Blame it on the rain (without the messy suicidal trappings of Rob or Fab) or the bleak Monday morning realization that it isn’t a short week and that your bosses still haven’t checked out for the summer and that you actually have work to do – but as it turns out you’re stuck in finance. Check out what other jobs pay, or actually, don’t check it out, it’s too depressing. Thanks careerbuilder.com for that subtle poke – leaving finance is the first sure step toward pauperdom, especially in Manhattan.
Turns out that following that pipe dream (we realize many of you have PIPE dreams, but again, this assumes you’re weeping on the floor in the fetal position of a 277 Park Ave bathroom stall and not enjoying it) is a bold, yet ultimately stupid move. Whether it’s leaving your fund to become the Pirate Parrot (mascot salary – $35k, and not condescending to think that you’d want to be the Philly Phanatic), ditching banking to be the “let’s get ready to rumble” equivalent of your own fledging ultimate fighting league (announcer salary – $33k, screw “the octagon,” real fights go down in “the dodecahedron,” (motto – more sides, better fights) although stupid Pay Per View still isn’t biting), fleeing trading to oversee careless gambling in another form (gaming services salary – max $40k, and pretty tough to get tips past big brother when they’re in chip form), or casting off equity research to ride a more predictable roller coaster (theme park employee salary – $14k) you’re pretty much permanently cashing out.
The bars of that Weberian iron cage you’ve trapped yourself in just got thicker. Enjoy the “polar nights of icy darkness,” or don’t read the following article and convince yourself that being the world’s first space veterinarian is the right move after all. Happy Monday!
Fun Jobs: Do They Pay? [careerbuilder.com via MS]
Comments (4)
Leave a comment
You can log in with your account or comment as a guest below.
Wonder where “Contributing/Assistant Editor to Online Blog” would rank…
It would rank at 9,342: $5.75/hour
I’m all for references to Weber in commentary on banking. However, doesn’t your quotation refer to the political situation of post WWI germany rather than the iron cage of bureaucracy?
Apologies for pedantry…
@ jpa – I’d say yes and no, as I think a prevalent subtext is a critique on vocational choices (and that good old Weberian pessimism, and lament over what most spend the most time doing)…
“Not summer’s bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no matter which group may triumph externally now. Where there is nothing, not only the Kaiser but also the proletarian has lost his rights. When this night shall have slowly receded, who of those for whom spring apparently has bloomed so luxuriously will be alive? And what will have become of all of you by then ? Will you be bitter or banausic ? Will you simply and dully accept world and occupation? Or will the third and by no means the least frequent possibility be your lot: mystic flight from reality for those who are gifted for it, or–as is both frequent and unpleasant–for those who belabor themselves to follow this fashion? In every one of such cases, I shall draw the conclusion that they have not measured up to their own doings. They have not measured up to the world as it really is in its everyday routine. Objectively and actually, they have not experienced the vocation for politics in its deepest meaning, which they thought they had. They would have done better in simply cultivating plain brotherliness in personal relations. And for the rest–they should have gone soberly about their daily work.”