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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][img][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.[/quote]

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are p[b]assionate about science or tech [/b]which sometimes makes less optimal career choices. [/quote]

Aren't these the most practical choices?[/quote]

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay. [/quote]

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”. [/quote]

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent. [/quote]

IBs/finance rarely cut people on the same day, it’s often done by “manage out” process that lasts 3-6 month. [b]Because these kids are still connected or smart and you don’t want to piss them off when they are young.[/b]

When you are young, living off a 3 month grace period severance is not a big deal, yet a lot of people are just deathly afraid of that scenario to even try.[/quote]

Yes, only people who can handle with basically an extended internship and know they don’t have to worry if they have any trouble finding a job are the ones at IBs.

3 months to find a new job can definitely be hard — when I was young I definitely didn’t have 3 months worth of rent in cash at a whim, I was busy paying student loans etc.  moving back home would mean returning to an economically depressed backwater with no jobs.  Definitely a reasonable thing to fear. [/quote]
+1 I got laid off after one year after grad.  It took me 3mo to find something. And those 3 mo. were awful.  I slept on the floor at my sister's house in her office, and cleaned her house in exchange for rent.  I moved to a city that had more jobs and went back to school for a more marketable degree.  Luckily, my other sibling lived in that city, so I stayed with them.  I started making six figures after four years.

Having family support really helped, but if I didn't have that family support, I don't know what I would've done.

My kids are fortunate that we are UMC, and I have told them that we will always be there for them if they crashed, but that they really need to major in something that can help them find a good paying job. We have no family money.  [/quote]

Mindset also matters. When I saved up 40k working I was still afraid to find a better paying job because “I might get fired if I don’t do well”.

Finance wise it’s understandably a constraint and very sensible too.

But the mindset is the one that comes with greater costs, little decision to err on safety instead of opportunity compounds over time.[/quote]
Indeed. I am risk averse. I didn't want the possibility of ending up couch surfing.   If you don't have a good safety net, it's harder to be riskier.[/quote]

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