graduates: do you prefer your work life or your previous school life?

[dr150]

Work life.


More money and the douchebags are kept more in check due to office politics! Plus, no grade pressure or all-nighters!

 

[Bill Brasky]

Work life by far. Much more free time, much less stress, much more money.

This. Grad school is stressful because of the insanely high hours for slave labor money. Working at McDonalds is probably a better gig.

 

[Slew Foot]

Work all they way. Pays better, and I dont need to stress about getting all A's in every class.

 

[Zebo]

School is past, had fun, having fun now. Basically no regrets. Life is not test drive so it's best to have fun along the way through whatever you're doing.

 

[Poulsonator]

This is a tough question. Sure, I love money and I'm fortunate to have a job that I like. But college was so much fun, and it was such a completely different time and unique experience.

 

[TallBill]

I've left school 4 times now.. its fucking ridiculous, and I much prefer real work. Someday I may go back, but meh

 

[mugs]

I liked my daily routine of in college, because I could stay up late, sleep late, miss class and be awesome. But I had no money.

Now I actually have to work, but I have plenty of money. Having plenty of money is a lot better than having no money.

If I could find a way to have plenty of money and live like I did in college, I'd be all over that.

 

[a123456]

Work. Earning more money is nice. The hours are better overall. At school, you had the hours of class and then a ton of hours outside of class doing homework, preparing for tests, and all the other associated time with that.

In general, work hours are more fixed and laid back. You have a set time in and out. When you get home, you can relax and not worry about anything hanging over your head. You have the money to live in a nicer place and get nicer things. If you're lucky, you feel like you have more of an effect on things.

In school, it never seemed like any of the knowledge was that useful or could be applied to anything. It was mostly theoretical and head in the clouds. It could be different for other fields, but it seems like most of what you learn is on-the-job training anyway. I personally don't use anything I learned in school anymore.

Of course, if your work sucks and you work 60+ hours/week, that's different.

The part that I will miss about school, though, is the environment where you can meet tons of different and diverse people. You can more easily find others with the same interests and you're closer to lots more people since you're probably living in the dorms with tons of others or in a greek place with a bunch of people too. At work, you might know a handful of coworkers who you actually socialize with and they may be a much different age so it's not as tightly knit.

 

[rcpratt]

Work life, and it's not even close.

I could never motivate myself for school. My work ethic when assigned boring busy work was awful. It's not hard to motivate myself for actual important work.

The ability to come home at 4:30 and not have to think about work (99% of the time) is so much better than spending probably 3 or 4 hours each night doing homework. And 8 hours on a Sunday afternoon working on a lab report or something.

For the most part, I like the people I work with a lot better than the immature idiots I went to school with. And I'm not limited to the 30,000 people I went to school with when I want to hang out with someone after work.

As for partying, while I wasn't a huge party-er in school, I can go just as hard after work...and I can afford better shit than Natty Ice. A buddy that I work with still lives in a college town and literally is out until close five nights a week. I don't think anybody needs to worry about not having fun once you graduate.

And uhh, cash monies. As a single guy with a good job, I can afford pretty much anything I want. I'm the most frugal guy I know, but I spent $900 for golf clubs last week and $500 for a new TV for my room in my new apartment yesterday. I went to Chicago two weekends ago and I'm going to NYC in a few weeks. It's nice being able to get and do what you want.

 

[OogyWaWa]

Work life by far. Much more free time, much less stress, much more money.

This. But then again, I was dualing undergrad and grad my last two semesters. I like work better because there is no fucking homework. Sure, sometimes you have to stay late or do shit on the weekends, but at least it is (usually) adding to the bottom line. The challenge is nice too. I'm glad I don't have to put up with all the idiots I dealt with in college. Although maybe this is a factor of the firm I work at. The money is also nice.

 

[MetalMat]

I had fun in college but I was broke as a joke. Add up an 18 credit hour week engineering curriculum, 30+ hours of work and being in and out of bands and you got one very busy Metalmat

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Tough call. I like having money and the freedom to go on nice vacations (for example), but the stress is awful and I miss having no real worries.

 

[BTA]

Work, I hated school, plus I was broke then. And school was way more stressful than work life has been.

 

[markgm]

I'd say the grass is always greener. While school was a blast, having the time and money to do what I want while making an impact at work is more satisfying.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I enjoyed school and I enjoy adult life. It would just be nice to have my good friends closer by so I could hang out with them more frequently, like college.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I'd say the grass is always greener. While school was a blast, having the time and money to do what I want while making an impact at work is more satisfying.

I think that's a pretty good summary, especially if you are examining points throughout your life. I remember being a kid and there were times I couldn't wait to grow up. As an adult, I look back at those times and say "WTF were you thinking?!?!?!"

 

[Wyndru]

I enjoyed playing hours of video games and partying in college, but I like having money and a house better.

 

[Riverhound777]

Work life for sure!! Don't get me wrong, I had a blast in college and made some great friends and had some of the best years of my life. But having to worry about endless projects, papers, presentations, and tests was way more stressful than my job as an IT Admin. But I happen to work for an awesome company that spoils the crap out of it's employees. I live in a much nicer town on the CA coast, make good money, still have a ton of great friends, amazing GF, and only work 30-35 hours a week. Here's to hoping it stays this good *crosses fingers*

 

[nageov3t]

I definitely have less stress and more free-time with work. I may work 45-50 hours/week, but generally speaking, once I leave work, I'm gone (other than sporadically checking email)... I was typically only in class for 15-18 hours/week, but between studying, working on projects, doing homework, researching papers, etc it was definitely a much larger time commitment.

but the social aspect of work can't really compare to college.

 

[evident]

i wish i had the money of my work life + school life without any school work....

 

[Saint Nick]

I'm at a weird transition period because I have a bachelors, but still intern while going to graduate school. I get paid well, but still sort of living paycheck to paycheck. Hoping to get into a FT job here at my company by the end of summer...

 

[zinfamous]

Are you kidding? what's better than college life?

"A frustrating stepping stone on the way to a well-paying career?"

Jesus Hume Christ, OP. you must be one boring mofo.

 

[YoungGun21]

I legitimately enjoy learning and going to class. At my current job, the majority of the people I deal with are idiots, therefore it is not very enjoyable. General public FTW

 

[Blackjack200]

Are you kidding? what's better than college life?

"A frustrating stepping stone on the way to a well-paying career?"

Jesus Hume Christ, OP. you must be one boring mofo.

I went to college with like 90% guys. Man, what a stupid thing to do. I wish I could go back and slap myself when I was making that decision. The "college life" for me was not all that memorable. Of course, now I work in the financial industry, which is also a total sausage fest. FML.

 

[Corporate Thug]

school life.

Mo money mo problems. I miss the days where the biggest worry was scrounging up beer money.