Well a few good points and they made the big one:
1. Stay debt free as long as possible, ignore this advice and you will be a wage slave and be subject to the whims of management.
2. Stay the hell away from Medicine too.
3. It would not hurt to go into engineering, it can be more satisfying than other careers. Then learn how to code and test and solve word problems.
4. Do not let the women you love go into nursing, it will psychologically destroy them.
5. Stay away from banking, they not only eat their young, but also the old and those who appear weak. If Darth Vader were real he would be middle management for a large bank.

Go to trade school instead. Learn a marketable, in demand skill that pays well and won't saddle you with a ton of college debt-like AC/heating repair, welding, diesel mechanic , electrician, plumber, electronics tech etc. People who can fix things will alwasy be in demand.

It's a whore and gangster economy kids.
Don't kid yourselves otherwise.

Yes, the proper thing is to accept the place the Baby Boomers have decided for you and stop trying to make yourself better.

Here is something I'll add to the list :

1. NEVER, under any circumstances buy the book for a college class before the first day of classes. 50% of the time the professor won't use the book. For those 50% who do use the book 25% of the time it is only as a reference. In this day and age, the book is usually available online for an ebook rental for $15-25 compared to the $200 hardcover version.

If you need the book, do one of two things:

A. Buy it from Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. If you have homework due and can't wait for the book to come in, go to the school book store and take a picture of the page with the homework questions on it for that week.

B. Check the return policy of your bookstore. Buy the book and take it home and take pictures/scan the book. This takes about 1-2 hours and can save you up to $200. It is worth your time. Then, return the book. (same or next day is best)

Don't buy a new car.

I'm sorry but do people actually still use LinkedIn? There's no less than 3 tips there regarding it.

GAT_00: Yes, the proper thing is to accept the place the Baby Boomers have decided for you and stop trying to make yourself better.

That's what my dad thinks. They have mainly assumed an authoritarian mindset to protect their piece of the pie. Boomers are the new fascists.

Rather - don't go to law school straight out of college with no plan or knowledge of the field.

Instead, get a job in a law office as a clerk, paralegal, whatever and learn how the sausage is made. Then apply to the in-state school that everyone in the local professional community likes the best, work while taking classes, and have a post-graduation job lined up by the end of your first year.

When making fries, buy and use a thermometer. Keeping the oil at the right temperature is essential to making a good french fry.


Also: learn to cook. People may talk about careers that get you half a million and up, but at the end of the day everyone needs to eat. Cooking will impress your family, friends, employers who didn't have time to get lunch, teammates, captors, cops, exotic beauties whom you didn't believe you had a chance with and the deity of your choice.


/Journalism-English major and former Deli Associate for Wal-Mart.
//McDonalds fries suck.

thornhill: I don't there are many people with law degrees trying to get a $23k job raking leaves.

Also: 1.) you'd be surprised and 2.) that's exactly what I'm talking about.

PYTHON???!?!? The recommended learning PYTHON!?!?! What, should you learn FORTRAN and QBasic as well? Good lord, get with the times ...

cgraves67: Creating a Google Alert for your own name? That sounds both narcissistic and paranoid, and yet I just did it.

Seeing as how my name is Mike Smith, I think I'll skip that one.

More of the wrong thinking. At some point people started assuming that having a degree guaranteed you something. Having a degree doesn't get you a job - it gets you an interview. You still have to be smart, professional, and able to contribute.

"17. Open your wallet. Take out your credit cards. Now cut them up and never use them again. You'll thank me in ten years."

Done, and now 10 years later... i have NO credit.

no bad credit, and no good credit.

I only saw one really good piece of advice in that article and that is to continue (or start if you werent in college) to be social. Who you know is very very important in being successful and advancing your career. Get involved in your community or sports, hit the same bar with the same couple of friends every week, talk to your neighbors. It's probably the most valuable thing you can do.

theorangeshield: I'm sorry but do people actually still use LinkedIn? There's no less than 3 tips there regarding it.

I've networked through LinkedIn and got one person a job through my connections. However, I mainly use it to look up hiring managers and people who work at companies I want to work at, so I would be better prepared when I go in for the interview. It helps to know if you're too over/under-qualified compared with other people on the future team, or even so then you can share in talking about job history in a conversation with your future boss. I keep my profile public for that reason too; not embarrassed about my history.

rev. dave: Well a few good points and they made the big one:
1. Stay debt free as long as possible, ignore this advice and you will be a wage slave and be subject to the whims of management.
2. Stay the hell away from Medicine too.
3. It would not hurt to go into engineering, it can be more satisfying than other careers. Then learn how to code and test and solve word problems.
4. Do not let the women you love go into nursing, it will psychologically destroy them.
5. Stay away from banking, they not only eat their young, but also the old and those who appear weak. If Darth Vader were real he would be middle management for a large bank.

Additional points, from my personal experience:

1. Stay away from advanced degrees in the physical sciences, namely molecular biology. The Money is making a concerted effort to hire younger and younger, even opening up positions for high school graduates. Anything higher than a master's will price you out of the job market.

2. If you ignore #1, you'll have no trouble getting a job as a postdoc. It's great. As long as you weren't hoping for perks like, say, unemployment insurance or accrued vacation hours or sick days, or any sort of retirement package. Read the fine print on the grant award, if you can afford to. Hope the 5 years of grad school were worth it.

3. Funding rates for the NIH RO1 grant, the quintessential 4-year government grant for scientists in academia, are at a whopping 6-8%. This means that 92-94% of applicants are turned down annually. Bear in mind that most universities won't even hire you as a professor without at least one of these grants (or its financial equivalent). This also means that excellent, not just good or "qualified", but excellent scientists are being driven out of research by a funding shortage.

4. If you do manage to make it into academia, the shortage of state funding has resulted in universities taking anywhere from 50-80% of the gross amount off the annual for "overhead costs". Essentially, whatever success you have as a scientist will be used to force you to act as the "launderer" between the federal funding agency and the university.

5. There is an entire generation of scientists, both technicians and postdocs, unable to advance further in their careers. There are countless former professors that can't find work. ALL OF THESE PEOPLE ARE COMPETING FOR THE SAME AVAILABLE POSITIONS.

Ivory tower leftist intellectuals, my ass. The Republicans should envy the way greed and incompetence has driven academia into the ground.

FTFA: 4. Encourage well-wishers to buy you Facebook stock.

Aaaaand I stopped reading.

As if the first three weren't dumb enough.

Why would one strive to be vermin in the first place?

I stopped considering law school when I took a free practice LSAT from kaplan or whoever. The proctor gave this big time sharey speech after the test to get us to sign up for his course. He said he knew all the tricks better than anyone, since he had a 170+ on his and had already gone through law school.

Yeah, he had his JD and was teaching undergrads how to prepare for the LSAT. That was his full time gig.

Port1080: Don't go to grad school

This.

/but now my name shows up on google scholar
//on an arcane subject of no practical importance
///geology may be important, but what I studied sure wasn't
////thanks NASA grant

thornhill: 17. Open your wallet. Take out your credit cards. Now cut them up and never use them again. You'll thank me in ten years.

This is just really stupid. Having a large line of credit is extremely useful. The lesson should be: don't put more on your credit card then you can completely pay back in less than 2 months.

Agree that it's incredibly stupid advice. Credit cards are too necessary to navigate modern society to go without. Some places no longer even accept personal checks, and carrying cash in sufficient amounts to cover an emergency (e.g. the cost of an emergency flight home, if you travel) has its own risks.

I graduated law school ten years ago and finally got to the point where my future was certain about five months ago (hence my SN). If you really love the practice of law (like I do), it is worth working around the clock in mundane stuff so you can finally get a chance at a good life a decade later.

About 95% of the people I went to law school with did not fall into this category. I have seen suicides. I have seen people give up and teach third graders. I have seen people pack up all of their stuff and move to Reno to become professional gamblers. I have seen people become institutionalized. I have seen people burn out and spend their time performing magic tricks in the park.

I am not saying never do it. But don't do it because you want to be like people on television. Don't do it to impress your friends and your family. Don't do it because you think you need a grad degree and don't want to do math.

Just like anything, don't choose it because what other people think you do every day. Do it because you like what you do every day. If you are not completely convinced when you make the decision, do something else.

Don't go to law school grad school, it's time to drop the fries, and 26 other things new college grads should know

FTFY. Unless you have a very specific career goal in a field that has a lot of well paying jobs and requires the degree (so med school is okay, veterinary school, dentistry, etc.), it's very rarely going to be worth your time to do it right out of undergrad. DEFINITELY don't do it just because you don't know what else to do with your life, or pretty soon you'll be 31, still working on your dissertation, and realizing that you made a big mistake about a decade ago that you're never really going to make up in terms of career advancement / earning potential.

/speaks from experience
//the heavy drinking was fun for the first two or three years though

17. Open your wallet. Take out your credit cards. Now cut them up and never use them again. You'll thank me in ten years.

This is just really stupid. Having a large line of credit is extremely useful. The lesson should be: don't put more on your credit card then you can completely pay back in less than 2 months.

RexTalionis: Rincewind53: RexTalionis: Yeah, stay away from law school. Don't do it! Step away from the ledge! (Last advice is relevant if you decided to ignore my other advice.)

Correction: Don't be dumb, and don't go to a BAD law school. and if you do go to a GOOD law school, don't slack.

However you cut it (and I didn't go to a great law school, but whatever), you're going to come out of it with a lot of debt, an overglutted market, a wicked drinking problem and a higher likelihood of being depressed and to abuse illicit substances or alcohol.

I'd still recommend it for engineers, provided they go evenings and work full-time as patent agents. Then you come out with no debt, a guaranteed job, a wicked drinking problem and a higher likelihood of being depressed and to abuse illicit substances or alcohol.

Work hard, stay positive (and realistic), realize you arent going to land your dream job right out of school.

Im pulling for you. We are all in this together.

Rincewind53: RexTalionis: Yeah, stay away from law school. Don't do it! Step away from the ledge! (Last advice is relevant if you decided to ignore my other advice.)

Correction: Don't be dumb, and don't go to a BAD law school. and if you do go to a GOOD law school, don't slack.

Correction: Only go to law school if you are actually interested in practicing law and are ok with making $40,000 as a public defender or county prosecutor. If you're hoping to practice law to make big money, you're likely to be disappointed.