If you could do it all over again...(Life, not the car) - Lateral-g Forums

BC69 · #1 09-28-2005, 07:43 AM

So lets think back to a time when you were my age, 19. For most of you I know that was only a few short years ago, but just think back.

You are at Boston College, Just like me, wow!, and you are in the Management school as an accounting and finance double major. Here is the choice, and I have been asking around.
I am very driven in working hard to get the grades and work experience to excel in the finace field when I get out. At the same time, its college, and its a fun time. This past summer I had an internship with a large company, and I enjoyed it. So much that I have been applying for Fall internships in Boston. Well, I got one, or at least was offered one.
If you could do it all over again, would you take an opportunity like this, to probably be one of only a few sophomores with multiple internships under their belt. Get paid between 14-16$ an hour to work part time in the city (An hour commute by subway). This takes alot of time and forces me to hone my study habits with everything else, A comedy group, multiple clubs, class, ext....
Or, would you decline the couple hundred dollars a week extra, and just enjoy your time at the risk of just being with the pack as far as your resume?
In either case I think my grades would be the same, or at least the risk of doing better or worse is the same for each.

If you could do it again, how would you go about the choices in college. And you may say I am just crazy and should switch my major to rainforest biology, but the majors are going to stay.

Just curious.

Tim

ProdigyCustoms · #2 09-28-2005, 07:57 AM

I would take the job. Play later, you'll enjoy it more at 40 when you are rich and can screw off then you will enjoy playing now. I retired for 3 years at 40, it was fantastic.

It was 25 years ago for me when I ws 19 and made my decisions. If I could do it all over, I would be a attourney. I love to argue, and am good at it, LOL! Seriously, I had a chance to defend myself when I was 28, and the judge called me into chambers, I thought to scold me, and wanted find out what I did for a living and to talk to me about the possibility of going to school to be an attourney. Later, when I was 38 I had a legal case against someone and went thorugh 3 years of preperation and trial, and loved it, except the part about being broke until we won. It was a $100 company against a $100 million dollar company. We really kicked their ass, and it was highly credited to my research and dedication to the cause.

So I think I would like it, but am by no means interested in going to school now. Also i figure with the money my attourney makes, I would have plenty of $$$$ to build toys, and lots of time to do it as he is always gone somewhere!

So my advice, stay in school and get a good degree. For those that are not "school material", pick a trade and be one of the best at whatever it is.

Derek69SS · #3 09-28-2005, 08:30 AM

Take the job, and save the money.

I'm only 23, so it wasn't that long ago... I worked 2 internships while putting myself through college. Many of my friends partied hard, and their parents payed their way.

6 months after graduation, I bought a house.

They're all broke, paying rent, and living in apartments. I'm just as broke as they are, but building equity, and have something to show for my hard work. Next spring, my fiance and I will get married, and she graduates nursing school. We can make it (just barely) on what I make, now more than double that income, and we *can* pay off the house in <5 years, or save the money to buy an acreage in the country to build on.

*can* = assuming we don't have kids for a while

mdprovee · #4 09-28-2005, 08:38 AM

I agree, take the internship.

If I had to do it over I would have stayed in school. I have a A.S. degree which really means nothing now days. There will always be time to have fun later in life. Trust me, it is a whole different type of fun.

**Ummgawa** · #5 09-28-2005, 09:06 AM

Two Schools of thought, here. If you are smart young, then unless you hit your head, you will be smart when you are more mature (IE old). Sure, make good money when you are young, working for someone else. If I could have a do over, I would invest more of my time and efforts in commercial real estate. Strip malls and shopping malls. Hard to do alone, so get a group of Likeminded men together, form an LLC and go for it. Get the level headed one to be in charge. You can have a "Secure" job with a big company and depend on them to retire you. Or they will down size and eliminate you or get bought out and "rightsize" you whiich means they have someone younger than you do it cheaper.

A lot of retired people I have known are now dead. they lost their reason to live. Got to be in charge. Now nobody jumps when they give orders and they feel useless.

Do what you love, do it while you are young, when you get older your teeth and knees hurt.

Work to live. Don't live to work. See the world while you have no anchors.I heard a real smart guy say that youth is wasted on the young. Laugh real loud, Fart when you need to and drink lots of water.

WHEN IT COMES TO A WIFE, CHOOSE WISELY. IF YOU DISLIKE YOUR MOTHER IN LAW, YOUR WIFE WILL BECOME HER IN ABOUT TWENTY YEARS.

HERE IT IS IN A NUTSHELL,THERE ARE NO DO-OVERS.

Payton King · #6 09-28-2005, 09:29 AM

Work expierence couple with a good degree and strong grades will put you head and shoulders above the pack.

I am a Finance major myself. If I could give any advice is pick your concentration of studies that will provide you with the income you desire. There are few people in this world that their passion is the same as their career. Most have a career as a means to an end.

I know this is not you...but, don't get a degree in secondary education if you want to live in a million dollar house with all of the trappings that go with that life style. One way is to pick a tough and sought after education such as an attorney, doctor, etc that puts the odds in your favor as Frank stated. That is not to say you can't make a truck load of cash doing other things. I know of plenty of people with business that you would not take a second look at, slapping the ball out of the park.

Find a successful Mentor doing what you want to do and ask if you can work for him for free. The knowledge and expierence that you will gain for that person will benefit you like you cannot imagine. If you make yourself envaluable to him/her. You get to meet his friends and clients. Network, network, network. If you are doing a good job they will feel inclined pay you as well.

When it comes time to graduate, I have found that it is still as much as who you know as what you know when getting jobs, opportunites or promotions.

Richz68 · #7 09-28-2005, 09:58 AM

It is trully a double edged sword...... I firmly believe that MOST people aren't really ready for the world or to decided and become the person that they will be for the rest of their lives until approximately 26-30. Who knows as time goes by you begin to figure out that you aren't excited to be what you or your peers thought you should be.

I have several friends who rushed in the corporate world and all but one state that they would have taken a few years longer to decide on their life rather than rush into it. They also said that they regret not "living" while they were younger.

I think you should seriously take some time and travel outside your current world. Do some volunteer work for the less fortunate, look into the eyes of a child in need that you made smile from an act of kindness and you will soon discover what success is! Remember that when it is all said and done on each persons deathbed NOBODY.... I MEAN NOBODY wishes that they would have worked more while they were able.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you become a slacker and go get drunk, just take your mind outside what you feel is "the way" and discover what the world has to offer while you can.

**Steve Chryssos** · #8 09-28-2005, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BC69

.......This takes alot of time and forces me to hone my study habits with everything else, A comedy group, multiple clubs, class, ext....
Tim

Divert all of your time and energy to the comedy club. We live in a pretty messed up world, so everyone needs a good laugh. Demand is huge. You could be the next Jim Carey and I could be your agent.

MaxHarvard · #9 09-28-2005, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derek69SS

Take the job, and save the money.

I'm only 23, so it wasn't that long ago... I worked 2 internships while putting myself through college. Many of my friends partied hard, and their parents payed their way.

6 months after graduation, I bought a house.

They're all broke, paying rent, and living in apartments. I'm just as broke as they are, but building equity, and have something to show for my hard work. Next spring, my fiance and I will get married, and she graduates nursing school. We can make it (just barely) on what I make, now more than double that income, and we *can* pay off the house in <5 years, or save the money to buy an acreage in the country to build on.

*can* = assuming we don't have kids for a while

Dang, amazing how much we have in common, but i'm 24

Seriously though, I would take the job/internship... jobs are harder to find out of school if you dont have experience of some kind. The more the better, and usually the harder the job (in the related field) the better.

I'm glad i did what i did, i just wish i had tried harder in my undergraduate program and got better grades to get into a master's program earlier than i did. I barely cracked a book and still escaped with a 3.5GPA. dont ask how.

Skip the partying, its a waste of time in my book. i did it for a bit, and didnt like it.. the only thing that made me happy was my girl and my car... but thats just me

Damn True · #10 09-28-2005, 01:54 PM

Take the job it wont be your first or last. A paycheck in hand beats the alternative.

If I had it all to do over again I would not have married my first wife at 22 but I thought I knew a lot more then. I'd have done what I set out to do when I joined the Coast Guard and spend 4 years then get out and go to school. Well 4 turned into 11, I went in debt to pay for her education then we divorced and I was right where I started only 31 years old and with a wad of debt for which I had nothing to show.