whoa
The last time I used this thing was over a year ago.
Well, hello there. I've had my ups and downs since I graduated exactly two years ago.
In that time frame, I have
Right now, my goal is to save $10,000 before I leave for Berkeley. Will I do it? YOU BETCHA. I feel like that's a solid amount too. I am getting full funding so whatever money I save up is play money.
I think I learned a lot more in two years than most people learn in five. Getting into Berkeley's statistics program was one of the best days of my life because I get to pursue something I love and also have an awesome shot at becoming a professor. By the way, although I want to be a professor, I was only going to pursue that route if I got into a top 10 PhD program. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been worth the time investment. I'm being very pragmatic here. I love statistics, don't get me wrong, but I do not love the idea of spending a decade toiling in low-paid postdoc positions. If that's the case, then I'd go into industry again.
However, if I hadn't gotten into Berkeley and remained in industry, I would be extremely upset with the way things panned out. Luckily, they did because my backup non-academic prospects weren't making me very happy. For me, I think it's because I have no interest in programming intensive jobs as a career path. My strengths, believe it or not, are arguably my softer skills.
However, since everyone sees that I majored in math (even though I have very little interest in it), programmed in the past, and was good at both aforementioned things, I'm getting stuck in jobs I don't particularly like doing (read: codemonkey). I'm also deeply concerned with my career trajectory at the moment. Your first few jobs don't determine what you do afterward because you can always switch, but it's very difficult. I'm a few steps behind my friends who are in project manager roles and consulting positions because they have much more experience to utilize than I.
I'll give an exception to Epic because it's an awesome company to work for and I have no complaints. I'll refer you if you would like a job that pays decently well. You also get the opportunity to make an impact on healthcare.
And since one of the things that grinds my gears is bad advice, I will start espousing valuable tips on here because I think many adults have given me terrible advice. I also start to hold people accountable when they do this.
First tip of advice, always think about how what you're doing now will affect your future. I messed up because I majored in something incredibly useless. If I were to do college all over again, I would have done applied math and economics, dominated, and gone into consulting at McKinsey, Bain, or Oliver Wyman. Then I would have so many more opportunities opening up for me and not just highly technical programmer jobs. This is not a bitch-rant, but the truth.
I interview fairly well, but my GPA was so low before my senior year (it was a sub 3.5 for awhile) that I was at a disadvantage for many good internships (cutoffs for many of these are 3.5). Also it shot my law and med school options considerably.
To be fair, I was originally an econ major until I switched to math my sophomore year. I do wonder why I did so well in statistics, applied math, and sometimes econ courses but not as well in my pure theoretical math classes. I want to say I wasn't as interested in the latter, but sometimes I think the former were just easier. I'm extremely happy with my college experience but I would definitely do some things differently. I majored in math so I could get some preparation for statistics graduate school at the time, but I could have gotten the same foundation majoring in econ, bio, or stats (all subjects I like more) and just taking math electives.
I also detest some bits of the math culture a lot because I think it places way too much emphasis on abstractness. The more abstract your topic is, the more respect you often get from your peers. There are so many things I want to say about that but I'll just say I think that's incredibly fucking stupid.
*Disclaimer, I was in math olympiads in high school and placed in the top 500 on the Putnam competition in college. Just to give you some perspective...
In summary, one should go do what he/she is interested in, but, at the same time, think about where you want to be afterward and find a way to get there. Some routes are dead-ends and you don't want to pursue low leverage activities. That is why so many people are out there bitching about how they can't find jobs due to the economy, when it's often actually because they didn't make themselves valuable. The world only cares about what it can get from you.
---Y
Well, hello there. I've had my ups and downs since I graduated exactly two years ago.
In that time frame, I have
- left a career path (I don't want to be an actuary),
- switched to a new job (Epic!),
- moved cities (from Chicago to Madison...eh...I'm not happy about this),
- experienced severe bouts of frustration due to feelings of helplessness (I can expand on this),
- also experienced episodes of joy due to finishing something difficult, and...
- gotten life changing news that turned everything on its head (I'm starting a statistics PhD program at Berkeley this fall...it's like a dream come true).
Right now, my goal is to save $10,000 before I leave for Berkeley. Will I do it? YOU BETCHA. I feel like that's a solid amount too. I am getting full funding so whatever money I save up is play money.
I think I learned a lot more in two years than most people learn in five. Getting into Berkeley's statistics program was one of the best days of my life because I get to pursue something I love and also have an awesome shot at becoming a professor. By the way, although I want to be a professor, I was only going to pursue that route if I got into a top 10 PhD program. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been worth the time investment. I'm being very pragmatic here. I love statistics, don't get me wrong, but I do not love the idea of spending a decade toiling in low-paid postdoc positions. If that's the case, then I'd go into industry again.
However, if I hadn't gotten into Berkeley and remained in industry, I would be extremely upset with the way things panned out. Luckily, they did because my backup non-academic prospects weren't making me very happy. For me, I think it's because I have no interest in programming intensive jobs as a career path. My strengths, believe it or not, are arguably my softer skills.
However, since everyone sees that I majored in math (even though I have very little interest in it), programmed in the past, and was good at both aforementioned things, I'm getting stuck in jobs I don't particularly like doing (read: codemonkey). I'm also deeply concerned with my career trajectory at the moment. Your first few jobs don't determine what you do afterward because you can always switch, but it's very difficult. I'm a few steps behind my friends who are in project manager roles and consulting positions because they have much more experience to utilize than I.
I'll give an exception to Epic because it's an awesome company to work for and I have no complaints. I'll refer you if you would like a job that pays decently well. You also get the opportunity to make an impact on healthcare.
And since one of the things that grinds my gears is bad advice, I will start espousing valuable tips on here because I think many adults have given me terrible advice. I also start to hold people accountable when they do this.
First tip of advice, always think about how what you're doing now will affect your future. I messed up because I majored in something incredibly useless. If I were to do college all over again, I would have done applied math and economics, dominated, and gone into consulting at McKinsey, Bain, or Oliver Wyman. Then I would have so many more opportunities opening up for me and not just highly technical programmer jobs. This is not a bitch-rant, but the truth.
I interview fairly well, but my GPA was so low before my senior year (it was a sub 3.5 for awhile) that I was at a disadvantage for many good internships (cutoffs for many of these are 3.5). Also it shot my law and med school options considerably.
To be fair, I was originally an econ major until I switched to math my sophomore year. I do wonder why I did so well in statistics, applied math, and sometimes econ courses but not as well in my pure theoretical math classes. I want to say I wasn't as interested in the latter, but sometimes I think the former were just easier. I'm extremely happy with my college experience but I would definitely do some things differently. I majored in math so I could get some preparation for statistics graduate school at the time, but I could have gotten the same foundation majoring in econ, bio, or stats (all subjects I like more) and just taking math electives.
I also detest some bits of the math culture a lot because I think it places way too much emphasis on abstractness. The more abstract your topic is, the more respect you often get from your peers. There are so many things I want to say about that but I'll just say I think that's incredibly fucking stupid.
*Disclaimer, I was in math olympiads in high school and placed in the top 500 on the Putnam competition in college. Just to give you some perspective...
In summary, one should go do what he/she is interested in, but, at the same time, think about where you want to be afterward and find a way to get there. Some routes are dead-ends and you don't want to pursue low leverage activities. That is why so many people are out there bitching about how they can't find jobs due to the economy, when it's often actually because they didn't make themselves valuable. The world only cares about what it can get from you.
---Y