$10 an hour job with 700k in savings help me decide please
This might sound strange, but I work a shitty retail $10 an hour job, but I made 700k investing at 30 years of age, by betting real estate was going to collapse with my life savings. I'm thinking I want to work in big 4 accounting or management consulting, because I don't want to be forced into doing anything that is unethical for a living, and I want to solve peoples problems in business, and feel proud of the work I did. For example I don't want to become dependent on doing unethical things for a living like selling shitty products that I don't believe in like mortgage backed securities full of sub-prime loans to pension funds. Especially, since I bet real estate was going to collapse, I am very familiar with what goes on. I don't want to do shit like high frequency trading front running either. I don't want my research to be censored either for making a correct assessment, and getting overruled by higher ups. I don't want to be forced into signing off my name on research that I don't believe in, I just want to be rich and make an honest living.
My plan is to apply to UT Austin Mccombs from a community college in Texas under the " Academic Fresh Start Law" with a perfect 4.0 gpa, enroll in Business Honors Program, Financial Analyst Program, and complete the integrated 5 year BBA +MPA. My concerns are that I'll have nothing on my resume for 5 years while I complete the degree, and employers are discriminating against unemployed people now.
I don't mind working 100 hours per week, as long as I have a very high chance of getting a job after graduating. The Mccombs people were saying their school is the #1 ranked accounting target school in the nation with a 90% recruitment rate. If you guys could answer the following questions that would be great:
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Is that true or just marketing hype?
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If I go to a "target" school like Mccombs and graduate with a 4.0 BHP, FAP, and 5 year BBA+ MPA, and have 2-3 internships under my belt is that enough to get hired right after graduating making 52k to 83k per year right out of college?
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Should I work a crappy minimum wage job even though I have 700k in savings, just to leave something on my resume while I am completing the 5 year degree? Or just quit my current job and do 2-3 internships related to accounting and burn through the 700k?
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Are they going to discriminate against me for my age? If I start right now I would be graduating when I am 35. Or does it not matter as long as I went to a top accounting program, with a perfect resume, and 2-3 accounting related internships by the time I graduate?'
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Is it going to be easy for me to find work around Texas with a degree from Mccombs?
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Is management consulting or big 4 accounting a good career choice for me? I just want to solve peoples problems and make an honest living.
Interesting story. Will comment in detail later, but in short, quit the $10/hr job and take the internships, without a doubt. Age will be a problem. No idea about finding work in Texas. Consulting might be good for you, but I am heavily biased against Big-4 accounting. Yes you should be able to find a job once you graduate, despite the age. So you made $700k - what did you start with?
I don't really know anything about accounting or UT, but I love the background, good to see someone working hard and making some smart decisions. Good luck!
How did you make your money, just by shorting specific stocks?
Started with nothing worked at the bottom doing minimum wage. I saw a lot of people get taken out during the tech stock bubble, so i thought to myself real estate was going to blow up too. I maintained good credit so these credit card companies kept sending my 0 apr checks every month. So I thought yo myself " Hey I can control thousands of dollars every year at 0 interest I should take advantage of this opportunity, real estate is going to blow up and they are going to do bailouts" so I borrowed 10k at zero interest from credit card companies every year, minus the 3% processing fee, and kept investing it every year, plus the money invested from my low paying job.
What did you invest that money in to make most of the 700k? That's very impressive.
Definitely quit the $10 / hour job, you can find internships that pay more than that and offer valuable experience.
UT is often ranked #1 for accounting, so I doubt they're overhyping it too much... I also don't see why it would be hard for you to find a job in Texas coming out of McCombs. If anything, I would say that it's really likely that you would be able to graduate with a job making at least 52k out of college, though you could probably do much better.
Great story, answered a few questions based on what I know about Mccombs from talking to friends who went there.
-- True. -- Yes, if you do all these things, it shouldn't be a problem. -- Agree with posters above, internships seem like a better option. -- Tricky. Some firms might but you'll definitely get a job. Maybe not the ideal job you want but you'll definitely come out with something very solid and in the salary range you specified in your original post. -- Yes, finding work won't be an issue. As a consultant you won't necessarily be "solving" problems, you'll be providing solutions for said problems to companies and leaving the implementation up to them so if you really like to get your hands dirty and see your ideas through to execution consulting may not be the best fit but if you'd like to leave it at conceptualizing the solution and telling management, "here's what I think you need to do, now do it" then it should be fine.Good luck.
The big 4 firms will discriminate against your age because they really have an interest to do so. They typically get 23-25 year old's that are ready to work the hours mentioned and get out after 2-5 years. They view older people (30+) as an atypical candidate for the entry level positions because in most cases they have families and other obligations that hinder their abilities to run spreadsheets at midnight.
On the other hand, I am pretty sure you will be able to overcome all of this by going to McCombs. If I were you I would skip big 4 and try to go into something different where you could get a higher pay with less hours. Entry level at big 4 is really something you do to get some credibility on your resume and give you some mobility in your career. Perhaps a smaller firm would enable you to move up faster and have more reasonable hours.
For the "solving problems" issue I would not necessarily say auditing is going to meet the criteria directly. At a top level view you are sometimes identifying issues in internal control, but in general you're just following prior year workpapers. Coming from UT I would expect you would be able to get into one of the big 4's management consulting or transaction advisory groups with enough planning.
Interesting story - I'm not sure how you made the presumption that real estate was the next bubble to follow the tech bubble, but you nailed it.
Because accounting has never cooked books for a client or anything... I think you have a great story but I'd step down off the horse for a second.
As someone who has done an MPA at a school slightly below McCombs and went into Big 4, my thoughts are:
Big 4 is a great way to start a career, but it's not necessarily what you're portraying. You will definitely make an honest living, but you won't really "solve people's problems". Big 4 is a very good job and definitely within your pay expectations, but it isn't very strategic.
I'm sure McCombs is being honest with you. At my school (a few years ago) I honestly think every domestic student that wanted to go into public accounting did. I was definitely towards the bottom of my class in terms of resume and I had multiple Big 4 offers. I think things have slightly cooled down now, but I can't imagine that it will be difficult for you to get a job.
Your age may put you at a slight disadvantage, but you should be able to overcome it fairly easily. Just make sure to network with the firms when they come to campus.
Definitely get as many quality internships as possible. Internships, activities and GPA are the most discernible items on a resume. These are what will get you the interviews.
If I get bored with big4accounting in my 40's or 50's, would I have a decent chance at transitioning into trading as a quant or trader if I go to a top ranked MSCF program such as Carnegie Mellon? They were saying on the quantnet.com forums, that they are more forgiving on age for quants. Or is being in your 40's to 50's to old?
Trading looks a little appealing to me, because I could just get compensated on my performance, and less on office politics. Certainly, I wouldn't mind doing it as long as I get to execute a different strategy of my choosing, as long as I feel the strategy isn't unethical I am happy.
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