Please do not do a PhD unless you are absolutely positive you want to!
[Serious Discussion] Entering academia now, in 2021, is a huge mistake imho.....
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I did the high finance track and it sucks. It sucks so much.
Do you think obsessing over the price of a single financial product for 20 years sounds fun either? Not only that but you're surrounded by egomaniacs and psychopaths with an unquenchable thirst for "power", if not them, it's everyone else who hates their job and their existence while they're stuck in a white loud room for 12 hours a day without a sliver of sunlight (especially in the winter.) There are exceptions, people who love the product, but I gotta say, they're a little off. When I quit as a junior, all of the seniors who weren't running the desks and insanely passionate admitted to me that they hate their job too.
Now if you think IB is any better, just know my ex (who was a POS anyway) went from a normal crazy person to a fat crazy alcoholic pill popper. Like I said, there are exceptions everywhere, but high finance can't be so much better than going for a PhD.
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I did the high finance track and it sucks. It sucks so much.
Do you think obsessing over the price of a single financial product for 20 years sounds fun either? Not only that but you're surrounded by egomaniacs and psychopaths with an unquenchable thirst for "power", if not them, it's everyone else who hates their job and their existence while they're stuck in a white loud room for 12 hours a day without a sliver of sunlight (especially in the winter.) There are exceptions, people who love the product, but I gotta say, they're a little off. When I quit as a junior, all of the seniors who weren't running the desks and insanely passionate admitted to me that they hate their job too.
Now if you think IB is any better, just know my ex (who was a POS anyway) went from a normal crazy person to a fat crazy alcoholic pill popper. Like I said, there are exceptions everywhere, but high finance can't be so much better than going for a PhD.just go to tech. lots of chill jobs that pay well where you can do whatever you like most of the day.
also, i would find it fun to think about price of a financial product. that's actually more interesting than work in tech, but pays less these days.
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@24bf: That's crazy. So what are you doing now?
How much did you make while you were still in high finance?I'm a youngin, just a PhD student. I quit pretty early on as an analyst because going from industry to a PhD program without a masters in between isn't good for your application if you've been in industry too long. (Read NYU's admission FAQ and you could see how that would scare someone like me.)
I made 120k my first year out of college with bonus. I saved up a really good chunk of money and started my retirement savings, which makes me feel so much safer regarding any last minute expenses like conference traveling, buying a car if I want, and emergencies of course.
Finance really just isn't for everyone, not to say it isn't for some.
I did a tech internship in college too! So boring!! Maybe my expectations are just too high.
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I did the high finance track and it sucks. It sucks so much.
Do you think obsessing over the price of a single financial product for 20 years sounds fun either? Not only that but you're surrounded by egomaniacs and psychopaths with an unquenchable thirst for "power", if not them, it's everyone else who hates their job and their existence while they're stuck in a white loud room for 12 hours a day without a sliver of sunlight (especially in the winter.) There are exceptions, people who love the product, but I gotta say, they're a little off. When I quit as a junior, all of the seniors who weren't running the desks and insanely passionate admitted to me that they hate their job too.
Now if you think IB is any better, just know my ex (who was a POS anyway) went from a normal crazy person to a fat crazy alcoholic pill popper. Like I said, there are exceptions everywhere, but high finance can't be so much better than going for a PhD.just go to tech. lots of chill jobs that pay well where you can do whatever you like most of the day.
also, i would find it fun to think about price of a financial product. that's actually more interesting than work in tech, but pays less these days.Eh, if you into tech tech, sure. But if you're an economist or data scientist at the companies that hire the most of both (Amazon and Facebook), you'll work 60+ hour weeks, and desperately try to get good performance reviews every 6 months.
Best idea is just to avoid social science entirely, and major in computer science/engineering in undergrad.
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It seems to me that social circumstances do not allow you to feel the spirit of academism. I predict a great social and ecological collapse. The educational segment is a current of contact with problems. I recommend reading a few texts https://studymoose.com/social-justice on social balance. We lost our foothold and the educational system lost touch with socialization. I think that scientific work should be stopped until better times.
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Academia was always a profession for elites, independently wealthy types. it wasn't a 'career'.
I agree. If you are from a wealthy family, then academia is not so bad
The culture of counting publications, journal rankings, p hacking, identification etc (basically turning academia into a careerist scam) is a major turn off for a an aspiring die hard academic who is actually in pursuit of the truth, knowledge, trying to make a real contribution etc.
Academics had always been loners and independent scholars in their backyards. Now it is like a corporate bureaucracy.Very true and quite depressing. Feels like a corporate rat race more than anything, I got a PhD to avoid that lifestyle now I am neck deep in it.
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This post is disingenuous. Everyone knows we can earn more money in industry. Finance/econ is the upper bar for money as an academic. What do you think everyone doing a PhD in science is thinking?
Do you really believe they're all 50 IQ and haven't realized you can be more rich in industry? Of course they know that, yet many choose to still do a PhD out of intellectual curiosity and interest in research.