement oriented so real small niche in a sense, but also quite competitive.

we're starving, sort of

i have considered just using my personal time to get aquainted with photoshop so i can help in their marketing division and when my skills are sharp enough, exit and get into a more creative field. sort of like your own project.

turning hobbies into a business omg how unheard of ....

Edited May 2, 2012 by gettoasty

[historyofmyworld]

studying fashion at the moment and trying to get out of toronto. got one more year left and really ready to be done with school and trying to set things up for a career in the industry. i'm staying in nyc this summer for an internship and hopefully that will get me somewhere.

[OCEANSECT]

trying to decide if i want to take another year in college to double major, picking up comp sci, or not

idk i want to get out of here but also computer science is super interesting...

[tac0tron]

Transferring to a UCSD as an ICAM-Vis Arts major.

Will be on the look-out for internships everywhere.

[savage science fiction]

currently unemployed and going a little crazy

worked in a few 'fashion' design positions for a couple of years here in sydney but quit my job in december.

Have been working freelance but its not always enough to pay rent and I'm slightly freaking out that I haven't been steadily employed for almost 6 months! (year is going too quick :S)

A few opportunities coming up so hopefully something falls through so I can save up and get out of here

[herpsky]

jesus almighty, help Thyallmighty see the light! -- Medicine is a TERRIBLE field to go into if you're not prepared for the ass whipping and no amount of helping family and friends with their problems makes it gratifying. Do yourself a favor and stay in pharmacy. Why would you want to go back to medical school?

don't do it unless you are truly doing it for altruistic reasons . you will rack up over 200k in loans. bad hours. insane number of hoops to jump through as a QC measure i.e. producing "good" physicians. it's basically a glorified blue-collar work.

i guess the only way to justify 10+ years of training / education is go into a field that is procedure-oriented. insurance companies basically give you high reimbursement if you do procedures (as opposed to counseling patients on diabetes). the reality is that a lot of people end up ditching primary care and end up doing procedure-oriented subspecialities because we can't simply pay the bills if we did primary care. on the other hand, you could do 5-6 colonoscopies a day, you are guaranteed at least a 300k in a private practice though the job may not be very rewarding. also, the competition for high paying subspecialties is so competitive that unless you are the cream of the crop in med school, you will probably end up in a crappy field and will basically live like a slave for a long time. getting into med school is one thing but surviving and doing well in order to get into highly coveted subspecialities is another story.

Edited May 23, 2012 by herpsky

[bfan]

herpsky I thought you were in japan? is the health care system there similar to the states?

[herpsky]

i live in the states

[bfan]

lol fosho my bad, would you happen to know anything about the workings of psychiatry? I was actually considering taking the MCAT sometime soon but the only kind of doctor I could see myself becoming is doing something related to mental health

[herpsky]

what do you want to know about psych?

you can specialize in child / adolescent psych. become the only one practicing specialist in the area. even if you

you decide not to take any insurance (which is the case for some psych specialists), there will be an endless number of parents who will do (or pay) anything to get their kids seen. good money for you and your job will be quite rewarding.

or you could just give out meds and do routine med-checks.

you could also do in-patient psych and work with people with schizophrenia, bipolar d/o, and etc.

do you like talking to people? can you talk to people's problems all day? although

psychiatry is a fascinating field, doing psychiatry for a living can be quite emotionally taxing.

also, it is not a very competitive field to get into. even if you have crappy grades but you are passionate about the profession, you'll definitely do well.

it was truly an amazing opportunity to work with people with severe mental disorders. kinda changed my perspective on life.

it is my dream to find the molecular / microscopic cause of depression (not just that serotonin level is low) some day (i'm not a psychiatrist or anything though). happiness for everyone. jawnz for me.

Edited May 23, 2012 by herpsky

[djrajio]

Pretty sure money = happiness.

I think.

[herpsky]

haha

those depressed people can work again = get money, get bitches = profit

[bfan]

I enjoy talking to people and trying to help them figure out the source of their problems/insecurities, some of my friends are taking ssris, which I view as a horrible thing and I always try to talk them out of it. that's actually what got me super interested in the field, since I feel like the people talking to my friends and prescribing them these meds are just checking things off a list or something. I'm actually interested in the sort of the same thing you mentioned, researching the deeper aspects of mental disorders on the molecular level, my idea was that I would practice but also maybe have a lab set up and have like a really cohesive approach. thanks for the info man, very helpful I think I'm gonna volunteer in the veterans affairs hospital on my campus and try and shadow a psychiatrist or something soon.

[jackg]

what exactly do you do herpsky? sound aggressively interesting! mental health is definitely something that interest's me, on a personal level, doubt i'll ever get their professionally though.

[herpsky]

I enjoy talking to people and trying to help them figure out the source of their problems/insecurities, some of my friends are taking ssris, which I view as a horrible thing and I always try to talk them out of it. that's actually what got me super interested in the field, since I feel like the people talking to my friends and prescribing them these meds are just checking things off a list or something. I'm actually interested in the sort of the same thing you mentioned, researching the deeper aspects of mental disorders on the molecular level, my idea was that I would practice but also maybe have a lab set up and have like a really cohesive approach. thanks for the info man, very helpful I think I'm gonna volunteer in the veterans affairs hospital on my campus and try and shadow a psychiatrist or something soon.

shadowing a psychiatrist will be tough due to privacy / confidentiality issues. you should try anyway though.

well, it's pretty easy to diagnose someone with clinical depression. there's a set of criteria published in a book called DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). If one fulfills the criteria written in the book, that person gets diagnosed with depression and treatment i.e. meds. A good psychiatrist would offer psychotherapy in addition to prescribing meds, I suppose.

Edited May 24, 2012 by herpsky

[Lab]

it is my dream to find the molecular / microscopic cause of depression (not just that serotonin level is low) some day (i'm not a psychiatrist or anything though). happiness for everyone. jawnz for me.

lol that's my research specialty

[djrajio]

don't do it unless you are truly doing it for altruistic reasons . you will rack up over 200k in loans. bad hours. insane number of hoops to jump through as a QC measure i.e. producing "good" physicians. it's basically a glorified blue-collar work.

i guess the only way to justify 10+ years of training / education is go into a field that is procedure-oriented. insurance companies basically give you high reimbursement if you do procedures (as opposed to counseling patients on diabetes). the reality is that a lot of people end up ditching primary care and end up doing procedure-oriented subspecialities because we can't simply pay the bills if we did primary care. on the other hand, you could do 5-6 colonoscopies a day, you are guaranteed at least a 300k in a private practice though the job may not be very rewarding. also, the competition for high paying subspecialties is so competitive that unless you are the cream of the crop in med school, you will probably end up in a crappy field and will basically live like a slave for a long time. getting into med school is one thing but surviving and doing well in order to get into highly coveted subspecialities is another story.

The competitive aspect of the medicial profession is exactly the same as finance.

Everyone on main-street thinks all these GS/MS bankers are making $1million+ a year but the reality is that we are all mostly upper-middle class making $150-$250k all in. Combined w/ living in high-cost of living areas, a mortgage, kids in private school, etc., and basically you are not that much better off than other professions.

Only the cream of the crop is making millions and usually these guys are geniuses or had a good stroke of luck.

Plus, like medicine you on basically "on-call" all the time due to the markets and are constantly stressed out.

It's no wonder so many guys burn-out by mid-30s or do drugs, etc to stay sane.

Plus, w/ all the new government regulation / Volker rules + JPM making a mess recently, its only going to get more difficult to make money in finance.

[yooneunhye38]

The competitive aspect of the medicial profession is exactly the same as finance.

Everyone on main-street thinks all these GS/MS bankers are making $1million+ a year but the reality is that we are all mostly upper-middle class making $150-$250k all in. Combined w/ living in high-cost of living areas, a mortgage, kids in private school, etc., and basically you are not that much better off than other professions.

Only the cream of the crop is making millions and usually these guys are geniuses or had a good stroke of luck.

Plus, like medicine you on basically "on-call" all the time due to the markets and are constantly stressed out.

It's no wonder so many guys burn-out by mid-30s or do drugs, etc to stay sane.

Plus, w/ all the new government regulation / Volker rules + JPM making a mess recently, its only going to get more difficult to make money in finance.

Given what you know about how life is as a banker, wall st type and their associated lifestyles, what would you enter straight out of undergrad if you were to graduate this coming year (keeping it within the realm of finance). Assuming you aren't a genius and aren't counting on luck, as you mentioned. What career would you go into to maximize happiness, not necessarily money, although they might overlap.

I'm graduating soon and have been questioning myself alot. I'm curious what your take is considering you've been in the industry and probably have a much better understanding of life in general.

[jackg]

happiness vs money discussion thread

[djrajio]

Given what you know about how life is as a banker, wall st type and their associated lifestyles, what would you enter straight out of undergrad if you were to graduate this coming year (keeping it within the realm of finance). Assuming you aren't a genius and aren't counting on luck, as you mentioned. What career would you go into to maximize happiness, not necessarily money, although they might overlap.

I'm graduating soon and have been questioning myself alot. I'm curious what your take is considering you've been in the industry and probably have a much better understanding of life in general.

I know this sounds so cliche but really pursue what you are passionate about/interested in.

It's that simple.

There is no free lunch in life.

If you want to make a lot of money you need to take a lot of risk.

But really money isn't everything after a certain threshold.

[herpsky]

lol that's my research specialty

Any cool developments / findings?

The biggest problem with psychotropic meds is that their effect is not specific.

They all modulate neurons / neurotransmitters globally and cause all sorts of unnecessary side effects.

Ideally we want to isolate / pinpoint the exact cause of a psych dz and come up with a highly specific, targeted therapy.

I wish I could go back to J-land but the US is far ahead of most countries with medical research / clinical trials. I just gotta keep it real here for several more years before I leave here...

Edited May 24, 2012 by herpsky

[Protocol]

Just done my exams for this year and have about a one month break before i start a summer internship at a tech start-up. Super excited about starting and i'm genuinely interested in the work they do. Can't imagine a better place for me to work this summer really. Everyone there was super chill and it looks like i'll have real input into product design and development.

Kind of lucky in a way cos if i had been less lazy and applied in time for internships at banks (like the rest of the people on my course) i'd probably have a position at a bank doing work which i'd most probably hate. Or if i'd gone down the engineering route i'd probably have to commute to some out of town shit hole where most of engineering firms are based.

I'm still pretty undecided about what i want to do after university is over, so i'm hoping this start-up thing will help me get things much clearer. I'm defo warming to the idea of going straight into a start-up as opposed to a big firm after graduation.

[alexsade]

Been accepted in Central St Martins in London, but i'm kind of afraid of moving to a city where i basically know nobody, but i am kind of excited about it in the same time. Strange feeling