Proud dads...
Out of context: Reply #515
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- HijoDMaite29
It's not all doom and gloom for the next generation. My oldest is a year out of college and has been almost a year into a killer job. She graduated a year early from college (tons of AP classes) and was doing some bookkeeping on the side during college for extra money. Just basically helping a family friend with her accounts using Quickbooks. She also took a part-time job at her college, working in the Registrar's Office, basically a work-study program. This would give her some office politicking experience early on. Her degree was in Business Admin, so as soon as she graduated, she took the Real Estate exam and passed it. She had been watching that silly show 'Selling Sunset,' lol. Anyway, her dream of being a high-end RE Agent was crushed by the current state of affairs in Real Estate here in California.
So she decided to take a little vacation with her sister to Barcelona for a week before getting back to searching for a job. She got back around Thanksgiving last year. She got into working on her LinkedIn account and networking as much as possible. She is definitely an extrovert, so this was not difficult for her. When she was in High School, she dreamed of working for Disney since we have always been a Disney family with passes. So back then, I had her create a LinkedIn account, and I told her to send emails to a bunch of Executives at Disney Corp to express her dream of working for the company. To her surprise, she received several replies from pretty high-up people giving her advice and inspiration on how she could make it happen. I think this was key to showing her that networking really works. It was the same idea when I encouraged her to befriend her professors at her university and other school administrators to have as mentors. She continues some of these relationships, and they have written her letters of recommendation on her LinkedIn Bio and for job applications.
As soon as she started to get herself out there on LinkedIn, she received a few job offers in things like social media management and the like. These are some of the low-paying jobs recent graduates end up doing today, which is evidenced by some of her peers from college and high school. I kept reminding her that if she wanted to live in Southern California and buy a home one day, she would need to make a substantial salary. At least get into a position with a high degree of upward mobility. Yes, I am guilty of always encouraging my girls to pursue STEM careers and to leave the arts as a hobby or side gig. Some may not agree with this mentality, but it's what I did. It was even a point of contention between my wife and me when I would express my concerns about her early dream of becoming a school teacher. "She only wants to be that because it is the only profession she has been exposed to," and "$40k a year salary will not be enough to live comfortably in SoCal," I would explain to my wife. She has to be exposed to more careers and professionals before she can make up her mind. So keep holding out, I would tell my daughter. Give it a few months; the right job will present itself. Take advantage right now that you don't have any debt or bills. Her incredible grades in H.S. earned her a big scholarship, which basically brought the price of her private school to the cost of a public school, so she had minimal loans for college. Sure enough, the right offer came in. An outsourced accounting and financial firm asked her to interview with them. She later found out that the HR girl doing the scouting liked her LinkedIn, and of course, had gone to the same school as her. So she reads the job posting and it's for an Executive Assistant to the CFO of the company. Of course, having some bookkeeping experience allowed her to be considered since she would be in that world. The job opening said between $85-105k salary starting, 100% remote, yearly bonuses, monthly commissions, and unlimited PTO. I couldn't believe it. Is this really what companies are offering 21-year-old kids today? So she gets the interview and kills it. They offer her the position, and the hiring manager asks her what salary she expects. She panics and says, "uh, like $90K," so that's what she gets.
Fast forward to seven months around August this year. Her boss LOVES her. She is basically coordinating all the sales teams now and is doing most of the onboarding for new clients. She is a beast! Not afraid to have courageous conversations with sales teams about performance metrics and has learned to usher in new and prospective clients. So her boss gave her a huge raise. She is now making $115k per month plus averaging about $1500 in commission from the sales teams each month. She is a Zoom queen! lol. She works a lot, but her bosses are teaching her to manage her time and balance her work and self-care like going to the gym. She lives with us now and pays us rent and her portion of the car insurance. We have converted part of the garage into her private office too. I'm going to slowly transfer more bills to her, but I want her to save money. Last month she and her sister went back to Spain to see Madrid this time. I am so happy that she is learning the value of hard work and getting this exposure at just 22. I sometimes feel bad when I hear other friends that have kids and are just bumming around or wasting time doing silly stuff like drinking all the time and smoking weed, stuck in low-end jobs. When I was her age, all I cared about was drinking and girls. I know that it's okay to have fun, and no big harm came from it for me. But for many of my peers, it did not end well. I wish I had strong role models at that age and earlier. I basically feel like I wasted about 15 years of my life getting messed up. I just thought I would share how proud I am of my baby girls and hopefully, it gives you guys with kids some motivation to encourage your kids to go out and grab life by the balls!
- You’ve done real good Hijo.Ramanisky2
- :) every gen thinks the next gen is doomed. but that has always been some what exaggerated .pango
- Great! All I hope is that my kids find their 'thing' – whatever it is. Something constructive they want to get out of bed to do and participate in society.DaveO
- no sabes si todavia estan contratando?VectorMasked
- On a scale from 1 to 115k, how proud are youdrgs
- Did I get right your oldest is north of one mill a year? Fun... I better get my kid to do STEMS.maikel
- awwwee good for you and herNutter
- Haha big typo. That’s per year not month. Vector, I can ask.HijoDMaite
- Money is not everythingcrazyprick
- I'm happy for you that she's thriving and you are proud of her. Even if I'm one of those people that doesn't agree with that mentality.palimpsest
- super happy for you and your family Hijo!!!!!exador1
- agreed 100% with everything you've posted. My daughter is in Uni for Poli-Sci, and wants to go to law school after that. My son wants to major in film / theatreexador1
- production. both are high-achiever types, and i couldn't possibly be prouder of them :) I'm with you dude... i think the next gen is in good hands :)exador1
- train them up in the way you want them to gorobthelad
- good stuff, hijo!stoplying