I've RTFA. I haven't read any of the comments here, because it's a very busy day for me, so pardon me if I'm repeating something that's been said 10 times alrea

I've RTFA. I haven't read any of the comments here, because it's a very busy day for me, so pardon me if I'm repeating something that's been said 10 times already. My thoughts: late 2008 is a shitty time to be an <X>. This is true for most X, a counterexample being "short-selling speculator". It's a really, really bad time to be a useless private equity "whiz kid", to have earned more at 24 than you ever will again. It's only a moderately bad time to be a programmer, because programmers are still useful. But everyone's hurting. Even graduate students are getting hit by shrinking funding pools and intense competition in admissions and for fellowships (and academia sucked even during the good times). "Leaving the industry" (unless your industry is investment banking) because of the crappy economy makes no sense. Bad times occur, and they also pass, and so will these.