A change of plans
So my whole plan was to get an MBA with a concentration in finance, go be a hedge fund manager for a few years, make ridiculous amounts of money, then "retire" to just being a personal financial consultant or something and do the things I love (riding, travel, kayaking, backpacking) for the rest of my life.
First, the banks all went to pot. Becoming a fund manager just got a lot harder. I seem to have this annoying habit of picking the wrong fields. I wanted a degree in computer science, and graduated just after the dot-com bubble burst. I decide to go into finance, and the housing and banking sectors blow up.
Also, been chatting a bit with my best friend from college. He works at Google. He put the idea in my head to go work there. And now I *really* want to. But looking over the job listings in finance, I wouldn't be eligible for any of those jobs even with my degree. (I know those won't be the same ones when I graduate in 2011, but it pays to see what they look for) Every job requires experience. How does one get a job with no experience, if you can't get a job to get the experience? Frustrating. But perhaps something will come up.
Then came time to register for next semester. NONE of the classes that I was planning to take are being offered when I can take them. I only have one core class left, and even that one was only offered on Saturdays and not during the week. I've done the Saturday thing. Hated it. Not doing it again. There was only one finance class available during the week at night that I could take, but it was Corporate Finance. Not really that interested. All the finance classes I had planned on taking were things like Options and Derivatives or Global Investments, things like that. So I ended up signing up for two other classes that looked *somewhat* interesting. One was an entrepreneurship class on personal wealth creation. I'm not into the whole entrepreneur thing, but personal wealth? Hell yeah. The other one was an accounting class also about personal wealth and taxes. So it doesn't look like I'll be getting that concentration in finance after all. Either that, or I'd have to put off graduating till later, with no idea of how much later and I'm really quite ready to be done with this degree.
And now that I've signed up for the entrepreneurship course, it's sounding better and better to me. (Although I fully acknowledge that it might be due to the fact that I'm stuck with it and am therefore determined to make the best of it since it will take a lot of time and effort n such. Similar to how if you spend a lot of money on something, you tend to be partial to it; you've spent all that money, of *course* it must be wonderful!) I've never wanted to be an entrepreneur. Sounded like way too much work. I'm a control freak: I couldn't open up a store and then let other people run it. They might steal! They might do a crappy job! I figured I'd never be able to take a break or a vacation. But then I think of some of the people I truly respect and wish to emulate, and I realize that they are entrepreneurs. Brandon and Jose started their own security company. Bill has his own business *plus* owning the CrossFit gym. Froggy and Tyger have their FTS ventures and Notacon. Ramit has turned his blog into a money-making machine such that he has had to hire people to work for him. And they actually seemed to have a *freedom* that I yearn for. So perhaps I can make this into a win, and find out how to make it work for me!
I think I'm going to schedule an appointment with my LEAD prof who is one of these life-coach types to bounce some ideas off him, and see where this goes...
First, the banks all went to pot. Becoming a fund manager just got a lot harder. I seem to have this annoying habit of picking the wrong fields. I wanted a degree in computer science, and graduated just after the dot-com bubble burst. I decide to go into finance, and the housing and banking sectors blow up.
Also, been chatting a bit with my best friend from college. He works at Google. He put the idea in my head to go work there. And now I *really* want to. But looking over the job listings in finance, I wouldn't be eligible for any of those jobs even with my degree. (I know those won't be the same ones when I graduate in 2011, but it pays to see what they look for) Every job requires experience. How does one get a job with no experience, if you can't get a job to get the experience? Frustrating. But perhaps something will come up.
Then came time to register for next semester. NONE of the classes that I was planning to take are being offered when I can take them. I only have one core class left, and even that one was only offered on Saturdays and not during the week. I've done the Saturday thing. Hated it. Not doing it again. There was only one finance class available during the week at night that I could take, but it was Corporate Finance. Not really that interested. All the finance classes I had planned on taking were things like Options and Derivatives or Global Investments, things like that. So I ended up signing up for two other classes that looked *somewhat* interesting. One was an entrepreneurship class on personal wealth creation. I'm not into the whole entrepreneur thing, but personal wealth? Hell yeah. The other one was an accounting class also about personal wealth and taxes. So it doesn't look like I'll be getting that concentration in finance after all. Either that, or I'd have to put off graduating till later, with no idea of how much later and I'm really quite ready to be done with this degree.
And now that I've signed up for the entrepreneurship course, it's sounding better and better to me. (Although I fully acknowledge that it might be due to the fact that I'm stuck with it and am therefore determined to make the best of it since it will take a lot of time and effort n such. Similar to how if you spend a lot of money on something, you tend to be partial to it; you've spent all that money, of *course* it must be wonderful!) I've never wanted to be an entrepreneur. Sounded like way too much work. I'm a control freak: I couldn't open up a store and then let other people run it. They might steal! They might do a crappy job! I figured I'd never be able to take a break or a vacation. But then I think of some of the people I truly respect and wish to emulate, and I realize that they are entrepreneurs. Brandon and Jose started their own security company. Bill has his own business *plus* owning the CrossFit gym. Froggy and Tyger have their FTS ventures and Notacon. Ramit has turned his blog into a money-making machine such that he has had to hire people to work for him. And they actually seemed to have a *freedom* that I yearn for. So perhaps I can make this into a win, and find out how to make it work for me!
I think I'm going to schedule an appointment with my LEAD prof who is one of these life-coach types to bounce some ideas off him, and see where this goes...