Friend offered 110k salary w/ stock options with no college degree. senior in college. Not in finance
so as we're all grinding away with investment banking. I see my friend do his own thing. getting an offer from a publicy traded small cap tech company paying him 110k without requiring him to finish a college degree.
anyone else think that's crazy?
Not really - see other recent posts here. Companies (Inc. Google, I believe) are starting to offer people 'apprenticeships' (basically, jobs that don't require a college degree). I don't know too much about it but I believe they are "legit" jobs too. While I personally would always want to get a degree (for lots of reasons, Inc. getting to be in college) the rising costs etc. mean things like this will be more likely to pop up.
schooling can get in the way of education. there are a lot of in demand skills in tech where they just cant afford to wait for a better hire. kids are getting internships in highschool now and already fullstack before finishing school
my mentor in PWM never graduated college. education is not the same as wisdom. that being said, I think it should be the standard for most kids unless they want to pick up a trade. don't get frustrated, there are plenty of other stories that should piss you off more (college dropouts making the forbes 100).
just focus on you, don't worry about him. college degrees give you the ability to move around, so while the experience is great, experience + degree is better ceteris paribus
This is not unusual with tech jobs. Again, the best security engineer I ever worked with had a degree in music.
Know a number of guys who were in intensive four year physics and math programs that got internships during their sophomore summer and made it known that they could, and would if given an offer for FT, graduate with a lesser degree (general science, liberal program instead of major in their faculty, etc.) in three years.
Internships at top firms are just 10-week interviews. You either have the general demeanor to succeed within the group or you don't; prerequisite knowledge, including the laughably small applicable knowledge you'd get from the most "relevant" degree programs, is completely secondary to personal attributes. Once you're in, and are thought highly enough of to get a returning offer, what your degree actually ends up being is of almost zero importance.
In addition, we had to consider the ceiling and stability.
It is very impressive that your friend was able to leverage such a job, but there is a ceiling in terms of pay for computer engineers (I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's below 200k). The true value comes from being able to start a company or identifying a good idea and getting on early. But for such a company to survive, investors need to invest, and they take everything into account, especially early-stage companies. Having a college degree, even a token one, is crucial here.
Also, remember when the tech startup world wasn't so hot about 4 years ago?
Not when you become a manager, then director, after spending some time as a developer.
Thank you. For some reason, there's this idea (exclusively on this site) that it's different in finance; somehow politics and the corporate ladder go out the door. There is a "ceiling" in everything corporate - some people make it higher, some don't.
Well in banks, public side at least, it is relativeley "easy" to make it to VP level and without a terrible lifestyle, you just need to be good overall, not really stellar and you end up making 350-400k.
A VP making 350-400k? That's not super common, at least of the VP's that I know (not talking about investment banking here). I'm sure it happens, but not every VP makes that much or even close.
His comment was talking exclusively about banks (if you missed it). I know of very good mid-level associates (eg 2nd year associate) in IB making ~400k all in and VPs making much more in some top groups. Aware that you weren't talking about banking, but to add to @"Zafrynex"'s comment - very easily done.
I agree with a lot of comments. There are a lot of ways to trailblaze your way to a very comfortable lifestyle. There are a lot of programmers who work on multiple projects / companies, charge a certain amount on an hourly basis, and make a very comfortable living. They can do well by having spending 4 years programming rather than college and become a manager. But they have to be very nimble and stay ahead of the curve, and not everyone has that energy all the time.
That being said, I still do think it's crazy, but I would be lying if I didn't say I was jealous.
Didn't read a damn thing but there are at least a bajillion ways to make ~$110k in America. Quit being a fuccboi and get your hustle up
Yeah man. What this dude said. Hustle hard muthafucka.
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