The Inaugural Slick Deals Career Thoughts and Compensation Thread

IchBinSoBose, it's most likely because people on here are lying about what they do and make. That's the internetz for ya.

Quote from IchBinSoBose : I continue to be perplexed by the fact that posters on slickdeals seem to generally be in the top few % of the American populace in earnings. I do well (make 2x what my partner does) and make more than virtually all of my friends who graduated college at the same time as me, but the self selected "winners" in this thread make me look like I'm tottering on the brink of poverty. I think this sort of thing works better with anonymous postings as people who make realistic salaries with typical jobs dont feel shame or whatever is keeping them from posting. I won't post my current position, but I will post the stats for the last job I held; Gender: Male Age: 23 Location: VA Occupation: Financial Analyst Education: BA Acct. 2010 Compensation: 45-55k + 5-15K in "other" performance, bonus, etc Future Salary Projection: Anywhere from 85-850k depending on speed of progression Benefits: Standard health/dental/vision 75% paid by company (lowest tier plans free), 401k match to 3%, loooow pension, some earnings sharing and an employee stock purchase discount Environment: A bunch of people sitting in cubes making financial models and presenting them to executives, going to meetings, pitching new work to clients etc. It can be really interesting/fun if you like putting together modesl, designing new spreadsheets and working to put a quantitative case together for a business plan you know is effective but need backup for. Tons and tons of money in it for people who stick it out and work for the right company (hedge fund, bank, etc), but there can be an obscene amount of hours. Some of my friends do only 45-50hrs a week for ~70k 1 year out of school, one made 145k all in working 80-90hrs a week. Generally, its about 60 hours with 50-80k for junior level people outside of a bank. STRESSFULL - everyones BS requests with 0 visibility, 0 impact, and 0 relevance need to be done YESTERDAY with no information about how to complete, who to deliver to, and what to include.

Ich, mind if I shoot ya a PM with some ?s

dd05, feel free. If they are not personal/identifying feel free to post here if you think they may be of value to others.

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Location: Upstate NY

Occupation: Bank Officer (Large National Bank) + Small Business Owner


Education: BS Accounting (Minors in Music Production, Music Theory, Economics, and Finance)


2011 Employment Compensation: $30k Base + $13k Commission (40hrs/wk)
2011 Business Income: $20k (10-20hrs/wk)

Benefits: 10 paid Holidays, 10 vacation days, 2 personal days, 5 sick days, low cost health/dental with MRA.


Future Salary Projection: If I stay in banking? 1-3% yearly base increases. Commissions will likely stay constant. If I work for myself? I'd like to think more.


What's the job like?

Working for a big bank is tough. You're a number and easily replaced. It is a sales job with a small amount of prestige. I am over qualified for the job, but the benefits help and I graduated with over $70k in student loan debt and $15k in credit card debit (after working full time through school and diligently paying as much as possible out of pocket before relying on CCs and Loans). Since graduation, I've managed to pay off all revolving debt, $15k in student debt, and save about $8k.

My business is residential home theater / home automation and commercial audio/video/surveilance/integration systems. I've been working with a partner for four years and do very well in a small amount of time with no advertising.

Would you recommend the career to others?

No. I won't be happy if I am in the same role for much longer. Would love to make the leap into running my business full time. Just concerned about paying the bills.

Age: 23
Location: Bay Area, CA
Occupation: Research Assistant
Education: BA Physics
Compensation: ~55k
Future Salary Projection: Doesn't seem to be a projection unless I go for a PhD........
Would I recommend: There's a percentage of people who are passionate about academic research. I found out that I'm not but a job is a job.......

Looking for a different field to go into.... But I don't feel too hopeful about it because of background.

Quote from nuhhht : Gender: Male. Age: 25. Location: CA. Occupation: Facilities Operator Oil/Gas Industry Education: None 2010 Compensation: $103,000. Future Salary Projection: +3% Benefits: 75% Education paid for. Company contributed 80,000 for 2010 in "benefits" (health, 401k etc..) What's the job like? Awesome. It's not a dirty job like most people seem to think of the entire oil/gas industry. Mentally challenging at times. Our moto is "90% of the time you are waiting for stuff to happen but the 10% time something 'wrong' happens that is why they pay so well" Would you recommend the career to others? If you are in a oil/gas producing part of the world I would highly suggest any move into this industry. It's fun, fast paced at times and provides great financial stability along with job security if you get locked in with a big oil company.

can i pm you about this?

Great hearing from people about what they do to earn a living! Cool thread

Gender: Male.

Age: 25

Location: TX.

Occupation: IT Auditor (Internal Audit)

Education: BS Accounting & Information Management, Working on MS Accounting (Concentration in Internal Audit)

2012 Compensation: ~$50k.

Future Salary Projection: Hopefully +5-10k increase/yr per rank moved up

Benefits: Typical 401k, health, vision, dental, life insurance etc... Vacation Days, Company Holidays, Sick Days...

What's the job like?

Very different every day. Operation audit instead of financial audits. If I was doing financial audits every day, I'd probably kill myself. In Internal Audit, you get to learn new things every day about the company, meet management, and get an understanding of how different departments run and how everything pieces together. I'm personally in IT Audit, so I work more on IT related audits. Auditing the operations of systems that the company uses if they are of a financial impact. Network/Users/Accounts Security, Backups, Logging, User Management, etc

Would you recommend the career to others?

Internal Audit is rather odd as it is classified as "Accounting" though I do no accounting related work (Since I am an IT Auditor). I started out studying Accounting because I did pretty good in the college intro classes, to see where I’d fit in career-wise. After I started taking the intermediate classes, I soon realized how much I actually hated doing accounting / finances. But since I already sunk a ton of my time into classes and $$$ of tuition, decided to just stick it out than waste any more. Luckily when I got in to Grad school, I landed myself in the Internal Audit concentration because the course requirements for graduating had Fraud Examination. The course sounded pretty interesting so I took that route over getting a concentration in financial accounting/tax. Took Internal Audit course, which was amazing. The way the class was designed, we had a chance to interview for internships set up by the professor (which is to lead to a semester long Internal Audit project) and it was great learning / work experience. Pretty much landed me my job now. I would highly recommend anyone in accounting to try and get into Internal Audit. It offers so much more value than being a traditional accountant/external auditor. And as for me being in IT Audit, if you have interest in IT, it’s definitely a good route to take. Internal Audit is a growing profession and corporations do see value in having an internal audit team so there is that increased job stability. When shit hits the fan, management turn to us for advice instead of lay us off.
Also if salary is important, I believe Internal Auditors make more than regular accounting related jobs of the same level. Also with interaction with management throughout the company, there is more growth potential if you ever decide to switch to a different department, given that you are a good performer and management knows you.

Seems everyone with a BA or BS in their early or mid twenties makes about 40-50k, this is also true of many of my friends, at least the ones with "real" jobs. I also know of a few college grads who could not find "real" jobs and are working in low paying jobs like retail clerk, teller, etc.

Hmm, I don't think people here are lying about their jobs or compensation, why bother? Maybe it's biased toward the high side because people who are dirt poor probably don't venture into the finance area on SD.


off topic, but does anyone know how much vets make?

Gender: Male
Age: 24
Location: Atlanta GA
Occupation: Big 4 - Management Consultant
Education: Finance and MIS majors, Econ minor
2011 Compensation: upper 50's
Future Salary Projection: lows 70's.

What's the job like?

Travel. Travel travel travel travel travel. Watch House of Lies TV-show to get a basic idea. While over dramatic, the concepts are much the same. And I'm not even MBB.

Quote from JL6speed : Gender: Male. Age: 25 Location: TX. Occupation: IT Auditor (Internal Audit) Education: BS Accounting & Information Management, Working on MS Accounting (Concentration in Internal Audit) 2012 Compensation: ~$50k. Future Salary Projection: Hopefully +5-10k increase/yr per rank moved up Benefits: Typical 401k, health, vision, dental, life insurance etc... Vacation Days, Company Holidays, Sick Days... What's the job like? Very different every day. Operation audit instead of financial audits. If I was doing financial audits every day, I'd probably kill myself. In Internal Audit, you get to learn new things every day about the company, meet management, and get an understanding of how different departments run and how everything pieces together. I'm personally in IT Audit, so I work more on IT related audits. Auditing the operations of systems that the company uses if they are of a financial impact. Network/Users/Accounts Security, Backups, Logging, User Management, etc Would you recommend the career to others? Internal Audit is rather odd as it is classified as "Accounting" though I do no accounting related work (Since I am an IT Auditor). I started out studying Accounting because I did pretty good in the college intro classes, to see where I’d fit in career-wise. After I started taking the intermediate classes, I soon realized how much I actually hated doing accounting / finances. But since I already sunk a ton of my time into classes and $$$ of tuition, decided to just stick it out than waste any more. Luckily when I got in to Grad school, I landed myself in the Internal Audit concentration because the course requirements for graduating had Fraud Examination. The course sounded pretty interesting so I took that route over getting a concentration in financial accounting/tax. Took Internal Audit course, which was amazing. The way the class was designed, we had a chance to interview for internships set up by the professor (which is to lead to a semester long Internal Audit project) and it was great learning / work experience. Pretty much landed me my job now. I would highly recommend anyone in accounting to try and get into Internal Audit. It offers so much more value than being a traditional accountant/external auditor. And as for me being in IT Audit, if you have interest in IT, it’s definitely a good route to take. Internal Audit is a growing profession and corporations do see value in having an internal audit team so there is that increased job stability. When shit hits the fan, management turn to us for advice instead of lay us off. Also if salary is important, I believe Internal Auditors make more than regular accounting related jobs of the same level. Also with interaction with management throughout the company, there is more growth potential if you ever decide to switch to a different department, given that you are a good performer and management knows you.

I used to sit in our IT audit practice in Big 4 before moving over into operations consulting at same firm. Whether you work for Big 4 or IA somewhere, the job is pretty good balance of personal life, comp, and challenge. If you aren't looking to kill yourself, yet still get paid pretty damn well, great route to go.

...though if I had to perform another user appropriateness test in my life, I might need to go to an asylum.

Quote from bassec : Gender: Male Age: 24 Location: Atlanta GA Occupation: Big 4 - Management Consultant Education: Finance and MIS majors, Econ minor 2011 Compensation: upper 50's Future Salary Projection: lows 70's. What's the job like? Travel. Travel travel travel travel travel. Watch House of Lies TV-show to get a basic idea. While over dramatic, the concepts are much the same. And I'm not even MBB.

Haha I'm not really keen on travel. I prefer driving cuz I got me a pretty sweet ride. Flying? not that fun.

Just curious, what certifications did you work on while you were at the Big4?

Quote from JL6speed : Haha I'm not really keen on travel. I prefer driving cuz I got me a pretty sweet ride. Flying? not that fun. Just curious, what certifications did you work on while you were at the Big4?

http://www.apics.org/careers-educ...tification

EDIT: And yes. Flying sucks. Necessary evil of the job, though. Most bitch about it. I just shrug.

Oh I thought you were doing IT Audit. Did you not get a CIA, CISA, or CISSP?