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For me, its not ALL about the money. It certainly is a factor.. but I think those that measure a career or job solely on the compensation is missing out.
Sure the associate professor in your example may not be making any more than the H.S. art teacher... but does that factor alone mean the AP wasted his/her time and effort? What if the H.S. teacher is miserable and the AP is super content?
I apologize ahead of time if these people are actually on here (they'd have anonymous handles anyway).
Because somewhere down the line, someone decided that everyone is entitled to the same opportunities. Particularly College. It used to be, you had to work hard to get into College, but since banks will give anyone a large student loans, Universities are more than happy to accept these kids. 3 of the dumbest people I know have college degrees. 2 of them can barely put a sentence together. English is her second language and sometimes, it's impossible to translate what she is trying to say.
Meanwhile, Corporations are willing to cut people on a whim to maximize earnings. Taking care of employees, cultivating relationships, etc have all gone out the window. They can gamble and mistreat people, because so many have so much debt, they are forced to put up with the mistreatment.
The system is broke and we are sort of in a limbo as to what to do. No one is really sure. You can work hard and it may pay off. You can work hard, be taken advantage of and be sent to an early grave. I think some sort of collapse is coming. I just don't see how we can keep moving in the direction we are moving.
Whats not too obvious for some of you guys is the classified ads does not reflect whats really going on.
Last year I made 325K doing a little coding and taking risks being a contractor. I'm sure some of you guys have a pretty good idea what to do with this money so come a get it (from the corporations i mean). Oh and you have to better yourself and be driven of course
I really have wondered why I feel the need the work hard. My Dad drilled into my siblings and I the importance of a good work ethic. He would say if you work hard and do a good job you will get ahead in life. For the longest time I believed that saying. A few years back during my college years my Dad started telling me that the only way to get ahead was kissing ass. I would have to do kiss ass to get ahead and move up in corporate America. I find ass kissers to be very disgusting people. I have read on here that it is essentially a full time job to kiss ass and I completely agree.
I agree with you OP. Several studies have shown that the best determinant of income is your parents' wealth. Other studies have shown that successful people vastly underestimate the role luck had in where they got, and overestimate their own hard work/ skill. And then look at the studies of how WHEN you graduate from college can affect your income for the rest of your life. The difference between starting your career during a recession and a time of economic growth can mean a ton of money in lifetime income. You are basically forever on a lower income trajectory if you just have the misfortune of graduating during the wrong time.
Ultimately, the only way you can truly enjoy life and be at peace with yourself is to just accept these realities. You can't have a "woe is me" attitude and get upset at those people that you see making more money with less effort.
You have to look for happiness and satisfaction OUTSIDE of work, and just realize work is a means to an end to facilitating this happiness and satisfaction. For some reason our culture promotes the idea that your job is who you are way too much.
You're sadly mistaken if you think it is mostly luck that people fall into good-paying jobs.
It's because we took the time to stay with a company for a long time, starting at the bottom, and working our way up slowly, that we got the experience we needed for the bigger salaries and the higher cubicles.
So many people get out of college, and expect to make the big bucks without putting their time in.
Agreed, but too often, somewhere in the process, the individual over-commits, or expects something that fails to materialize, or is betrayed by circumstances beyond his/her control. We're sent on a walk in the swamp without any warning as to where the venomous critters are hiding.
We don't have courses in "sucking up". but a number of colleges and universities have augmented their Business Admin curriculum with a stronger underpinning in organizational behavior.
All our knowledge is ourselves to know. (Alexander Pope)
What's even the point really of trying or worrying about making more money? It's all so arbitrary.
-schooling
-career
-working hard
-and making money
Are all separate.
Personally myself, and the most suscessful of my friends get little to no bennifit from our college degrees.
Several of us have no "career" in the traditional sense, in fact, most of us are self employed or contract workers.
People who study hard and go to good colleges, and then go on to get engineering, law, and MBA degrees. People who got 4.0s in college who don't end up going to medical school. What's the point? People who work hard for their companies and give many years of their life, what's the point?
The point is to get a good job with a good salary. Yes there are people in the world that know the right people and get the same or better salary than you and don't earn it, but these are the exceptions not the rule of thumb. The odds are definitely in your favor when you have a good degree from a good school, but nothing can guarantee a good job, a good salary or that promotion you really wanted. You can tilt the odds in your favor, but noting in life is guaranteed, not even life it's self. You can graduate top of your class from college, walk out the door with that nice shiny degree and get hit and killed by a bus. Life isn't fair, it never was.
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