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0 pointshelboi42y ago0 comments

As a single 25 year old (UK), I don't save much, I don't have a car, I have rent but no mortgage, no dependants. I don't feel very rich, but I do go on two holidays a year. Though does it even count if I crash on people's floors or stay in a hostel? The idea of staying in a hotel is insane to me, which probably says a lot.

I feel like I am the only person in my friendship group who can afford things like a decent place to live and good quality groceries. This is all from me working hard to move into Software engineering from a languages and humanities degree. Honestly feel that the system is severely broken if the only way to afford a decent quality of life is to get into one of the most lucrative professions out there. Most of the people in my job have been screwed over by the market and have way more rent than me as well, so are probably not even able to do the things I can.

I feel a lot of pressure to get into FAANG or something in order to hope to ever get a house in my lifetime. Especially since my landlord threatened to put up my rent by like £400 the other day and my boss told me my raises will never keep up with inflation. But I'm a humanities person. I don't see myself becoming some sort of 10x engineer without it making me miserable. So, since the absolutely fucked announcements from my landlord and boss, I'm thinking of any way to leave this economic shithole of a country.

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Tycho2y ago· 2 in thread

I was in the same position as you when I was 25. But I was very hopeful about the future. You don’t need to be in FAANG to do very well for yourself. It worked out well financially.

helboi4OP2y ago

Yeah i was really enjoying working at this company and making progress at my pace, as a smart person but a non-engineering-wizz. I was feeling optimistic and letting go of the pressure to get into at top tech company. This was allowing me to put in my best at work (which was making me improve a lot), and give myself permission to fully enjoy my arts and humanities hobbies outside of work rather than constantly guilting myself into using all my time to catch up to STEM people. But now they have told me my raises will never keep up with inflation, I feel like I have to do better and spend all my evenings trying to learn everything as quickly as possible with no patience. How did you deal with this?

Tycho2y ago

Well first of all I’d say that your goal shouldn’t be to stay in the same role, even if it was keeping pace with inflation (in future it likely will anyway, when inflation returns to normal levels). By evolving or changing your role you can double or triple your income over 5-10 years. I remember my first two full years with a decent job I got 20% raises, then was disappointed to get 2% the third year, boss told me I should expect that from now on. So that would mean 35 years to double my then salary… in reality, I changed role and more than doubled it within a year.

If you’re 25, you might as well spend your evenings trying to upskill. Make time for important things, but trim unnecessary leisure and invest in your skills/expertise/network. It’s much harder to do this when older.

Personally I continued to improve my technical skills, especially in getting into new areas like AI, while also building considerable domain knowledge, and taking on management responsibilities. You don’t really have to compete directly with yon 10x STEM rockstars - go for breadth, not proficiency. Someone who understands a lot of areas fairly well, and can communicate and document well, is incredibly useful to an organisation.

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