I would consider myself to have been an average person at a no name Big State U. I graduated with a little less than a 3.0 in Computer Science from a large state university. I was definitely far less ambitious than most of my peers in HS that went on to Ivy or Ivy level undergrads and I certainly didn’t come from a wealthy family by any means. Ibanking, management consulting, Biglaw, medicine sure sounded appealing when I was in HS because that’s what a lot of my peers seemed to be gunning for. I didn’t know any better at the time and I thought those were the most lucrative professions.</p>
<p>Fast forward to when I graduated from undergrad, I ended up nabbing a software engineer job in Maryland that started at 80k/year, worked at most 35 hours a week, excellent benefits, over 6 weeks of vacation per year, tuition reimbursement for grad school, military differential pay for training/mobilization (double pay) … all after a 30 min phone interview. Fortunately I joined the Army National Guard shortly after I started undergrad and I was able to walk out of undergrad with exactly $0 in educational loans. At the time, I was also picking up an extra $15-65k/year based on my continued military service as a Infantry officer in the National Guard and I was enrolled in a part-time MS Computer Science program (for free…again) while working full time.</p>
<p>Just based on the cost of living, I would have needed 180+k/year as an entry level software engineer in CA, NYC, (other high cost of living area) and the same work/life balance just to match my standard of living in MD. Because I had zero debts (and would never consider a full time graduate program due to opportunity cost of lost wages), I was contributing aggressively to my 401k, Federal TSP, and federal military retirement. I was watching my net worth grow quickly while my peers in HS were tied down either still in school or paying down ridiculous educational debt…in cities like LA, SF, NYC where the cost of living makes saving/investment incredibly difficult.</p>
<p>To me it didn’t make sense to go through all that trouble (bust your butt in HS … to get into a elite undergrad … to potentially start right off the bat with 200k of educational debt … for a job in a high cost of living area where it’s difficult to save even with a very high income … to go off to a MBA/JD/grad program full time where you would have a huge opportunity cost and at least another $100+k in educational debt … for a job in a high cost of living area where it’s hard to save and a culture of “keeping up with the neighbors”).</p>
<p>Will a few people in biglaw, banking/finance, management consulting, etc. be able to live a more lavish life than me in the long run? Definitely. But the vast majority won’t given the up and out progression in those fields and where the profession is geographically concentrated.</p>
<p>My goal has always been to get the necessary education (MS CS, MBA), work experience, opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast to be able to position myself into a software manager, program manager, or higher position in a state like TX, FL, etc. where you can live very very comfortably with DC level compensation.</p>
<p>In some ways, I feel like people don’t do themselves justice if they blindly follow the crowd. For me, it’s likely that I would have never had an opportunity in finance/banking, management consulting, biglaw. Even if I did, the deck would have been completely stacked against me (non Ivy level school, no wealthy connected parents, etc.) I don’t play games where I think it’s rigged against me if there are other alternatives. Some of the biggest challenges of life are finding where you are/can be strong and exploiting those angles.