Career Advise

[maginvizIZ]

First off, thank you guys.  Probably my 4th post here, I appreciate any advice.

I'm working at a small financial advising firm, making $22 an hour, working 30 hours a week.

I'm currently working on my masters in finance.  At my current pace I will graduate December 2016, doing 10.5 credits next semester and next fall doing 9 credits.  If I switch jobs chances are I'll take less classes per semester and graduate Spring 2017.


Here's my dilemma....

I have close to nothing to do at work.  It's cool at times (I probably play 5 games of pingpong per day, lots of web surfing & homework), but the lack of satisfaction is getting to me.  Should I switch jobs to get some real work experience & probably more pay? 

Pros to staying:
$22 an hour
Flexible,flexible, flexible (I can cherry pick the best classes each semester, they will work around me)
close to home (1 mile away)
Doing homework on the job

Cons to staying:
Lack of satisfaction.
Missing opportunity of taking internships (Interns pay $20-22 an hour), these could be good for me to have a taste of different jobs?
No benefits at company


I love the industry I'm in, but again, with no real work, there is no satisfaction in what I'm doing.  I feel at times they are employing me just out of pity (They KIND OF need me... at times).


Whats the best thing to do in this scenario?  The company is small (4 advisors), I don't see any opportunities in moving up, unless they double in the next 12 months.

[maginvizIZ]

I've been working here for 1.5 years.  The reason why I have so much free time is the combination of the company cut in half in January and I've mastered my job (made macros to do repetitive shit to cut time). Maybe its worth to stay here to show I've stayed at a company for 3 years, compared to staying here for 1.5 years and another company for 1.5 years.

[humbleMouse]

This one sounds like a no-brainer.  In school, easy job paying high wage where you get to do your homework?????

Stay in the job for the love of common sense!  Stop playing games at your job.  Learn enough programming to run regression analysis on stock prices!! Or something else that would be useful in today's financial industry!!!

[maginvizIZ]

Hmm... I guess I just feel like I'm passing up on $$$.  Maybe I am more than $22 an hour?  I talked to a classmate who wants me to work for him at Wells Fargo and he laughed when I said I make $22 an hour.


He thinks I'm worth $55-60k.


But at the same time it is nice to get paid to study... This is considered rare right? Maybe I don't see how lucky I am. haha.

[Bracken_Joy]

It's temporary as you work on the masters, yeah? So view it as such. Make your OWN meaning "at work". Instead of just playing ping pong, read books and trade journals on new and interesting topics. Go above and beyond what you're required to do in your masters, with that subject or one radically different, and expand your horizons.

[humbleMouse]

Hmm... I guess I just feel like I'm passing up on $$$.  Maybe I am more than $22 an hour?  I talked to a classmate who wants me to work for him at Wells Fargo and he laughed when I said I make $22 an hour.


He thinks I'm worth $55-60k.


But at the same time it is nice to get paid to study... This is considered rare right? Maybe I don't see how lucky I am. haha.

As a programmer, I am forced to work on other peoples crappy weird code all day when I would much rather be learning stuff that I want to learn.  If I could learn on my employer's dime that would be amazing.  So from my perspective I feel like you don't realize how much of an opportunity you have right now. 

[StockBeard]

As a programmer, I am forced to work on other peoples crappy weird code all day when I would much rather be learning stuff that I want to learn. 

As a former programmer, I have not found any other job were the learning possibility was as high as programmer. It's a job where you learn from the mistakes or failures of others, where you have the opportunity to read an entire book on a new language and justify it to "stay up to date" with your job. Not sure if your situation is different but you're in one of the few jobs where learning is actually a huge part of the job IMO.

[maginvizIZ]

Interesting... Is there any programming language that would be good in the world of finance?  VBA? SQL?  Are those even programming languages?  I seem to see them on the preferred list of job descriptions.

[maginvizIZ]

I'm now wondering if I should really absorb this getting paid to do homework thing and take school at a slower pace, while I read up on books, get other certifications, learn some type of programming that could help my career in the future...

[Conjou]

Yeah, I second the responses here: this sounds like a golden opportunity to learn stuff that could lead to side gigs, or time to even establish some side gigs, plus it pays you to do what you'd have to use non-work time to do otherwise (study), gives you a chance to develop self-initiative and lifelong learning skills and it is reliable while finishing school. I don't know your friend you mention obviously but I never believe anyone that tells me I'm worth X unless it's a person actually hiring me for a job that actually exists and is paying X. ;)

[bortman]

Along the lines of the regression analysis post, learn to program in Python, then learn to do stats with Python, or R. Take advantage of MOOCs.

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-mitx-6-00-1x-6

https://www.udacity.com/course/design-of-computer-programs--cs212

https://www.udacity.com/course/data-analyst-nanodegree--nd002

Many online resources like these are free if you just take/watch the classes without registering for their certificates. You develop the chops but without the piece of paper at the end. However, you'll have a masters in finance, so I don't see the need for the official "nano degree".

[mozar]

I wouldn't worry about what you are doing now and make sure you parlay your masters degree into a sweet new gig once you graduate. I did on campus recruiting the fall before I graduated in the spring.