not looking forward to working full-time

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Pathogen03

Originally posted by: aceO07
80hr weeks?? You going to be an ibanker or something?

Im working 40 hour weeks while taking classes towards ibanking..

I figure 3 more years of this while im paying for college, then 5-6 years of ibanking/analyst work at 80+ hours/week then I can break into wall street somewhere. 5-10 more years of 60+ hour work before I transfer to a real firm, then 45-50 hours till an early retirement at 50.


In high school I was the lazy kid who floated through with mediocre grades. I worked Food service for a year and a half, (promoted to manager there within 3 months) while I stalled before college.. now im a fucking workaholic.

I work 40-45 hour weeks now, am teaching myself russian for 1-2 hours a day, on top of 4 classes this semester.

Working shit jobs where you cant even afford rent even at the top of your promotion possibilities is a GREAT fucking motivator to contribute to society. I want to work hard, I want to succeed, I want to get somewhere in life.

man, not that i want to do that job ever, but i wish had this kind of motivation, willpower, and planning.

i can't even figure out wtf I want to do as a career.

 

[BigDH01]

Welcome to the suck. You're about to spend 40-50 hours a week in a cubicle earning less money than you think you're worth all so you can buy shit you don't need. You're expected to do this because there are millions of people out there willing to turn off their brain for 8 or 9 hours doing this same job only to go home, plop down in front of a (LCD or plasma, of course) TV, twist one off before going to bed, and rinse and repeat and call it happiness. If you don't do your job, they will. Your consolation prize will be the two weeks of vacation you get a year (of course, you still have to ask your boss's permission to take it) and Christmas and Thanksgiving. Soon, you will be a slave to all the new crap you purchased when you landed said job.

I'm trying to avoid the above scenario. I graduated a couple of years ago now and have spent the interim time in a basement office with no sun or sky. I spend most of my day answering people's stupid freakin questions wanting to pull my hair out. Most days I don't get a lunch. I'm 25 years old, a young adult with no health issues or disabilities, and I willingly spend 40-50 hours a week in a cage where my only requirement is to ignore and neglect the greatest gift ever given by God, free will. What kind of life is this? What if I were to die tomorrow or next week? Would this be what I look back on?

I'm trying my hardest to break out of this. While working full time, I've been attending grad school half time. I really don't mind it as school is pretty much the only thing I find stimulating. I'm hoping to continue grad school full time with a full ride next semester very far away. Spending one my shot at life in a cubicle just doesn't seem worth it to me. What a waste that would be.

 

[Xavier434]

If time is much more important to you than money then I highly recommend seeking a government job like working for the county school district. They do not work you like most jobs. Unlike every other job in the commercial industry, they are not concerned with profit and greed! They just want to get the job done which means overtime and time off really isn't much of a concern as long as you do your part.

Even they need IT and programmers along with just about every other kind of profession. Their salaries are not the greatest you can achieve but you would be surprised at how good they still are. Not to mention that the benefits are out of this world and you will get ridiculous amounts of vacation time and little to no over time.

This is my favorite part. Most government jobs offer you a fully loaded pension plan! This is 10 times better than any shitty 401k plan that most business offer you. To give you a better idea, this is what I got after only 2 years of actual programming experience after college by getting a programming job in the school district:

1. 37.5 hours per week. I work overtime maybe 7 days per year.
2. $55,000 gross. I am was only 25 years old at the time so this number made me happy.
3. 2 1/2 weeks of sick time which is never questioned when used.
4. 2 weeks of additional vacation time. Again, it is never questioned when requested.
5. Health insurance, Dental, Vision, and life insurance. The best of the best and only for a total of $40 per pay check (I get paid bi-weekly)!
6. The pension plan I mentioned.
7. A kick as union which costs me about $20 a check. It ensures that I will never get laid off or fired without damn good reason and even if it does happen then I am basically guaranteed another position somewhere else in the district with equal salary and benefits or more.
8. Some of the nicest people ever to work with. Give the environment and lack of pressure most of the time, everyone is laid back.
9. I can usually slack all day because work is limited and no one cares as long as the job gets done and done well which it always does.


Currently, I am making more money now. We are guaranteed raises every year which the unions fight tooth and nail to ensure they are as high as possible. I am very very satisfied and my family is too.

 

[mrkun]

Originally posted by: Dunbar

Originally posted by: mrkun
I understand the unemployment rate perfectly...How do you conclude that more people in a highly socialistic country need to work in order to survive compared to a significantly less socialistic one?

You obviously do not, you implied that the the percentage of France's population who work contradicted the unemployment data. The statistics actually mean that A) more people who want jobs can't get find them in France and B) more people choose not to work in the US. As far as why, we make more money, pay lower taxes, and have more disposable income. More parents can afford to support their kids through graduate school. Others may have saved enough to retire before the age of 54 (to name a couple.)

A) There's definitely truth to this. However, consider that people may not search nearly as aggressively because they don't have the same risk associated with being unemployed as one does here.

B) All we can determine from that statistic is that a greater portion of male population in that age range is not in the labor pool in the US. You can't ascribe choice to that fact based on that statistic alone.

The point I'm trying to make is that you can't come to a conclusion based on a single piece of data. France scored just above the U.S. on the Human Development Index (HDI) for example.