> I went to Amherst (#1 liberal arts college in the country when I matriculated). A number of my classmates are almost a decade older than you and would love to be making 6 figures.
I bet a some of them are in or finishing up graduate school, pursuing a subject that they're interested in though. Plenty of smart and well-adjusted people I know from undergrad make less than me, but for some of them - tbh, I'd switch places with them in a heartbeat for personal, job security and job satisfaction reasons.
I used to laugh secretly at my liberal arts peeps at Wesleyan (a worse liberal arts college) when we just graduated 6 years ago. But now peeps are pushing out their films in film festival, post-doc research at conferences and published novel tours and still relatively poor; but I'm quite envious of people taking creative control of their destiny and shipping something, which IMHO more important than the dollar figure. But ironically, it took me making six figures the confidence of reaching a certain "threshold" and the disillusionment of that "threshold" to realize this.
> a couple Googlers who got in straight out of school. They're a minority
Yes. I bet most of them are graduates of top US engineering schools whom arguably have had a very sheltered experience (but probably still less sheltered than Amherst or Wes tho). They for sure got a head start compared to everyone else in "personal finance." But tbh, like you say, dealing with personal difficulties is actually a blessing in disguise and an important phase in your life to know to keep going and going esp. when the going is tough. In some ways, I think the jury is still out for your Googler youn'g vs. the battered Amherst post-grad's toughing it out. I'd give it another 25 years when everyone's in their 40's, 50's to make the judgement.
I bet a some of them are in or finishing up graduate school, pursuing a subject that they're interested in though. Plenty of smart and well-adjusted people I know from undergrad make less than me, but for some of them - tbh, I'd switch places with them in a heartbeat for personal, job security and job satisfaction reasons.
I used to laugh secretly at my liberal arts peeps at Wesleyan (a worse liberal arts college) when we just graduated 6 years ago. But now peeps are pushing out their films in film festival, post-doc research at conferences and published novel tours and still relatively poor; but I'm quite envious of people taking creative control of their destiny and shipping something, which IMHO more important than the dollar figure. But ironically, it took me making six figures the confidence of reaching a certain "threshold" and the disillusionment of that "threshold" to realize this.
> a couple Googlers who got in straight out of school. They're a minority
Yes. I bet most of them are graduates of top US engineering schools whom arguably have had a very sheltered experience (but probably still less sheltered than Amherst or Wes tho). They for sure got a head start compared to everyone else in "personal finance." But tbh, like you say, dealing with personal difficulties is actually a blessing in disguise and an important phase in your life to know to keep going and going esp. when the going is tough. In some ways, I think the jury is still out for your Googler youn'g vs. the battered Amherst post-grad's toughing it out. I'd give it another 25 years when everyone's in their 40's, 50's to make the judgement.