<p>A true nerd will know the value of education. Moire, you have jumped out of the nerd ship. You have gone AWOL. You sadly have forgotten and turned your back on what you have learned. Sigh.</p>
<p>Everyone chill out and stop biting his head off just because he doesn’t want to take the same road everyone else here is taking. Moire, I understand how you feel. Construction is very physically draining, but I also get a lot more satisfaction out of it than writing papers and reading, because I feel like I’m doing something, well, “constructive”. There’s nothing like the feeling after you have finished a project, redone a basement or an entire floor, and you know that you just created something people are going to value and cherish long after you’re gone. I also have a ton of fun with the guys that I work with, whereas in college a lot of times I just can’t seem to connect with a majority of the student body, who seem to have different priorities than I do.</p>
<p>A lot of times, I seriously do wonder if I would be happier if I just went straight into the workforce instead of college. I might not be as financially stable, but I keep thinking I would be more happy. Who knows? It’s too late now. There is nothing “arrogant” in that statement, and neither is Moire “ignorant” or “whiny” simply because he regretted going to college. To each his/her own.</p>
<p>The “whiny” tone comes across in the statements implying that going to college was a waste of money and that OP would be rolling in $$ if different path was chosen.</p>
<p>It seems like now is the time for the OP to determine path to chose from here out whether it be getting a second degree, pursuing Master’s, or working construction… but not sure posts here on CC would be considered productive in creating the future OP obviously wants filled with success and money.</p>
<p>Okay, great example:</p>
<p>My friend, let’s call him Nathan, is very intelligent. I’m talking top 5% of a very good private school. The guy was building hydrogen power cells and running lawn mowers off water in the 10th grade. Nathan would’ve got into any college he wanted here in Australia in almost any degree. However, he came from a very blue-collar family - his father, brother, uncles and grandfather were all in trades (very common in this area, big mining town) so it was just expected that he would go into one, some sort of engineering most likely. Our entire grade tried for two years to convince him to go to university with no luck. He finished Year 12 and went off to TAFE to learn a trade.</p>
<p>He lasted two years.</p>
<p>By the end of those two years he was so frustrated with the lack of a challenge and lack of intellectual stimulation that he dropped out. Luckily, he’d earned enough money to put himself through an engineering degree and he promptly went off to college for four years.</p>
<p>The point is, if you have the opportunity and a passion for learning more in a particular area, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to go to college. Unless you have a certain interest in an area that doesn’t require a degree, I don’t see why you’d want to waste years of your life doing something you don’t like just for a few extra grand in the first few years of your professional life.</p>
<p>For a math major you don’t understand the math of real life very well. Let’s see; construction: you can earn $50k but that is about the limit. Math; let’s say you get a job asa financial modeler and the salary will be about $100k + a bonus of say 10%.<br>
I don’t know any construction guys who can retire at 40; it doesn’t happen. Plus, when the economy is bad or the weather is bad, you don’t work and go onto unemployment.
Maybe you should stop whining and look at the real world. Go out and look for a job that uses your skills.</p>
<p>A close friend of mine majored in math at a school renowned for the program. He graduated unsure of what he wanted to do. Spent a year in construction. As far as short-term pursuits go, he enjoyed that year, but also realized that it wasn’t for him, and applied to grad school.</p>
<p>So I’m with the others. If construction is what you want to be doing, then fine, do it. If you decide that it’s what you want to do with your life, then hey, there you go. And if it gives you the kick in the butt that you need in order to pursue other plans, then that’s great, too. Either way, “what if…” won’t get you far, so take advantage of being at a point in your life when experimentation is still pretty easy.</p>
<p>Best of luck, either in trying out a new path or in finding the silver lining of your current situation.</p>
<p>I guess arrogant may not have been the best word to use. It just almost made me mad that this kid had the nerve to dismiss the hardships that come along with construction and most other blue collar jobs. Not many people are thrilled with what they have to do for a living, but add daily physical strain to the battle, and it gets hard. Not to mention he plans on saving “wisely” so he can retire at the age of forty. Are you serious?</p>
<p>If you want to work construction, go work construction. </p>
<p>If you want to use your bachelors in math, consider FBI or NSA. You sound perfect for them.</p>
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<p>Have you lost your mind? You don’t have a chance in hell of making enough money in construction to retire by the time you’re 40.</p>
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<p>I have a very hard time getting people to understand that not all math majors are qualified for jobs that pay $100,000 per year. Hot shots from big name schools and a few from lesser schools get those jobs, but the average math major? It doesn’t happen. Even if it happened, noone is going to hire a person with just a bachelor’s degree in math to do financial modeling. That’s what people with degrees in finance are for.</p>
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<p>Assuming that you aren’t being facetious, why do you think I sound perfect for jobs at those places?</p>
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<p>It depends on how you manage your money, the type of lifestyle you are willing to settle for, etc.</p>
<p>Well, if you’re planning to die when you’re 41 I imagine it shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>“Assuming that you aren’t being facetious, why do you think I sound perfect for jobs at those places?”</p>
<p>Well the FBI agents I know were both math majors. The NSA employees I know were/are geeks/nerds. And, all the federal employees I know (dozens) have great salaries and decadent benefits that are no longer found in the private sector. </p>
<p>You sound like someone who thinks you deserve “better.” The feds usually have “better.”</p>
<p>I don’t think the FBI or the NSA would hire me. What school did your acquaintances go to? Were their GPAs sky high by any chance?</p>
<p>I’m not at all serious in this post but the idea hit me when talking about the FBI & NSA; stealing Moire’s identity and leave him working construction(or get him whacked, whatev) and then get hired by FBI or NSA.</p>
<p>I agree with Moire in a way, it matters how you live your life and what you’re willing to spend. That said, you won’t be able to retire at 40 just from earnings from construction. Not unless you plan on dieing young, since average life expectancy is at least 70 and rising. That plus inflation, the economy, etc, I’d be surprised if you can live even 10 years from savings. Plus, are you not planning on getting married, having kids, going on vacation etc? That significantly changes your cash output. </p>
<p>Anyway, go work in construction for a year, it’ll probably crush your desire to be a plain construction worker. Maybe you’ll get motivated to go to grad school for civil engineering or something. Now, if you were to own a construction company, I’d say retirement at 40 is possible. What would you do with your free time though, having no kids, wife, money to go on vacation?</p>
<p>I don’t plan to get married and I don’t plan to have kids, and I don’t need to go on vacations; staying at home sleeping all day long is good enough for me. </p>
<p>And what do you want to steal my identity for? Noone is gonna pay you a king’s ransom just because you have a bachelor’s degree in math. I make $16/hour.</p>
<p>If you really want to change the direction your life is going, go out and do it. If you want to work construction, go get a construction job. I doubt it’ll help you though, because the reality is that your problem isn’t that you went to college - it’s that you obviously don’t have the kind of persistence needed to get ahead. That’s what’s crippling you, and working construction wouldn’t have gotten rid of it.</p>
<p>So go do construction now. Just because you have a diploma doesn’t mean you can’t do something unrelated. I don’t know why you’re freaking out.</p>
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<p>I wish I had been accepted to Princeton. I wonder what my life would have been like. I think I’d be doing relatively well.</p>
<p>well, i wonder why you didn’t get accepted.</p>
<p>“I don’t think the FBI or the NSA would hire me. What school did your acquaintances go to? Were their GPAs sky high by any chance?”</p>
<p>Just wow. So someone’s showing you a possible opportunity and instead of at least learning more you try your best to get him/her convince yourself you’re not qualified. Great attitude.</p>
<p>Why would going to Princeton have changed your outlook? You want to go into construction… and a major is what you make of it. You can truthfully market any major as long as you’re willing to put in the effort. You don’t seem to.</p>