Career Advice For A Young Adult

Reader Danny writes in:

Hey Kyle,

I love your blog and the fun shit you tell. I’ve been a fan of your writing on ROK and I enjoy reading your perspective on society.

I also enjoy your occasional posts about your career in computer engineering. Recently you posted that you were welcoming a job opportunity in New York with a very rewarding pay. For being a man just a few years older than me but making almost as much as a doctor seems pretty awesome.

I love your blog because I admire your lifestyle. I am from California as well and I love the idea of being a young man still in their 20’s, living in beautiful San Diego, with a good paying job. What I would like to know is what careers would you recommend for someone who hopes to have a lifestyle comparable to yours?

Currently, I am 17 coming up to my final year in High School; and I have still some time to choose a solid, rewarding career. My current plan after college is to seek a career in medicine through medical school. However as of now, I am reconsidering. I understand that the rewards for becoming a doctor aren’t as great as they used to be with the rapid changing of medicine, insurance rates cutting doctors salary, and unlimited law suits if something goes wrong.

Also, working my ass off through my 20’s in medical school, for rewards that are seemingly being cut as time goes on, doesn’t seem as enjoyable compared to what you have going on.

I understand your hatred for your beauracratic, office job, and I fear being a doctor will just bring the same sense of soul crushing (and also resulting with me being broke as fuck). My question is, if you could go back in time to where you were in high school, what careers would YOU personally consider and why?

I have skills in computers, robotics, MMA, public speaking and sciences. I am not afraid of hard work and I will hit the books or get my hands dirty relentlessly until I get what needs to be done.

I am thankful for sources like your blog and ROK. You and the Red Pill community have given me an advanced and true understanding of the world so that I am ahead of most teens my age.

Also, if you feel that others could benefit from an answer by featuring my question in a blog post, go right ahead. I would take pride showing my friends you posted an answer for me.

Thank You,

-danny

Hi Danny,

First off, thanks for the email and the great comments about my blog. I’m glad you enjoy my writing, emails like yours keep me motivated to keep doing it. Where in Cali are you from? I grew up near Sacramento and live in SD now, as you know.

Let me start off by saying if you want the true riches, you’ll never get it working for somebody else. I’ve realized this and am taking steps towards that, but it does require a lot of risk and hard work along the way. Just something to keep in mind.

Let’s start by saying this – you are only 17, so you don’t have to choose your set path for the next 45 years right away. I have a degree in Economics of all things and I work in computer engineering/IT, so I’m the perfect example that all you need is that piece of paper saying you went to college to get your foot in the door. Now, this doesn’t mean you can go major in any old subject, as you’ve probably heard me rant about before – stay away from liberal arts. Aaron Clarey’s (http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/) books Worthless and Bachelor Pad Economics are both good reads in regards to these topics. I don’t agree with everything he says, but the books do touch on the realities of the modern world and are well worth the low prices for the advice they give to young men.

One general piece of advice I would give is, if you really want to go to college, try to find a degree (and therefore, a career) that has a low number of women in it. I would hate having to always censor myself around female co-workers. 95% of my office is male and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In regards to your question about being a doctor – you have to really want it, in my opinion. Are you prepared to spend the next ten years of your life in school, or possibly more? I know I could have been a doctor, I’m smart enough – but I hated school. I never would have survived a doctorship program. So you have to ask yourself if that’s something you really, really want. Keep in mind, that unless you are very gifted and can obtain a scholarship, or your family is really loaded, you’re going to probably have to take out a loan to pay for it all. That loan will probably be a lot. Are you prepared to not make a true livable income until you’re 30, and then have six figures in debt? Keep in mind too, the hours that doctors often work, of course depending on what kind of field you get into. Sure, you might make $150,000 as a doctor, but you’re working 80-90 hours a week. Contrast that to the guy working 40 hours a week and pulling home $90k. I know which one I would choose.

If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t do anything differently. Computers and sales are where my talents lie, and I enjoy my work apart from the sitting-in-a-cube setting. Possibly the only thing I would have considered would have been getting an actual degree in engineering and trying to break into the racing engineering world, as a car chief or engineer for a Formula 1 team or something of the like. But again, those are a lot of long hours and I like my leisure time to pursue other interests. I have no real regrets in career choice, I just wish I had started blogging and starting my own passive income ventures several years ago when I had more free time.

As far as your skillset, you have a very good one. Keep your computer skills up to date and learn Enterprise level material. Anyone can fix a desktop computer or set up a router, but not everyone can troubleshoot an Enterprise-level SAN or network topology (this is along the lines of what I do). Not everyone is familiar with Oracle databases, or holds Cisco/VMware certifications, etc. These are the lucrative careers that actually, I’m finding, have very good stability, too. There’s not a lot of people with the skills. I’ve gotten three offers in the last month alone off of LinkedIn, with people wanting to poach me from my current company to come work for them.

Robotics are a cool skill to have and it’s something I would enjoy (my dad designed underwater robotics for many years), but that’s a very one dimensional aspect I feel – as in you’re going to be locked into doing that. I don’t think MMA is going to do much for you other than keep you in shape, unless you’re exceptionally talented. Sciences are good for specialization, much like robotics. If you’re good with math, that’s always a good skill to keep sharp. My buddy used to make $60/hour doing Calculus tutoring.

The skill you have that I really think you must keep improving is public speaking.

Public speaking = confidence = sales -> sales applies to everything.

When you interview, you sell yourself. When you game, you’re selling yourself to a girl. I did a lot of public speaking in high school (I went to a charter school), instead of having standard tests every quarter I had to give presentations – they were my entire grade. For an hour and a half I had to speak in front of a panel of 30 people including parents, teachers, students, mentors, etc. I had to speak about all the projects I was working on, hold down an internship, and more. Public speaking was the best thing that ever happened to me school-wise, because it enabled my self growth and confidence. I took very little out of high school, but public speaking was something that still benefits me today.

Many people in the red pill community also say that no career will take you seriously until you’re “x” age old (usually somewhere between 30-45). I disagree, because I’m living proof. Your average 22 year old wouldn’t be in the running for the job I have, or job I’m hopefully getting in NYC, but why would you want to be average? If you can demonstrate your maturity and kick ass, most people will look past your age. I can already tell you are ahead of your years in wisdom, based off of the fact you are willing to look for guidance, and you write clearly and elegantly – far better than many of the 30-40 year olds I work with.

I am definitely going to feature your email in a blog post because it addresses some excellent questions that I’m sure other men would like answered as well. I will probably run it next week, I will let you know so you can keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any follow-up questions and I will be happy to answer.

Thanks again,
Kyle

Follow up emails to these coming soon. Admittedly I’m still very career-young myself.

What advice would you pass on to Danny?