Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Falling Behind
Awhile ago, I promised to provide summaries of all 24 episodes. Then a funny thing happened. I got REALLY busy at work. So I had to break my promise last week. (Don’t worry, nothing much happened. Then again, a nuclear bomb went off in the prior episode. So the next one had to be a bit of a letdown.)
One nice thing about being an actuary is that the workload isn’t too high. Generally 45-50 hours a week will get the job done. Last week was a killer for me, though. I put in about 65 hours, which included nights and weekends at home.
Last week got me thinking about other jobs. Not because I hated what I was doing and wanted a new career. Rather, it was because I know that other careers expect at least that much time from you. Take lawyers, for example. I recently read that entry-level lawyers fresh out of law school can expect to make $145,000 a year at the big law firms in Chicago. Read that again. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for a 25-year-old to be making. That said, they’ll probably work about 80 hours a week and only half of them will last more than 2 years. (Note, I’m pulling a famous Dow trick, making up statistics. But since they’re in “print”, they’re believable. 84% of all people know that.)
When I was getting my MBA, I toyed with the idea of being an investment banker. They’re expected to work 80-100 hours a week. (I don’t know if that’s even physically possible.) Of course, they’re very handsomely rewarded. And if I were 25 with no family and no social life, I might have considered it. But not today. And probably not tomorrow either. I’d rather spend my free time playing Grand Theft Auto: Des Moines (due out in 2016) or training to do my first triathlon (scheduled to be completed in 2032).
One nice thing about being an actuary is that the workload isn’t too high. Generally 45-50 hours a week will get the job done. Last week was a killer for me, though. I put in about 65 hours, which included nights and weekends at home.
Last week got me thinking about other jobs. Not because I hated what I was doing and wanted a new career. Rather, it was because I know that other careers expect at least that much time from you. Take lawyers, for example. I recently read that entry-level lawyers fresh out of law school can expect to make $145,000 a year at the big law firms in Chicago. Read that again. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for a 25-year-old to be making. That said, they’ll probably work about 80 hours a week and only half of them will last more than 2 years. (Note, I’m pulling a famous Dow trick, making up statistics. But since they’re in “print”, they’re believable. 84% of all people know that.)
When I was getting my MBA, I toyed with the idea of being an investment banker. They’re expected to work 80-100 hours a week. (I don’t know if that’s even physically possible.) Of course, they’re very handsomely rewarded. And if I were 25 with no family and no social life, I might have considered it. But not today. And probably not tomorrow either. I’d rather spend my free time playing Grand Theft Auto: Des Moines (due out in 2016) or training to do my first triathlon (scheduled to be completed in 2032).
