When Does Life Get Better?
Before I jump into it, I want to make clear that this is NOT a sob story, and I'm very happy with where I'm at! I've been at my current consulting gig for 5 months and gets better by the day. I'm still learning a lot on the job, but I'm finally starting to feel like I'm adding value to my team and not just asking questions throughout the day. That being said, its still nothing compared to the amount of fun I had in undergrad.
Question: To all the bankers, consultants, PE folks, etc, do you feel that life is better now post-grad or when you were in college? To some, this question is ludicrous and of course you're going to say college was the best time of your life. And like most, I fall into that camp. But are there others who disagree? If so, what event happened in life to make you feel happier? Was it the fat bonus? A significant promotion? Children? Acceptance into an awesome MBA, ensuring the most significant, life changing two years of your life (kidding...please no MS)? Would love to hear thoughts.






I love my life now. College
I love my life now. College was fun, but it's just much better to be making 75-80k a year working 50 hours a week, get to travel to cool places (I work in consulting), live in the most awesome city in the world (NYC), have access to lots of gorgeous girls, and the best part is I am still in my mid 20's.
Like half of all my friends from college live in NYC so I hang out with my college buddies all the time. Plus, as of now, I love my gig, since for the weekends, I can get the free airplane tickets to travel to whatever city I want to go. Last weekend, I went to Vegas and met up with my college buddies there and had a fucking blast. Next weekend I am going to LA to visit my another friend from college, with all travel expenses covered by my company.
Back in college, I was shit broke, thought that over 70% of crap I learned in all classes were boring and useless (and they are), and I wasn't happy with the city that my college was located in (New Haven). Still, I met many fun group of friends while there so no regrets.
In my opinion, someone's life prime is from early twenties to early thirties. Get a decent paying job, make lots of friends, travel and see the world, party a lot, and date lots of girls. And, don't get married. Try to enjoy your life when you are young & single. From mid-30's and on, it's all downhill.
I agree. College was fun,
I agree. College was fun, but I am so much happier setting my own schedule, making my own money, and spending time with the people I care about the most. I'm glad I got out of banking because my hours are a lot more reasonable now, so I get to spend my nights and weekends travelling or laying on the couch watching football.
It's interesting you brought up the bonus thing. I read an article about how events like getting larges bonuses or winning the lottery only make you happy for a few months at most, and then most people get back to their "normal" level of happiness. I haven't won the lottery, but getting a top tier bonus only made me happy for about a week. It's the freedom of making my own money, controlling my own time, and finding someone special that makes me happy, regardless of the long hours at work.
I agree with IvyGrad. Life
I agree with IvyGrad. Life now is WAY better than college. A lot of it comes from the flexibility of being an "adult" combined with enough income to do whatever you please. It is really cool being able to pave your own path in life. IvyGrad talks about travel, but that is just one aspect of it. As a college grad with a good income, you can say: "I think I want to go skiing this weekend, I'm going to rent some skis and a nice condo and just do it." That sort of flexibility to do as you please is amazing.
CompBanker
I may be different because I
I may be different because I transferred schools midway through so I had to start over socially, but I am ready to be done with school. I enjoyed my interning experience this summer and am going back to the same company for FT.
I want to get out in the world and start making my own money and making my path. There are a lot of things that I want to do/work towards and I need money to do them. I'm nowhere near ready to settle down, just ready to start doing my own thing and walking out of the shadows of relying on other people.
I understand why people say college is the best time of your life (no responsibilities), and I've had fun, but I'm looking forward to what the future will bring.
CompBanker: I agree with
I agree with IvyGrad. Life now is WAY better than college. A lot of it comes from the flexibility of being an "adult" combined with enough income to do whatever you please. It is really cool being able to pave your own path in life. IvyGrad talks about travel, but that is just one aspect of it. As a college grad with a good income, you can say: "I think I want to go skiing this weekend, I'm going to rent some skis and a nice condo and just do it." That sort of flexibility to do as you please is amazing.
Amen to that. Being an "adult" is the best.
college was fun, immediately
college was fun, immediately after college was depressing ("the real world sucks" syndrome), then living abroad soon after college teaching english in china was fun and cleared this up, then getting back home and figuring out exactly what i wanted to do with my career for a few years ie "stuck in limbo" wasn't fun, fast forward to ~26 and figuring it out, setting a plan and doing what i'm doing now = best years of my life, and things are just getting better, and don't see why it won't continue to :). So advice for those of you who in that post college depression (or dreading it), things WILL get better, a lot better
WSO's COO (Chief Operating Orangutan) | My story | Connect with me on Linkedin.
2013 WSO Conference
I'm in college, so you have
I'm in college, so you have to take my response with a big grain of salt, but I imagine whether or not you prefer college or "real life" depends a lot on what sort of resources you had available to you in college; i.e., if you have wealthy parents who pay for a lot of stuff and you don't have to worry about being super frugal, then I'd imagine it has to be a total blast. On the other hand, if you are on your own and have basically no money, you'll be inclined to prefer the real world afterwards because you'll suddenly have the resources to do what you want, something you've never had the chance to do before.
AndyLouis: college was fun,
college was fun, immediately after college was depressing ("the real world sucks" syndrome), then living abroad soon after college teaching english in china was fun and cleared this up, then getting back home and figuring out exactly what i wanted to do with my career for a few years ie "stuck in limbo" wasn't fun, fast forward to ~26 and figuring it out, setting a plan and doing what i'm doing now = best years of my life, and things are just getting better, and don't see why it won't continue to :). So advice for those of you who in that post college depression (or dreading it), things WILL get better, a lot better
Andy your path more or less parallels mine with some substitution of course. But same idea, college was a blast, right out of college real world sucks syndrome kicks in, then just doing whatever job while figuring out what i wanted to do. Fast forward to today: found and got into what I wanted to do.
I like how IvyGrad gave a
I like how IvyGrad gave a pretty in depth explanation and CompBanker simply mimicked it and received 2SBs for doing so :D
You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son.
Totally depends... But on
Totally depends... But on AVERAGE I thought it went something like: teenage years unhappy, uptick at start of college, back down toward the end of college, up and down at the start of work life, uptick around 30 when you get married, downhill after a few years, and then up again when the kids leave for college
Nefarious-: I like how
I like how IvyGrad gave a pretty in depth explanation and CompBanker simply mimicked it and received 2SBs for doing so :D
michael jordan rule.
WSO's COO (Chief Operating Orangutan) | My story | Connect with me on Linkedin.
2013 WSO Conference
College was fun, but the
College was fun, but the "real world" is much better, not even a close comparison. I get to do whatever I want, I'm not constantly worrying about my bank account, and I don't have to constantly think about homework/classes/papers that, while interesting, really don't matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.
I was _so_ ready to get out of school. I never want to sit in a classroom again. Socially it was awesome, but that's not exclusively why we go to college.
"An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Check out my blog!
Life is great now but you
Life is great now but you didn't do college the right way if it wasn't the best time of your life. Zero responsibilities, campus atmosphere, spring breaks, tons of coeds in their physical prime, and it's perfectly acceptable to treat every night like the weekend. Sure, I wasn't earning the $ I am now but it was a different mindset. Things were cheaper, life was more modest, and I didn't have a worry in the world. Finances are relative when you could go out and spend $20 comfortably in college.
I loved every minute of high
I loved every minute of high school. I thought nothing would beat using our fake IDs to buy booze so we could get borderline hospitalization drunk in whoever's basement while their parents were on vacation, or suiting up for varsity basketball games in front of the whole school. I'm still not convinced anything beats the rush of losing your virginity, or watching the female anatomy develop. Holy shit, what a glorious thing. On graduation day, I wondered how anything could possibly beat that.
Then came college. An absolute blur of growing up on my own, meeting people from a plethora of states and countries and making some of the best friends I'll ever have. A non stop quest to complete basic daily functions after subjecting my body to quantity of booze and aderrall that might make Charlie Sheen blink, but probably not. A sudden realization that the real world was right around the corner, where dad's wallet would be increasingly inaccessible; and thus, my introduction to finance. An true dichotomy of responsibililty and irresponsibility I wouldn't give up for the world. What could be better than that?
Now, 7 months out of college in a position at a firm I hardly even knew existed four years ago, making enough money in a year to support my $1300 rent and monthly car payments for the 2012 Jeep I just bought on my own. Sure, I work eight times as much as in college, but the only reason I worked in college was to get myself where I am today. Really isn't a more rewarding feeling I can think of (thus far). If you would have told me I'd be working hours like this in college, I would have sat in a corner and cried most likely. But, here I am.
I guess my point is, there are different stages in life. It's the easiest thing in the world to look back on the 'glory days,' or to look forward to the next stage when you just know things will be better. Each stage requires more sacrifice, but it's only what you make of it. There might be a guy selling necklaces for $10 on the beach in Hawaii who, while not being able to afford his rent, lives the purest, most carefree lifestyle out there. But, that's not the life you're working for, and it's not the life I'm working for. Ambition is an important human quality, but it can ruin you if you aren't true to yourself and your goals. So, realizing that, have a glass of bourbon and make the best with what you've got
Expected future happiness
Expected future happiness peaked for me after I got my first bonus.
I think happiness peaks at 50 hours/week in a general job, maybe 75 hours/week in a job you're really passionate about if you don't have kids or a family. Otherwise, you need to have a strategy for getting to 50 hours/week or a job you can truly enjoy putting those extra 25 hours into.
Work hard, play hard.
Once you're out of college,
"WSO is like the 300 for anti spamage. None shall pass." -happypantsmcgee
"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer
To paraphrase Paul Graham, in
Having Money > Being
Like people have said college
You know you've been working too hard when you stop dreaming about bottles of champagne and hordes of naked women, and start dreaming about conditonal formatting and circular references.
I'm not as detail oriented as
Work hard, play hard.
I have a dream job but
Like CaR said, high school
Just a sophomore looking for an opportunity to start up this dream of mine.
I pretty much hate college so
*tries to spot Brady's new
"A man generally has two reasons for doing anything. One that sounds good, and the real one." - J.P. Morgan
I hate real "adult" life.
The thing I don't like about
Thurnis Haley: I pretty much
Art.Vandelay: Thurnis
You guys all mention chasing
College has been fun, but
jacobzhang.net - my thoughts and portfolio.
"Money doesn't talk, it swears." - Bob Dylan
See my other WSO Blog posts
HowardRoark: College has been
Just a sophomore looking for an opportunity to start up this dream of mine.
Culcet is spot-on. I messed
CoochieMane: I hope those in
Looks like this has already
Financial Modeling Training
Guide to Finance Interviews
Banking Resume
This might be a bit outside
"Well that's even more than less than unhelpful." - Jack Sparrow
Extelleron: I'm in college,
Hi, Eric Stratton, rush chairman, damn glad to meet you.
Again, it's fruitless to even
College was great, but being
My two cents .... I think
Otter.: I think Extelleron
beezle, what field are you in
Traps
Culcet: Art.Vandelay: Thu
traps: beezle, what field are
Hmm seems like I'm the only
Powa23: Hmm seems like I'm
Hi, Eric Stratton, rush chairman, damn glad to meet you.
Powa23: Hmm seems like I'm
Is all how you spend the
I'm still in college and I
The greatest risk you can take in life is not to risk it all.
^In my experience, college
above_and_beyond: Powa23: H