The WTF are u doing with your life thread

[jackierose]

right now in school for environmental design, going to graduate with bachelor of design. hoping to go to parsons for grad school, possibly to do a joint degree in masters of fine arts lighting design, and a masters in architecture. we'll see. i'd like to stay away from traditional universities and stick to the art/design specific schools. my mom's a pretty well known and successful landscape architect so i'm hoping to one day take over her business.

[DEPHT]

I work in Japan for a multi-national investment bank, so I can give you some perspective.

How the hell do you find time to post on these board if you're an ibanker? haha

[DEPHT]

Well at this point in my life I have a general direction that I think I am gonna go in and I would like to run it by you guys. From when I was a kid I always wanted to be the big important guy that companies payed to have flown around the world to meet and talk with people. From closing deals over sushi with Mr. Tanaka in japan, to chatting at a cafe with Baron Pierre Francois in Paris, I can see myself doing business with the world. To prepare for all of this I have started learning japanese through a combined self study and academic courses. I would not say I am fluent, but I have a firm grasp of the language that I continue to pursue in college.

So to follow my dreams, I really didn't know what major to pursue. But browsing potential options I saw "International Business" with caught my eye. It seemed like a general enough major as business can be applied towards anything, and the international part just sweetened the deal for me. So I applied International business to a plethora of schools which leads me to wear I am right now.

I have been accepted to George Washington University in Washington D.C. under the terms of Early Decision. I was accepted to the school of business with international business as my major. I also plan to minor in Japanese while in school. Washington D.C. Is close enough to NYC so I figure that there could be some good internship opportunities in the city, as I have no interest in politics or government jobs.

Out of all of the aspects of international business I think that marketing suits me the best, so I am going with am emphasis on marketing for my IBUS major.

I know it's been said Ad Nasuem, but I just dont want to end up as another suicide at 30 due to hating my job and stress. I want to do something that will be fun and rewarding. Pretty much looking forward to my job every day. Its something very rare these days, but I hope to achieve it.

So after reading that essay that I typed it in a half-panicked mid-mid-life crisis frenzy, would you say that I am on a good track in life? Anything I need to brush up on, rethink, or rework?

Just any general guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks for listening to my musings.

Seriously....as rajio suggested, finance is a great place to start.

Completely honest here though...unless you go to top ivies + stanford/umich/MIT etc. its going to be incredibly difficult to break into finance (top banks). But as rajio also said, your work experience is probably more important. Get top grades at GW in econ or some shit, work for three years, get an MBA at a top school. Work at an ibank for a few years and you'll have the money/credentials to do whatever the fuck you want pretty much.

[m1sterko]

well i didtn get her pregnant ... but it was kinda stupid on her part.. she was dating a dude 4 years older than her.

and i cant get into the uc system cause my overall gpa didnt cut it.

didnt have my priorities straight until this year.. not that it matters (im a senior)

my gpa for junior year. 2.13 and 2.33

i had one heck of a rough time last year.

other years were fine.. but not super duper good. i had a gpa of like 3.2 ish

its kinda amazing how much doing your hw can do for you.

my senior gpa right now is at 3.33.. highest ever since freshman year. lol how lame.

but its good to realize that doing most of your hw is all you need to pass your tests and exams. i just wished i realized this a few years back but oh well.. can only do better once you hit rock bottom.

[djrajio]

How the hell do you find time to post on these board if you're an ibanker? haha

It's vacation.

[ericdw]

someone on the first page mentioned polisci-->law school. that's what i did, and it's definitely not worth it. i graduated from law school in may and been workin since september. every day i wish i was dirt poor working part time jobs with no health insurance and just having fun. that'll probably change eventualy, but right now adult life is not for me.

[Juice925]

So in the long run Finance/Banking is a better job than Marketing? It seems like Finance/Banking would be one of those "Kill yourself at 30" type jobs. Marketing seems like it would be an exciting job, flying, discussion, etc.

[DEPHT]

So in the long run Finance/Banking is a better job than Marketing? It seems like Finance/Banking would be one of those "Kill yourself at 30" type jobs. Marketing seems like it would be an exciting job, flying, discussion, etc.

It is. Rajio can prob tell you more about the day to day. I personally have no personal experience but a few of my friends are working at Goldman Sachs as junior analysts (some shit like that, don't know exact term) and they got ridiculous work weeks doing shitty work. They work you until you break and then work you some more but they pay you a shitload of money. A lot of people do this because a. it looks ridiculously impressive on a resume and b. it's pretty much the only way to break into venture/hedge/etc. which has lower work hours and higher pay.

Marketing isn't as glorious as you imagine. You have to be at the top to do what you're thinking of. All the kids in marketing that I know work heavily with statistics and shit...

[djrajio]

So in the long run Finance/Banking is a better job than Marketing? It seems like Finance/Banking would be one of those "Kill yourself at 30" type jobs. Marketing seems like it would be an exciting job, flying, discussion, etc.

Whether Finance/Banking is a better job than marketing is all subjective. But honestly, you think marketing is about flying to Tokyo and Paris and high-powered international lunches? I think your expectations are not aligned with the realities...

[billy dee williams]

graduated my dialysis tech training, gonna be working like crazy all next year.. consider that my new yers resolution

[keysonawire]

Graduating in May with a double major in Finance and Film Studies. Moving back out to LA for work or law school. My future is pretty open ended but I'm not worried at all.

[Ichigo100%]

Going to school for business marketing.

Refering to what DJrajio stated, I honestly agree, marketing isnt all about trips overseas and what not, theres so much more involved, but its a great position to be in.Its a very competitive industry. Lots of networking. Thing is, you gotta have the heart for it..Lots of hard work involved.. Trips come as the rewards..

[keysonawire]

you won't land an international job with marketing, try finance or economics

That's not necessarily true. Whether you travel will more likely depend on the type of company you work for and where it and its clientelle are located internationally.

It is true, however, that more fortune 500 CEO/CFOs were Finance majors than Marketing majors. So if you just want pure corporate influence, that's the way to go. But if you don't have to choose a specific study right away, just wait and see what intro courses strike your interest. Marketing and Finance are very different.

Marketing Consulting can certainly get you places if you're good at it, and a world perspective will undoubtedly help (sounds like you're on your way with foreign language skills).

Like it was already mentioned-- study abroad, at least one semester. Best 6 months of my life.

[keysonawire]

So in the long run Finance/Banking is a better job than Marketing? It seems like Finance/Banking would be one of those "Kill yourself at 30" type jobs. Marketing seems like it would be an exciting job, flying, discussion, etc.

Marketing seems to give the impression of being the more "creative" of all the business studies. I think the only reason that assumption is made is because of the ties to advertising, which is a different game altogether.

Marketing is a lot of research. Sure, you're researching human behavior and industry trends, but it's not any more glamorous than managing IPOs or mergers, auditing, whatever.

Really, every major has the opportunity to travel-- it depends on the company, the industry, and the nature of your employement (consulting versus corporate). Essentially, where your interests, experience, and expertise lie.

[Ichigo100%]

Not to mention there are many areas in the marketing world you can venture into that can take you places

[Carl]

jesus...the idea of spending the day glued to your desk makes me want to put a bullet in my head.

i feel sorry for all of you involved in "buisnes"

[Ichigo100%]

Carl,

being in a business doesnt nessecarily mean you'd be glued in front of a desk all day.. It all depends which feild you venture into.. Some jobs are hands on whereas others require the more technical aspects of things..

It all depends where you want to go, personally for me im the type who loves to travel, go to events, etc.. Thats why im heading into Gaming but on the marketing side of things like a sales and marketing co-ordinator

[dismalfuture]

Ichigo, have you done an internship yet?

[Ichigo100%]

No, not as of yet although im hoping one will come along.. The Business admin-marketing course im currently studying has a 1 yr co-op so im waiting to start that..

At the last college i attended, I had spoken to a lot of game companies like Ubi soft, EA games, Silicon Knights.. They gave me a bit of good advice on how to get in though.. I had applied for Silicon Knights but didnt get a call back because they had already hired people for that position which was unfortunate..

I think what people are thinking is that once you get a marketing job, you're going to jump right into the big leagues and do business ventures and shit, but you gotta work your way up slowly..

[poshpol]

I want to change career fields. ive been employed in the cinema/television post production field for years but i am thinking of going back to school in industrial design, in another city.

[m1sterko]

one word high schoolers:

FAFSA

think it stands for Fucking Anal Fucking Stupid Application.

i just started.. and its so nerve wracking... you have to bug your parents about their tax income and its even more annoying if you ever had a job or filed income taxes.

ugh!!!!!

hey those of you in business did youjust graduate from college and get into a job or what? or are you guys in like a graduate school scenario. can you give me a general layout of how your years went after high school?

is there any hope for me tryign to transfer from a junior college!

life is depressing sometimes. sufu cheers me up a lot.

[dismalfuture]

^

The shame of not getting into the UC system, the claims of being poor, the decision to just go to JC in Santa Monica, the woes of asking your parents about their taxes, there is no doubt that you are Korean.

[ddohnggo]

koreans are too prideful to say that they're poor.

[dismalfuture]

or, from their $500,000 income, they deduct rent on everything, eat from their store, two or ten lease payments on S500's, country club membership, some hustles, and they come up with like $20K/year taxable income, and all the kids get to go to UCLA for freeeeeeeeeee

[alterion]

Warning: This post is self centred, misanthropic, has too many long words, and is tl;dr material perhaps it would be better in superconfessional but wtf cares anyway.

Currently I'm studying law at cambridge university, which sounds great, and it is awsome i guess, but i have no fucking idea if this is what i want to do with my life atall. I could sell my sould and work hard for the next few years and be earning 6 figures UK by 25 easily, or i could do something which would be worthwhile and not so pressured.

I guess i am in a brilliant situation, but it feels like i am just being pushed down a path that i don't know if its for me, just because i really enjoy my course and my university, it doesn't feel like enough at the moment. I want something with more meaning and clout than the roles wearing saville row suited world of corporate mergers and commercial litigation i am being pushed into.

Life is becomingly increasingly tepid and vacous, I don't want to spend 15 years building up a corporate identity to sloely pull myself out of the margins of obscurity and to start making a differnce in the world. I tried student activism, what a joke, a bunch of half arsed world ignorant dreamers with no world prespective mixed with ambitious bumpkins pumping thier chosen so that in five years some automated corporate recuitment scanner will pick up the words amnesty or oxfam on their CV's and bump up thier salary grade 1 mark.

A misanthropic part of me is unsure why i particularly want to help the world around me anyway, I used to care about big phrases like "denegration of western culture" and think that just becase id seen a documentary on chomsky or read something by klien this made me some kind of social deviant riding a wave of nonconformism. (at this point those of you with a sense of humour might want to rep me because it only gets worse and a large e-peen is as meaningful as anything too me at the moment) I've now retreated into a synical bubble of consumerism and just laugh and robkop them lanvin's instead of that primark

Also I havn't had a proper girlfriend in god knows how long, and i really need one and not only because as this post should make obvious because with an iq of 140 and an overanaylitical nature my penchant for self destructive alienation tends to otherwise fuck me over without something unashaedly positive to focus on. Simply i want to love again, if emotion is the only real goal in life that can be viewed with sincerity (as i increasingly suspect- see below) then its replacement with a reasonable pron collection and few easy pulls appears to have become my largest tragedy. My social graph is not in a much better state, i focus my energies too thinly and as a consequence i don't feel secure withing any social grouping, i am the eternal hanger on, that annoying kid who runs to keep up but who isn't offensive enough to turn away

I fear i am in the place at which others would turn to a religion or money or some other idol to provide that looked for menaing, but as i find money boring as sin, and i have yet to find a religion whose God seems to a) show evidence for existence and have a moral code remotley equal in quality to my own. Securlarism for all its promise seems to provide more self-masturbation than real substance.

However, all these worries are eclipsed by my greatest fear, that for all my secular masturbation, consumerism, liberal ideology and scattered attempts at self enrichment . I fear my dull and hollow childhood has simply left me as a fundamentally boring geek, doomed to a middle management position in which i can browse slashdot and buy rafffe simonz in an attempt to buy into the youth culture that i missed out in my innocence in the hope of a better life

So in summary? I have no fucking idea what i am doing with my life and I am emo.

[djrajio]

or, from their $500,000 income, they deduct rent on everything, eat from their store, two or ten lease payments on S500's, country club membership, some hustles, and they come up with like $20K/year taxable income, and all the kids get to go to UCLA for freeeeeeeeeee

God damn. I can't tell you how many of my friends growing up did this shit.

[dismalfuture]

alterion,

put down the bottle,

step away from the computer,

put a swimsuit, some undies and vests in a little bag,

take easyjet to greek islands,

come back and sunday,

report back.

[dismalfuture]

or, from their $500,000 income, they deduct rent on everything, eat from their store, two or ten lease payments on S500's, country club membership, some hustles, and they come up with like $20K/year taxable income, and all the kids get to go to UCLA for freeeeeeeeeee

God damn. I can't tell you how many of my friends growing up did this shit.

If they are really good pillar of the community types, the dad will also be a pastor at a Korean church, and the Sunday collections are a nice little boost as well.

[kwiteaboy]

Trying to decide between PhD in clinical psych studying happiness and positive psych or med school with ultimate goal of surgeon. One provides what is probably more interesting work with a chance to be a luminary in the field. The other provides exponentially more money, status, respect, and probably more fun work, but takes a looooong time and a lot of money. What to do

[retrored]

I am fucking up over the place. I had this nice entry level attorney gig at a boutique law firm, but I traded it to work on this start up. Shit was supposed to be up around October of last year, but it doesn't look like it'll be coming together to sometime in February.

Hopefully when it's live it makes some nice cheese.

This was one of those things you can only do when you are young. If things come together shit will blow up, but as it drags I lose more and more hope.

On top of all this the job market in 2008 looks like dog shit.

Happy New Year!