What's everyone up to?

Bond · 08-02-2011, 01:21 PM

I thought we could use this as a bit of a "status update" thread for all of our current members. What is everyone up to in education / job / hobby / etc. wise?

Personally, I just graduated university in May with a BBA in Finance. I'm leaving for Austin, Texas in just under two weeks to attend law school at UT. That leaves three more years of formal education for me, after which I will hopefully find some kind of position in the corporate law field.

This summer, I took up playing golf, and greatly improved my abilities at chess and scrabble.

KillerGremlin · 08-02-2011, 04:07 PM

I've been looking for a job in this rough market...I feel that my previous work experience and education gives me a leg-up, so it has been a battle of patience and applying. I need to get a job soon.

I will be seeking out graduate school eventually, right now I need to recover from undergrad burnout and support my GF who is doing grad school herself.

I'll be prepping for the GRE...and I would like to get a blog off the ground just to prove to myself that I can sustain a long term writing project. It just sucks living day-by-day with a future that is up in the air.

Bond · 08-02-2011, 04:28 PM

Pro-tip: make sure to take the GRE asap before calculus is added.

magus113 · 08-02-2011, 04:47 PM

I'm still going towards my bachelor's in IT (starting my sixth year this Fall, I hate my life), and probably gonna start pooling around for a new IT job because my job really just threw another nail in the coffin for me today and I'm really not too pleased about it. This is also considering that I have no clue as to how the IT job market is looking, especially for someone without a degree, even though I have 4+ years of experience in a professional IT environment.

KillerGremlin · 08-02-2011, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bond

Pro-tip: make sure to take the GRE asap before calculus is added.

I'd take Calculus over the ridiculous list of words I will never use in real life that I will have to memorize. Bleh.

The best part is these tests don't gauge work ethic, determination, or knowledge across under-privileged groups of people. So at best the GRE is probably moderately correlated with success during the first year or two of grad school. It's a big money racket.

Bond · 08-02-2011, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

I'd take Calculus over the ridiculous list of words I will never use in real life that I will have to memorize. Bleh.

The best part is these tests don't gauge work ethic, determination, or knowledge across under-privileged groups of people. So at best the GRE is probably moderately correlated with success during the first year or two of grad school. It's a big money racket.

Haha, fair enough. I do think these graduate tests gauge work ethic and determination, as they are all very learnable through study and repetition, although I'm sure you could argue that under-privileged groups don't have the necessary time and/or resources to do this (I was able to increase my LSAT score from around the 80th percentile to the 96th percentile through a fair amount of study and practice test taking).

Quote:

Originally Posted by magus113

I'm still going towards my bachelor's in IT (starting my sixth year this Fall, I hate my life), and probably gonna start pooling around for a new IT job because my job really just threw another nail in the coffin for me today and I'm really not too pleased about it. This is also considering that I have no clue as to how the IT job market is looking, especially for someone without a degree, even though I have 4+ years of experience in a professional IT environment.

What was that additional nail in the coffin?

The future of IT looks quite promising according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos258.htm

KillerGremlin · 08-02-2011, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bond

Haha, fair enough. I do think these graduate tests gauge work ethic and determination, as they are all very learnable through study and repetition, although I'm sure you could argue that under-privileged groups don't have the necessary time and/or resources to do this (I was able to increase my LSAT score from around the 80th percentile to the 96th percentile through a fair amount of study and practice test taking).

I never thought about your first point. I guess taking the time to learn the GRE/LSAT/GMAT/Whatever so you score high enough on it shows determination or the ability to work hard towards a goal. It's a big game though...people spend hundreds of dollars on books and practice tests and Kaplan classes. And someone who isn't that bright could theoretically score high enough on many of these tests with enough practice and memorization.

There's been some interesting studies regarding scores on IQ tests and standardized tests...but I digress.

I think we can both agree that you scoring in the 96th percentile on the LSAT is pretty sick. So good job.

Bond · 08-02-2011, 05:18 PM

I agree -- it's all just a big game. For me, the most unfair part of the admissions game is comparing GPA across different universities (level of difficulty) and different grading scales. At UW, we only have A's, A/B's, B's, etc, equating to 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, etc. We don't have the opportunity to earn A+'s, which are the equivalent of 4.33s, or anything like an A- or B+. Incredibly unfair.

KillerGremlin · 08-02-2011, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magus113

I'm still going towards my bachelor's in IT (starting my sixth year this Fall, I hate my life), and probably gonna start pooling around for a new IT job because my job really just threw another nail in the coffin for me today and I'm really not too pleased about it. This is also considering that I have no clue as to how the IT job market is looking, especially for someone without a degree, even though I have 4+ years of experience in a professional IT environment.

The IT market is great...but IT jobs have pretty firm ceilings in terms of pay and mobility. You really need to mingle with business if you want to move up in the IT world. The problem with IT sectors in companies is that you don't net any money for the company. I mean you do, but it isn't tangible and accounting and HR execs could give a shit less about what you do. I've been there, btw, so I know how the money tug-of-war for better computers goes and how it is ALL. ABOUT. CUTTING. COSTS. Having the IT knowledge and then going into business should give you a big leg up and let you expand your salary. If that's your bag.

I realize I am being highly presumptuous that you want to expand your salary. IT positions can probably net you a comfy 45k-80k salary depending on location and experience.

If I may ask though, what has brought you to your 6th year of school?

KillerGremlin · 08-02-2011, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bond

I agree -- it's all just a big game. For me, the most unfair part of the admissions game is comparing GPA across different universities (level of difficulty) and different grading scales. At UW, we only have A's, A/B's, B's, etc, equating to 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, etc. We don't have the opportunity to earn A+'s, which are the equivalent of 4.33s, or anything like an A- or B+. Incredibly unfair.

The GPA thing is bullshit. I agree. They even pulled that crap out of high school...my high school valedictorian had a 4.7 or something because honor classes were weighted so an A = 5.0.

I know at U of I they have different GPAs for A+ / A / A- so the breakdown is like 4.0 / 3.8 / 3.2 or some crap like that. I would be pissed if I got a 92% in a class and my GPA was 3.2. At my school a 91% was a 4.0 because it is an A.

That stuff drives me nuts too.

magus113 · 08-02-2011, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

The IT market is great...but IT jobs have pretty firm ceilings in terms of pay and mobility. You really need to mingle with business if you want to move up in the IT world. The problem with IT sectors in companies is that you don't net any money for the company. I mean you do, but it isn't tangible and accounting and HR execs could give a shit less about what you do. I've been there, btw, so I know how the money tug-of-war for better computers goes and how it is ALL. ABOUT. CUTTING. COSTS. Having the IT knowledge and then going into business should give you a big leg up and let you expand your salary. If that's your bag.

I realize I am being highly presumptuous that you want to expand your salary. IT positions can probably net you a comfy 45k-80k salary depending on location and experience.

If I may ask though, what has brought you to your 6th year of school?

Taking time off of school to work full time hours, class availability, not passing all of my classes like a good student should.

Note that I say full time hours by the way. I'm a part time employee on my campus. They have horrible means of handing their money through budgeting and after starting at 8 dollars an hour four years ago, to then take two and a half years to give me a raise up to 9, they tell me that they need two people to come in an hour earlier because the CIO thinks it's useful to have someone that early to respond and answer phone calls (which it isn't. I have yet to receive a phone call for something urgent earlier than 8:45, maybe 8:30 the earliest and this was before they asked me to adjust my hours). The best they can offer me as incentive for doing this is that I can stay an additional half hour (since I'd need to be leaving at 4:30 to have an 8 hour day) and get paid time and a half for overtime (which would be a grand total of 5 hours per pay period). I say yes because I'd like to try and get SOME more money from working here because when I had gotten that raise they told me to not see a raise in the foreseeable future since they're so tight with the money from the budget, so it's the best I can do; I'm also the only part time employee staying extra hours by the way).

So today I find out that two of my co-workers got raises recently, one of whom started a few months after me and was already getting paid more than I did when he was hired (the only thing he had over me was A+ and N+ certification that he got in high school and it wasn't even valid anymore anyway, those have to be renewed; we both had no professional work experience in IT), and another who started a year ago (possibly even less), and he started like me, with no certs, and no work experience. The newer guy was also getting paid more than me from the start because now his raise actually brought him up to 10 bucks an hour, which means he was getting paid the same as I have been after my raise for the last year and a half. It's not a cost of living or minimum wage thing either, too. Minimum wage is still 7.75 here in Florida, which I was already getting paid more than that when I started, so he was given that money from the start willingly.

So the best I get is overtime which isn't guaranteed always because I have to take time off for class during the day and I have frequent doctor visits thanks to having Cystic Fibrosis and diabetes that I have to take unpaid days off for (since obviously no benefits), while two other people get raises and one of them has a third of the amount of professional experience than I do?

I'm sorry but if that isn't ridiculous, I don't know what is.

yeah yeah tl;dr

Bond · 08-02-2011, 06:02 PM

If I were you, I would quit the job, take classes full-time, max out your subsidized student loans (if needed), and look for full-time employment after you graduate. Your salary will probably be twice as much, and you'll have benefits. There is most likely little-to-no incremental benefit in continuing at your current job; however, the work experience you've gained there will be very helpful in seeking a full-time job after you've graduated.

Bube · 08-02-2011, 06:03 PM

I finally graduated about a month ago. However, for the last 5 years, I've always felt that I didn't want to practice medicine. I found a job at Pfizer as a medical manager, and I'm moving to Istanbul in a few days to start the job.

Other than that, I've started writing songs.

magus113 · 08-02-2011, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bond

If I were you, I would quit the job, take classes full-time, max out your subsidized student loans (if needed), and look for full-time employment after you graduate. Your salary will probably be twice as much, and you'll have benefits. There is most likely little-to-no incremental benefit in continuing at your current job; however, the work experience you've gained there will be very helpful in seeking a full-time job after you've graduated.

I spoke to my mom, who's a school teacher and forwarded my resume to her, so she's gonna be passing that over to people she knows, parents of her old students and whatnot. My resume was updated about two months ago so I should be all set.

So I'm getting some things moving at least.

magus113 · 08-03-2011, 09:49 AM

Just found out apparently that the other two new hires that started about a month ago also started at higher than I did, and they're currently making my same pay grade.

It's like they're trying to give me a hint.