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Can we start a HN Young Adults at mid to late twenties longitudinal survey? Statistically speaking, I'm 27, over-educated with a BA degree, single and not livi

Can we start a HN Young Adults at mid to late twenties longitudinal survey? Statistically speaking, I'm 27, over-educated with a BA degree, single and not living with a partner, making an 25th percentile salary relatively to the US average. Saving less than I should of my disposable income but in the 10th percentile relatively to my peers due to my working professionally for 5.5 years while most of my other over-educated peers in other fields are still enrolled in post-graduate training. Working in IT and living in an over-priced metropolitan area. Anecdotally speaking, I'm ambivalent about marriage and career advancement. Personal experiences have informed me that relationships are less about true love and unfailing commitment than being able to compromise, communicate and having the financial and mental wherewithal to deal with (inter)personal issues. Unlike my younger self, I'm less anxious about "coupling" and more keen working on myself and working out my bad habbits/addictions. Personal experiences have also informed me that IT careers esp. if you're not working at a Fortune 500 company are quite transient. Programmers (maybe other professions as well?) are treated more as sub-contractors entities than tenured employees - meaning that the company will keep you around if you're contributing efficiently to the bottom-line and cut you without sentiment otherwise. Whereas my younger self aspired to "apply to YC, work at Google," I'm less keen on the promises of potential prestige and fortune but focused more on the longer term of angling more for more domain specific positions (e.g., Computational Biologist vs. Software Engineer on Genomic Data Platform) and more work-life balance (summer hours, regular 9-5 schedule) to pursue my other hobbies outside of coding. Everyone is very different but I'd love to hear what stage other young adults on HN are (not talking about the wide-eyed CS undergrad still dreaming about The Social Network), both statistically and anecdotally speaking.

kevinconroy 13y ago
For another data point, I'm 31, have a BS and BA, married, two kids, and have been at my current employer for 7 years, although my job has shifted gears every few years (programming > team lead > executive). Out of college I thought I wanted to go the Amazon/Google route, but coupling placed geographic limitations on the job search. I'm now glad because I would have gotten sucked into the machine of the Valley and burned out coding. I always thought I'd want a Masters, but after a few years in industry I fail to see the value for my particular career goals - experience + salary seems to trump time away from industry + added debt in my mental calculus. Goal now is to find good work-life balance to focus on my kids while ensuring that I'm growing and challenging myself professionally. Perhaps most interesting part that I'm seeing from my stage of life is that my wife and I seem to be way ahead of the curve. Parents of our children's friend (aka your new social circle once you have children) are 5 to 10 years older than us. Our college friends are just now getting married and/or having kids, where I now have a 6 and 3 year old. I've checked off the list of college, marriage, house, kids, career and although I love my situation, it's odd that society has run out of "goals." There's no gold star you get once you check them all of - just a day-to-day routine. I'm not suggesting that you should pursue these things, but if you don't have them all yet and are striving for them, know that it's the journey, not the destination, that counts here.
- hox 13y ago
  You're not alone, but I agree that it is odd when the age of your life-stage peers trends much higher than your own. getting married early on and having kids seems to be something many people don't consider until their 30s now.
- cpwright 13y ago
  I'm 31 with a Ph.D., married, two kids. I've had 3 employers in the last 7 years since I graduated. I can relate to the bit about most other parents being older, my son is 8; and we are probably at least in the bottom quartile as far as age of the parents in his class.
fennecfoxen 13y ago
I'm twenty-nine, BS in CS, spent some time in Silicon Valley but now I'm in NYC making over six figures a year programming computers somewhere in the Tech/Media industry. Thanks to some lucky stock options issued at the bottom of the recession, I have about half a million dollars in savings. At some point I'm thinking of taking a year off work to practice fine art (and maybe start a business which I can continue as a hobby once I resume work). ... Pretty sure I'm pretty weird. :P
selimthegrim 13y ago
27, BS and MA (in science but not CS), single and living alone, weighing returning to grad school for a PhD in condensed matter physics (a solid school but not the most well-known, and a pretty small department in a city with a great culture (NOLA) but not a thriving tech industry by any means. I'm at about 45th percentile of the median (above the median) salary but am getting worked like a team lead but paid as a programmer, so am exploring other options as well as grad school. The grad school dean seemed to think the answer to my question lay in "What do you want to be doing in 10 years?" and cast aspersions on the idea of anyone under 40 being able to have horizons that long ahead. One professor tried to promise me "you'll get a six-figure salary in academia...eventually"
eli_gottlieb 13y ago
>Personal experiences have informed me that relationships are less about true love and unfailing commitment than being able to compromise, communicate and having the financial and mental wherewithal to deal with (inter)personal issues. Sorry, what? I don't see the difference between the two sets of things you listed ;-).
lgieron 13y ago
> (...) making an 25th percentile salary relatively to the US average. Saving less than I should of my disposable income but in the 10th percentile relatively to my peers due to (...) Is that what you wanted to say? "10th percentile" means you're close to the bottom (not the top) of the distribution.

kevinconroy 13y ago

For another data point, I'm 31, have a BS and BA, married, two kids, and have been at my current employer for 7 years, although my job has shifted gears every few years (programming > team lead > executive). Out of college I thought I wanted to go the Amazon/Google route, but coupling placed geographic limitations on the job search. I'm now glad because I would have gotten sucked into the machine of the Valley and burned out coding. I always thought I'd want a Masters, but after a few years in industry I fail to see the value for my particular career goals - experience + salary seems to trump time away from industry + added debt in my mental calculus. Goal now is to find good work-life balance to focus on my kids while ensuring that I'm growing and challenging myself professionally. Perhaps most interesting part that I'm seeing from my stage of life is that my wife and I seem to be way ahead of the curve. Parents of our children's friend (aka your new social circle once you have children) are 5 to 10 years older than us. Our college friends are just now getting married and/or having kids, where I now have a 6 and 3 year old. I've checked off the list of college, marriage, house, kids, career and although I love my situation, it's odd that society has run out of "goals." There's no gold star you get once you check them all of - just a day-to-day routine. I'm not suggesting that you should pursue these things, but if you don't have them all yet and are striving for them, know that it's the journey, not the destination, that counts here.

hox 13y ago
You're not alone, but I agree that it is odd when the age of your life-stage peers trends much higher than your own. getting married early on and having kids seems to be something many people don't consider until their 30s now.
cpwright 13y ago
I'm 31 with a Ph.D., married, two kids. I've had 3 employers in the last 7 years since I graduated. I can relate to the bit about most other parents being older, my son is 8; and we are probably at least in the bottom quartile as far as age of the parents in his class.

fennecfoxen 13y ago

I'm twenty-nine, BS in CS, spent some time in Silicon Valley but now I'm in NYC making over six figures a year programming computers somewhere in the Tech/Media industry. Thanks to some lucky stock options issued at the bottom of the recession, I have about half a million dollars in savings. At some point I'm thinking of taking a year off work to practice fine art (and maybe start a business which I can continue as a hobby once I resume work). ... Pretty sure I'm pretty weird. :P

selimthegrim 13y ago

27, BS and MA (in science but not CS), single and living alone, weighing returning to grad school for a PhD in condensed matter physics (a solid school but not the most well-known, and a pretty small department in a city with a great culture (NOLA) but not a thriving tech industry by any means. I'm at about 45th percentile of the median (above the median) salary but am getting worked like a team lead but paid as a programmer, so am exploring other options as well as grad school. The grad school dean seemed to think the answer to my question lay in "What do you want to be doing in 10 years?" and cast aspersions on the idea of anyone under 40 being able to have horizons that long ahead. One professor tried to promise me "you'll get a six-figure salary in academia...eventually"

eli_gottlieb 13y ago

>Personal experiences have informed me that relationships are less about true love and unfailing commitment than being able to compromise, communicate and having the financial and mental wherewithal to deal with (inter)personal issues. Sorry, what? I don't see the difference between the two sets of things you listed ;-).

lgieron 13y ago

> (...) making an 25th percentile salary relatively to the US average. Saving less than I should of my disposable income but in the 10th percentile relatively to my peers due to (...) Is that what you wanted to say? "10th percentile" means you're close to the bottom (not the top) of the distribution.