Career Choices and Regrets..

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My parents are like that. They think just because I'm an accountant, I know tax. So I tell them, since they have a Chinese restaurant, does that mean they can cook French food? They're cooks afterall.

I am a mortgage underwriter and get asked random Banking questions all the time.

I don't even know what type of bank accounts we offer!!!

[Domoic]

Life is like a box of choclates...

So many interesting stories here. Would be hard to pick one and say "that's what I am going to do".

Common themes seem to be (a) school, (b) hard work, and (c) risk taking (at least at some point in your life).

I had no idea what I wanted as a career when I was growing up. I ended up on Wall St. even though I did not know the difference between a bed sheet and a balance sheet until I was 28 years old.

My story has elements of (a), (b), and (c).

(a) I have 10 years of post-secondary education and three degrees - BSc, PhD, and MBA. I did not plan it that way - I just kept following my interests which happened to be biological and life sciences until I could go no further (PhD). I realized then that I loved science but did not want to be a scientist. So I did a MBA. Wow - THAT was a door opener, career wise. I was so proud to have a PhD but prospective employers respected/wanted/demanded the MBA way more. The combination of PhD + MBA has been a critical differentiator for me, however.

(b) I busted my ass in school. It was not manual labor, but it was hard work, especially to do well. And I did it for 22 years. Holy crap.

(c) I left Canada and went to the US to take my first job post-MBA. I was married but no kids. It was hard to leave family and friends, but I felt to really learn the industry I was entering, I needed to go to the center of it all, not just work at a subsidiary. And this risk paid off, at least in my case. And moving to the US provided so much additional opportunities, such as my current position as a partner at a hedge fund in Manhattan. And the money I earn now is 20x what I ever thought I hoped to make.

[Domoic]

Originally Posted by fotze

Lets do some math here. Assume on the very low end that you expected to make $40k/year. You say you make 20 times that. Thats $800k/year and likely much more.

I am not allowed to confirm or deny, but let me say you are directionally correct.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My parents are like that. They think just because I'm an accountant, I know tax. So I tell them, since they have a Chinese restaurant, does that mean they can cook French food? They're cooks afterall.

I am a computer programmer / system analyst. Of course everybody who hears this thinks I can fix their computer for them.

[Mad Mel]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Absolutely. I discovered some of the things I'm most interested in today through electives in university. But it's an expensive and time-consuming way to figure yourself out.

I agree in a general sense, but the fly in the ointment is that most of us change between uni and when we settle into mid-life. Sometimes the things that we were interested in during uni remain, sometimes they don't. Take me for example... college was the first time I really used computers. WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 ftw. Thought they were a stupid invention, typed most of my work on a typewriter. Couldn't wait to get back out in the bush where I belonged.

Anyway, it's 6 a.m. now, I gotta go to work and write a .NET app to let people enter data into the SQL Server database I built this week.

[Scoopdogg]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

I am a computer programmer / system analyst. Of course everybody who hears this thinks I can fix their computer for them.

Quoted for truth. Somehow I'm the family tech guy because I'm a systems analyst as well.

[Devil's Rule]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

I am a computer programmer / system analyst. Of course everybody who hears this thinks I can fix their computer for them.

Ha ha so true. I've been IT for some time from developer to help desk to management to change control, etc... the list goes on, and the only time I was up to date on system troubleshooting was in help desk, sometime ago now, but they still think I can get fix things. By the way, I am having the most fun right now within a IT governance/audit role. Gotta love the looks I get when they hear I am that they are being audited.