Squandered elite education
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Anonymous
Many people make that kind of money. FinRegs have salaries that go that high and so do people in special pay rates. DHS has a cybersecurity pay rate that is very high. It does go up to $275K in non-supervisory roles. Theoretically, people in those roles could make far more in private, and the Government needs the expertise, so they pay that rate. Of course, some people don’t live up to the expectation, but many do and are excellent. |
Anonymous
And it’s been pointed out for the older Ivy graduates you always had excellent career centers and recruiting opportunities. |
Anonymous
None of which ever discussed salaries, which is the point of OP. Career center was all about passion and interest and how to help the world. Recruitment might have alluded to starting salary and “growth” but never talked about hard numbers unless maybe at the final offer stage. |
Anonymous
Thanks PP. this was EXACTLY my experience. |
Anonymous
Older Ivy Grad here. We did have a career center. I used it. I read what color is my parachute. I knew campus recruiting was happening. But I had no appreciation for how marketable my undergraduate degree in history was. I had no idea I could participate in corporate recruiting. I thought all I could do was teach high school (more or less). Luckily I went to graduate school after a bit. It all worked out well. But for the basically second chance in graduate school (which happened later around 2000) I may have never figured out the degree itself opens doors, even in a liberal arts field. (The experience of reading what color is your parachute when your parents are blue color and you have struggled to buy food was pretty funny looking back. One of the things you are supposed to think about is what would you like in a work environment. Well i wanted to get paid. I had no idea what my options were. I knew I didn’t want manual labor. Apart from that I had seen class rooms. I had worked in on campus jobs. I had no frame of reference to even understand the question asked much less answer it. I thought for a minute I might like publishing but crossed that off the list when I realized you couldn’t get into the field at a living wage. So I graduated. Tried some things. Ran into a lot of brick walks because I was dumb. Then ran into more. And i kind of figured it out after graduate school-but still feel like I am catching up. |
Anonymous
If you could not figure this out on your own, you did not and still don’t have the skills to navigate the big jobs with the big salaries. High paying jobs are extremely competitive, no one will tell you how to get them. |
Anonymous
| I haven’t finished reading but I want in on the group. Not an Ivy grad but went to University of Rochester. There was no help and no internet in the 90s for first generation college. |
Anonymous
You are lying to yourself. No one who wants to be paid well chooses to major in History. Not in 1999, not in 1959 and not in 1899. It is ok for you to say that during that point in my life I valued other things and over time I have switched focus to making more money. |
Anonymous
Sigh. That was point of OP. I didn’t “want to get paid well” like crazy corporate; I wanted a comfortable “DCUM middle class” lifestyle by working hard on interesting work. But did not understand how expensive that lifestyle worse, nor that $200k salaries were possible for anyone other than someone on the cover of Forbes. Also, major doesn’t matter squat coming from an Ivy. I know engineers with political degrees and investment bankers with Russian lit. |
Anonymous
Figure out salaries on your own? Talking about salaries was very gauche in the 90s — so basically if you weren’t already in the inner circle of UMC professionals you were screwed either way? |
Anonymous
Not to be pedantic but c’mon, you don’t need the actual salary to have a good sense of ballpark for IBanking, Medicine, Law, Accounting, Teaching etc etc. That info was easily available in books and newspaper and magazine articles if you cared to do the research. OP’s issue is not that he did not negotiate well, he missed the ball completely by picking a non lucrative path. The people who need to be handheld like this cannot rise up the ranks to make the big bucks. |
Anonymous
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PP who is the late 30s in house lawyer making $225k or so. I can’t help but laugh at the handful of posters saying anyone with a degree and a pulse in their 30s can make $200k and it’s not that hard. I really wouldn’t be so cocky. In our early 30s, most of my friends and I were in BigLaw/MBB/banking and making $350k+. Most thought they were on the road to make that and much more the rest of their lives.
In our late 30s? Things have changed. Some people were pushed out (those high paid jobs are often up or out, even at the partner level). Layoffs have happened, which has really hurt folks who worked in overpaid back office jobs at tech companies. People took a step back to be in more family friendly jobs. And of course, a small few have stayed. If life has taught me anything, it’s that for the Ivy/high achieving set, there’s a real possibility your peak earning years are your early 30s. Hopefully you plan accordingly (paying of any loans, reasonable house) because it’s hard to keep those crazy high salaries forever. |
Anonymous
Again, for the Nth time: You don’t know what you don’t know. When I went to college, the professionals I knew either worked in schools and universities, or were doctors. That’s pretty much it. So explain to me — pedantically— at what point the wealthy, almost exclusively white - people doing things like investment banking were going to tell me about such careers so I could seek out more information? FWIW, the doctors, lawyers, and accountants that I was dimly aware of were not wealthy. What people like you don’t get is that you need to know that something exists to look for it, and that’s before you even get to understanding whether or not something is even possible for you. I’ve said this before, but if you grew up with the internet, if you grew up white and financially comfortable and surrounded by people doing the kinds of things that lead to and support wealth you may not be able to understand realities that don’t include those things. Happy Thanksgiving! |
Anonymous
| I remember buying Vault guides at the bookstore. That was where I learned about ibanking and consulting salaries and bonuses. |
Anonymous
+1 vault guides were a thing |