<p>I had the discussion with my college freshman child tonight along with his friends. If this downturn is going to steer them away from being econ majors, good, they should never have chosen a major based on wanting one type of job! Choosing a career that’s cyclical based on what is today is not very smart. </p>
<p>Hopefully those who will run for cover to all kinds of grad schools have good guidance and choose areas they can really be happy in.</p>
<p>From where I sit as a Wall Street professional, I’m glad to see those who were headed there for the wrong reasons get redirected. Those that want to be bankers for the right reasons and are high achievers will continue to find jobs. Wall Street understands that it can’t ever stop hiring exceptional talent who really belong in the business.</p>
<p>“Okay assume company A offers you $80,000 and company B offer you
$150,000. You hate working compnay A but love to work in company
B. which one will you choose. I will choose B over A and money is
nice.”</p>
<p>There are a lot of factors that go into picking a job and when you
have kids, money is not necessarily the most important one. I’ve
worked thousands of hours on an open source project for free as do
many other engineers. They offered me a job which would have been tons
of fun if I were single but I have a family that’s in school on the
opposite coast.</p>
<p>I’ve worked in the same group since the mid-1980s so I haven’t had a
lot of practice interviewing for jobs or comparing job offers. I would
consider what the job involves and ask myself why one company would
pay so much over another for the same work.</p>
<p>“Competition is brutal to succeed.”</p>
<p>What are you succeeding at? Essentially a transfer of wealth while
taking a fee. The quality or purpose of that transfer of wealth
doesn’t really matter - it’s the fee that matters.</p>