Quote:
Originally Posted by zetta
I'm a female software engineer, and I would caution against a 15 year old girl choosing her career based on what is currently "family-friendly" -- the heavily female careers tend to be lower-paying.
Instead, choose a career based on your skills and passions. Spend college and 7-10 years getting really good at what you do, making a reputation for yourself, and saving money. Then you will be in a position to either take a couple of years off when your kids are small, negotiate part-time status with an employer who values your skills, or retrain and switch careers (with a big chunk of money from your higher-paying career already saved and invested.) Employers may well offer better work/life balance options in 15 years than they do today, so don't necessarily settle for the lower paying "family friendly" jobs now.
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Passion is GREAT advice. My passion is soccer, and it's tough to make a living at it... but after coaching for free for around 6 years, I now take home close to 20k per year coaching.
So when choosing a college and choosing a major- follow what is close to you- something you are good at and something you enjoy. They might be different things, but grow BOTH of them.
I am quite good at math and some engineering things- that skill pays my salary.
I love soccer and that keeps me busy (when I am not posting here) and also provides extra income.
It is very possible I stop working and do soccer full time, or I stop working and do financial planning full time, once a few other wrinkles in life work themselves out by age 40.