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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't even attend Ivies (former UVA grad) and I am making 275K/yr working for the Federal government as a SME in Cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  I am in my 30's and most of my former classmates are making a lot more in the private sector.[/quote]

Why do all these 30 year olds keep posting? You had a rich repository of information about COL and career paths on the internet to guide you. [/quote]

And it’s been pointed out for the older Ivy graduates you always had excellent career centers and recruiting opportunities. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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