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Your degree and your career aspirations - how do they match up?

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Original post by CharlieGEM
I do completely understand the logic, equally someone could use the same argument to justify a life as a drug dealer though.


Drug dealing is illegal though- banking is not. As long as bankers aren't committing any crimes, what they are doing is perfectly fine.
Original post by CharlieGEM
I do completely understand the logic, equally someone could use the same argument to justify a life as a drug dealer though.


And if it were legal I could probably stomach it if there were a positive net impact (bigger than I could achieve elsewhere).

Though if you've read Freakonomics you'll see the average drug dealer earns ~$3.00 an hour - way below minimum wage - and so it certainly isn't a sound career choice either way, especially if it were legalised where earnings would likely go down with drug prices as availability increases. :biggrin:
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 222
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KTS89
8
Original post by CharlieGEM
I've worked in IB and "money obsessed robots" covers nearly all of them pretty well.

As for the bits about interesting work with intelligent co-workers: forget it. The work is incredibly dull and the co-workers nowhere near as smart as they think they are.


The other day I found a thread on WSO where a guy was pretending to be Dick Fuld, the ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers, and he was offering advice and stuff to the people in there with the majority of them actually believing he was the real Dick Fuld and bombarding him with questions and business plans. I guess this is an example that proves you right :tongue:
Original post by BizzStrut
Here's the thing. Your argument is essentially: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

But we know that no matter what I do the banking field is not going away. We know that there are 20 applicants willing to kill for a position who don't give a ****. So my presence there or not doesn't make a difference. It's going to happen.


Sure, but within 10 years a computer might be doing 50% of your workload better than you. And dont forget the unavoidable further regulatory restrictions which most certainly will be coming the way of finance/IB.
Original post by ahpadt
Sure, but within 10 years a computer might be doing 50% of your workload better than you. And dont forget the unavoidable further regulatory restrictions which most certainly will be coming the way of finance/IB.

Maybe you're right.

I think I'm using banking here as a placeholder for 'high paying career perceived as immoral' for the sake of philosophical discussion. Of course, nearly every industry will have issues with automation. But deals between companies will always be run by people. People will always write the programmes that run the algorithms. We're not being kicked out of the labour economy just yet :smile:
Original post by Jbaby98
So many options m8, cant choose just one..


Stay away from oil and gas. It has no future with the super salaries you've heard so much about. People are being laid off all over the place.
I've applied for a law degree but really want to be an architect, but I don't want to do an architecture degree because I prefer the law course but prefer the job role that come with architecture.
Wonder how in going to work that out in the long run:biggrin:
economics
priminister or investment banker
60k min
Original post by youreanutter
economics
priminister or investment banker
60k min


Ok bro, at least spell 'prime' minister properly :tongue: PM is also not a grad job aha

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Original post by Princepieman
Seems way too low for a newly qualified..

Most city (London based) firms are paying in the region of £55-75k on qualification (US firms pay more but they don't do your specialisation of interest, I don't think). Provincial firms are more £30-40k on qualification.

The average seems a tad high, I don't think many places outside of London will shell that much out to regular solicitors (i.e. non-partners), but then again it would be achievable 5+ years PQE at a decent firm in London.


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See the average starting salary for a Scottish solicitor is £20-30k.

I know I thought that too about the average salary, as i would be extremely happy with anything over £60k after 5+ years of work.

Yes medical law is quite a specialised area of the law, but you would not actually be working within a firm but rather as an in-house lawyer as part of a company/organisation (in this case the hospital itself).

Careers in medical defence law are more common in the US where hospitals are privatised and the doctors have to pay hefty insurance prices.
Original post by evalilyXOX
See the average starting salary for a Scottish solicitor is £20-30k.

I know I thought that too about the average salary, as i would be extremely happy with anything over £60k after 5+ years of work.

Yes medical law is quite a specialised area of the law, but you would not actually be working within a firm but rather as an in-house lawyer as part of a company/organisation (in this case the hospital itself).

Careers in medical defence law are more common in the US where hospitals are privatised and the doctors have to pay hefty insurance prices.


You said 'on qualification' which is after 2 years of training, hence the £30k+ range. I'm well aware most Scottish firms pay in the £18 to low £20s for first year trainees.

Yeah, I understand that but it's quite rare to train 'in-house'. Most often you'd train in private practice (at a firm) then qualify as a solicitor before moving in-house. Hence why it's a good idea to find firms with decent practice areas surrounding healthcare.

As for £60k 5+ years after qualifying, that seems somewhat reasonable but I'm not sure whether in-house salaries ramp up as much as private practice ones do.

EDIT: Ok, it's more £45-55k in-house in Scotland after 5 years.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 231
Avatar for Reue
Reue
20
I suppose mine is retrospective:

Degree: Business Management
Career: I.T.
Expected starting salary: Thought it would be about 30k (37.5k now with inflation). Was miles off, much like others here it seems :biggrin:
Original post by Reue
I suppose mine is retrospective:

Degree: Business Management
Career: I.T.
Expected starting salary: Thought it would be about 30k (37.5k now with inflation). Was miles off, much like others here it seems :biggrin:


Was eagerly awaiting your input, can always count on you being in a thread like this :')

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Degree: Comp Sci
Careers: To be quite honest I'm not set on a particular job at the moment, still looking around. Will be something software engineering related or some sort of developer, probably.
Pay: £26-28k would be a good start
Reply 234
Avatar for Reue
Reue
20
Original post by Princepieman
Was eagerly awaiting your input, can always count on you being in a thread like this :')

Posted from TSR Mobile


Can't resist anything financial
Original post by BizzStrut
If you watch the debate, you'll find the very first statement he makes is "I'm assuming nobody here just wants to make a lot of money, because then you'd go to Goldman. This is a debate for idealistic students."

Please go elsewhere with your shaming rhetoric. I care. I just know that I am very well suited to corporate work environments and I know I can make a hell of a difference if I succeed there. More than anywhere else.

It might make you feel warm and fuzzy pulling a splinter out of a kid's finger or building a house in Africa for a single family but every large scale project worth doing needs finance and I can support those things that actually matter, instead of piling into field that is already overly saturated with applicants (like medicine) and people who are in it because they want society to think they're kind, considerate and decent people.

I'll have to carry the judgement of people like you for my whole career and it's silly because it's unjust.


My heart really bleeds for you because you're so misunderstood.

Pulling splinters out children's fingers? You really have no clue at all about the work of doctors and nurses. A great deal of us handle life and death situations and chronic disease - day in day out. You play with numbers and no it doesn't make me feel ''fuzzy'' seeing a toddler on a ventilator - and that's not why I do it, to feel ''fuzzy''.

I was asked why people go into banking. I said for money. No one's proved me wrong yet - the only people who have replied have gone off on tangents and tried to make out that I'm saying banking is evil etc - no where have I said that.

I was stating something about people's motivations towards careers and your little speech about you being able to give back through banking more than a Doctor can through clinical practice really doesn't wash with me at all and just makes you sound totally deluded. Is that REALLY why you wanted that career - to give your salary to good causes? Would you have dared to say that in an interview? Don't patronize me with that.

People who have a strong calling to help others follow careers that allow them to feel fulfilled on a daily basis and see their efforts making a real difference in people's lives. They don't just throw a bit of their salary towards a charity each month to salve their conscience. It's not all about money either - 99% of elderly people I've cared for just want someone to talk to or a hand to hold - throwing money at some issues isn't the solution. We've got plenty of resources and equipment where I work - that's not our issue, we just need people who actually care.
Original post by Reue
I suppose mine is retrospective:

Degree: Business Management
Career: I.T.
Expected starting salary: Thought it would be about 30k (37.5k now with inflation). Was miles off, much like others here it seems :biggrin:


lol reue why do you always get so spiteful and upset when many students correctly, identify there are quite a few jobs that pay at least 30k starting salary and aim to achieve that? :tongue:
Reply 237
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Reue
20
Original post by welcometoib
lol reue why do you always get so spiteful and upset when many students correctly, identify there are quite a few jobs that pay at least 30k starting salary and aim to achieve that? :tongue:


Spiteful and upset are certainly the wrong words to use.

I just think alot of students have an unrealistic expectation of starting and early salary levels.
Original post by Reue
Spiteful and upset are certainly the wrong words to use.

I just think alot of students have an unrealistic expectation of starting and early salary levels.


you sound upset when you reply to these sorts of threads, maybe you come across that way on here but dont actually mean to

yes but you literally post on every single thread every created wrt career aspirations, telling the students they are delusional. id guess they arent, seeing as there are literally thousands of 30k starting salary jobs for graduates. most people here have put their realistic salaries too, which are well under 30k.
Degree: Biomedical science
Jobs/ Career of interest: Used to want to go into research, but since being at uni I really do not want to go into science. I just want to live a simple and relativity stress free life.
Graduate salary expected: No idea, but 20k or over gross salary and I'm happy.

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