Reply to Those of you with 200K+ jobs & are NOT doctors/lawyers: what do you do & how did you find your jobs?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are university jobs especially appealing to those from lower middle class backgrounds. Went to Wharton undergrad with a guy who grew up on a small farm in the Midwest -- he himself talked about how humble the upbringing was, his parents were only able to visit the campus once at graduation, he only went home once in 4 yrs etc.

Immediately after graduation he went into Big 4 consulting and then when the recession hit in 2008 -- he took up a university job as a budget analyst -- and has been at 2 universities in the last 9 yrs and doesn't seem like he will ever leave the stable job. Now that there are kids, it's all about how his kids will one day be able to go to his (admittedly prestigious) university for a low cost; and how the university has a highly ranked k-12 school where they can go for very nominal tuition. I get it -- the benefits are great - but how is a Wharton grad ok being a budget analyst making 75k (or even a 100k if I'm under estimating) when he could be making 2-3x that and save up for his kids school etc.[/quote]

When you grow up lower middle class, you are very risk averse. If you screw up or your company screws up there is no safety net. You generally see a private employer as someone who takes advantage of the employee (see how shift workers are screwed by last minute scheduling, or the conflict between management and unions).

So essentially there is always the fear you are one misstep away from poverty with no family to help, and growing up with negative association of private employers who take advantage of lower rung employees. Finally there is aura of education as the path to prosperity -- everyone tells you go to college and you will be set (without any discussion of what to do after college but 'get a good job'), and I think that reverence for education carries over to universities as employers. [/quote]

+1. I have a college friend with an almost identical path -- rural Nebraska where mom and dad farmed and then in yrs when farming wasn't bringing in enough worked odd jobs in construction/driving school buses etc; went to an ivy; went to a private sector finance job for a few yrs post graduation; and then when the recession hit his view was -- see these big companies aren't in the red, profits have just fallen since last year so they're being greedy and laying off innocent associate. Went to a similar university finance job as your friend where he's been for 10+ yrs and intends to retire from there in 30 yrs with a pension. Interesting thing is that his younger brother went to their state flagship u in large part bc he saw how hard his brothers life was on the east coast - trying to afford housing in the ivy city, not having the money to ever fly home etc. The younger bro studied finance/accounting and landed at their state's public utility as a finance/accounting analyst -- a quasi gov't job and his view is -- no matter how hard times get, people still use electricity so the electric company's profitability doesn't vary much. So yeah given that both brothers craved stability suggests it's about how they grew up and feeling like they can't take a risk bc what if there are layoffs. I'm actually surprised they didn't go into medicine/nursing - the most stable of professions [/quote]

Med school tends not to attract as many lower middle class kids simply bc of the length of schooling and thus the tuitions/loans involved. Even lower middle class kids who are interested are sometimes scared off by the idea that they'd first have to get a bio/chem pre-med degree -- which isn't particularly marketable so if they don't get admitted to med school, what do they do with that degree. And then there's taking out loans for 4 yrs of med school. I knew a few LMC kids in college who wanted to do med and were looking into it and were aghast at the idea that the entire education would have to be on loan bc med school is busy/challenging enough that you are told you really shouldn't hold a side job thru school. Most were scared off by that idea and then turned to marketable 4 yr degrees -- finance/accounting or engineering. The 1-2 that did do it turned out fine though bc they then pursued residencies and full time attending jobs at rural hospitals where there was partial/full loan forgiveness over a number of years; they ended up staying in those types of towns in the long term simply bc they couldn't believe their luck in terms of loan forgiveness and high salaries in relation to very low COL.

Nursing could be an option, but I have to imagine that boys from Nebraska are still pretty traditional and nursing is not viewed as an option for a man. They may be getting some ribbing from extended families about all their fancy book learnin' and taking out loans for it -- but to do that for nursing school may not go over well at all.[/quote]

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