DEAR 18-YEAR-OLD: You may be better educated and more intelligent than me. You may have more potential. But for sure you don’t have more experience. I have 60 years on you, so—as hard as it may be—take my advice:
There are no guarantees in life. You have to make of it what you will. Never give up.
You will have obstacles placed before you. You will be treated unfairly. You will have to deal with less-than-honorable individuals. You will be slighted and overlooked at times. Get over it and move on.
A college education gives you what you put into it. Obtaining a degree means nothing if you got that piece of paper simply by getting by.
Once you’re hired for your first job, where you went to college is meaningless. It’s up to you to prove your value to your first and subsequent employers.
Political rhetoric about inequality is irrelevant to you. There are as many opportunities today as there have ever been, perhaps more. If money is your goal, there’s no reason you can’t make it. But it will take drive, creativity, effort, dedication and perseverance. Look within, not without.
If you seek a career that isn’t about money, but rather about things more important to you—service to others, the arts—that’s fine. Just know there’s a price to be paid. Don’t envy others or expect more financial reward than your choices can deliver.
The system is always rigged by some people and for some people. No denying it, it’s harder for some folks to get ahead. That’s always been the case and always will be. Ignore it.
Eschew seeking what you feel you’re entitled to, rather than what you earned. All you’re entitled to is stated in the Declaration of Independence.
Take responsibility for your actions and choices. Keep a mirror handy.
Be prudent with money. Always save first before you spend a single cent. Live within or below your means. Never pay credit-card interest. Avoid the accumulation of unnecessary stuff.
Be aware. Pay attention to what’s happening in the world so you’re better prepared to separate fact from opinion.
Plan ahead. Think long term. The future is not as far away as you may think.
Degrees from prestigous colleges make it easier to land highly selective jobs which, in turn, make is easier to jump ship to a better job in another company. For example, a IT person working at Microsoft, Google or Apple is much more marketable than his or her counterpart working at a less prestigous company.
For most jobs, it is very difficult to assess applicants’ job performance. Almost all of the applicants I screended during my career had glowing references and performance reviews. This shortcoming makes is much more likely that GPAs and college prestige will continue to affect selection decisions beyond their first jobs.
The first company I worked for required a college degree. They didn’t care what college it was from or even what the degree was in. You just had to have a college degree. This was a company that Warren Buffett invested in heavily at one time. They must have been doing something right.
Dick Quinn offers reasons for why preference shown to candidates with degrees from prestigious colleges is flawed. And Parkslope explains how the system nonetheless favors those graduates over others from less well known colleges. I suspect that this advantage diminishes over time, once the employee establishes a track record of performance by which he or she can be evaluated.
Congrats on this article making the Michael Kitces’ Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Sept 4-5)https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-sept-4-5/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=MichaelKitces&utm_content=Weekend%20Reading%20for%20Financial%20Planners%20(Sept%204-5)
Number 4 is simply false.
Degrees from prestigous colleges make it easier to land highly selective jobs which, in turn, make is easier to jump ship to a better job in another company. For example, a IT person working at Microsoft, Google or Apple is much more marketable than his or her counterpart working at a less prestigous company.
For most jobs, it is very difficult to assess applicants’ job performance. Almost all of the applicants I screended during my career had glowing references and performance reviews. This shortcoming makes is much more likely that GPAs and college prestige will continue to affect selection decisions beyond their first jobs.
The first company I worked for required a college degree. They didn’t care what college it was from or even what the degree was in. You just had to have a college degree. This was a company that Warren Buffett invested in heavily at one time. They must have been doing something right.
Dick Quinn offers reasons for why preference shown to candidates with degrees from prestigious colleges is flawed. And Parkslope explains how the system nonetheless favors those graduates over others from less well known colleges. I suspect that this advantage diminishes over time, once the employee establishes a track record of performance by which he or she can be evaluated.