Finance Grad in the UK, currently earning 24,000 GBP, which is better than a lot of my peers at same 'level', but it's still fucking nothing.
Ideally I would like to start my own business, I just have no idea what it could be - considering SMMA, but no experience in relevant field will make it a little tough to say the least.
I was thinking going down the content creator route and see where that takes me.
Career wise, I've now got a year of experience, so I'm starting to gain leverage over future job applications where I can start to demand more rather than react to what's given to me, but reality is very few people will give me, let's say, 32k right now, and a lot of the places will want me to 'get used to' the job first, aka, applying the shit that they have to apply to the average people and essentially waste my time.
What skills should I consider developing or looking into? I'm working on soft skills now, i.e. negotiation and communication, but I'm looking for something more value-providing/orientated.
Any advice?
Lone_Ranger 1 1y ago
You want to be a content creator? It's easy to be fooled into thinking that content creators get paid loads. But you're just looking at the exception, not the norm. You're looking at the stars of the system, not the average. The average content creator gets paid .....zero. I'm a content creator. I'm creating content right now, on this forum and someone will consume that content. That's about average for content creators.
You need to be able to drive millions of eyeballs before your content has any value whatsoever. Kim Kardashian et al are able to drive content, and they are rewarded for it. She and others make money off clicks. It's fractions of a penny per thousand clicks. Still want to be a content creator?
Sounds like you have fallen for the allure of easy money. Let me tell you, there is no easy money. All KK has to do to get millions of clicks is say hi on twitter, or shake her big booty on IG. Can you do that? No, I thought not. What you are not seeing is the millions of wannabes that have devoted their lives to SM trying to monetise content, and have got nowhere, they get zero dollars. Nada.
Honestly, if you were to correctly calculate the net average return from investment per hour, you would no doubt find that content creation is the absolute lowest paid job in the world. You can make £10 an hour in a fast food joint, I'd bet the average return on content creation is less than £0.01 per hour. Much less. Good luck witht hat.
whytehorse2021 1y ago
I tried warning @financeHardo420 about the situation in finance and here's the living proof.
Finance industry is for losers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJeIvycfwrg
Never major in finance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u31FJctDl9o&t=89s
Why finance majors starting salaries are bullshit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeMFEhCvtm8
Is finance dead? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3PPUGhWtgk
Maybe you can branch swing over to accounting? Get certified as a public accountant, open your own tax company.
financehardo420 1y ago
I feel like it just definitely matters what field of finance you’re going into. My buddies big brother also went to my school; he’s a VP at Goldman clearing 800k a year lol. Plenty of my buddies that went to firms like Moelis made 180 starting.
PE/HF/VC can get very interesting bc even as an employee you still can achieve part ownership. That part ownership aspect/opportunity simply doesn’t exist in most other fields and that’s what gets ppl MnMs. As a day to day job/lifestyle; arguably sucks but its a slightly more safe and secure way to build wealth imo
TRPPRT2021 1y ago
Thank you, well I am actually predominantly in the accounting field, but overall I wanted to venture into the decision making financial decision side of things, which seems like you'd advise against?
Currently part qualified in ACCA/CIMA, CIMA leaning.
whytehorse2021 1y ago
Quantitative analysis pays pretty good. Certified accountant pays pretty good. Just beware of the jobs where losers go. Banks are especially bad.
Lone_Ranger 1 1y ago
welcome to the slog.
You're looking for advice in the wrong forum. Some of us could give it. But its still the wrong forum. My advice? Find a mentor. Work hard. Increase your education. Look for experience. You're one year out of uni and you want to start your own biz? What can you offer? Starting your own biz sounds great until you realise that every day is a job application - they're called customers.
mattyanon Admin 1y ago
It's fine as a graduate, you're just starting. It's more than my first job.
If you can't get a job doing it, you have zero chance at a business doing it.
A business is a group of people doing a thing. If you can't even be one of those people doing a part of a thing, how can you do it all yourself?
Solution: get job, get experience, get GOOD.
This is fucking bullshit. Where's the burning desire? Where's the drive? What's the ambition?
"See where it takes you" ..... let me tell you where it will take you with this attitude: NOWHERE.
Create a burning ambition. Drive. Look at Mr Beast...... he posted a youtube video to launch in 5 years saying "I want to be an awesome content creator, I am going to fucking do this, I want to be the best ever, I am going to fucking do this". Uploaded it, set the launch date, and then MADE IT HAPPEN. He didn't say "see where it takes me".
Honestly, content creator isn't going to happen for 99.9999% of people. You need to be very good and have a very unique and NEW take on how to do it. Everyone wants to be a content creator. What have YOU got to say?
You sound entitled as fuck, immature, and not great at your job. "Gain leverage" and "apply the shit"....... sounds like you offer no value, but you demand they pay you.
Here's how a job works, and you better get used to this: you get paid for the value you offer. You help them with what they need done, they pay you for it. Forget leverage, demands, reacting, whatever. You give stuff and you get stuff. If they pay you £32k, that is because that is literally what they have to pay to get what you offer.
And that never changes, but if you have a rare skill or a genius level ability, that number goes up and up and up.
Soft skills help, but you need some value to negotiate with.
What do you like to do, and what are you good at? Start by answering those things.
Lone_Ranger 1 1y ago
Solid response from Mattyanon. You may not like his comments, but they are all true.
Listen, you may think we are being rough on you, but honestly, when you get to my age, you will look back and realise how retarded you were at 22. I was a complete retard. thought I knew everything.
Also - forgot to add - you seem to be making the same mistake that 99% of people make when they think about wages. They seem to assume that people get paid 'what they deserve'. This is nonsense, nobody gets paid what they deserve. Some get paid more than they deserve, some less. Some people think that you can just expect to get paid a bit more each year, and that you will get paid more for having more 'experience'. This is also bs.
Shall I tell you why people get paid £100k? Because they create £400k of value. You know why people get paid £1m? because they create £4m of value. That's how it works (if the business is efficient). And finance is a relatively efficient game. So, if there's a guy that is getting paid £750k per year, and he suddenly starts losing money for the bank, they are going to get rid of him. His value will become zero, and they will be willing to pay him, exactly that - zero.
So...before you start thinking that anyone is going to pay you £32k ...ask yourself this - how will guarantee that you can provide that employer with £96k of profit? If you can do that, you can come and work for me. I'll pay you 33% of any profit you create.
You starting to understand how this works? The market doesn't pay for experience, we don't pay what you 'deserve', we don't pay for any reason except that its a good deal for the employer.
mattyanon Admin 1y ago
Haha epic :)
True this.
You get what you can negotiate, simple (and as hard) as that.
Also this.
TRPPRT2021 1y ago
This is fucking bullshit. Where's the burning desire? Where's the drive? What's the ambition? - Right now it's behind spotting opportunities, and if I am not finding any, gaining more knowledge and researching. Admittedly I haven't been reading as much as I should have, but I am still making progress whilst in a 'rut', which I will come out of soon.
How should I go about creating a burning ambition though? That is the one thing that I do struggle with at times. I will have that drive for a relatively short time and it will fade, then reignite after some time. I assume setting goals and 'visualisation' is a big aspect of this, which I have been doing for a variety of things, i.e. gym, hobbies, and it has been working, but when it comes to business/hustling, I am limited by experience and the lack of awareness/knowledge. Finding a mentor would be amazing, but it doesn't seem to be available where I am at least ( small town in the UK).
"You sound entitled as fuck, immature, and not great at your job. "Gain leverage" and "apply the shit"....... sounds like you offer no value, but you demand they pay you" - i can see why you think that, but I disagree. Having an ego and entitlement is what I should've had a while back. I am by no means someone who is 'blinded' and thinks of himself as the best, because that would cut me off from learning from people who are better than me, but I will give a simple statistic as to why I prefer being like this - 10% of the people in the UK have a gym membership. 10 fucking percent, and that doesn't factor in how often they use it. By simply working out 1 day a month you are quite possibly in the top 10% of people in the UK in this aspect, just like that.
As to my competencies at work - I'm about to finish my probation after 6 months, only heard praise so far and I specifically ask for things to improve and the only things I heard back is essentially giving me more advanced 'checks' so to speak for our processes. My excel/computer skills in general are far above average, especially in the company for which I'm working. Leverage is real in my opinion - they are of course gonna undercut a fresh graduate who was desperate to get a job finally in the field, they save money by doing so and getting the same value. I am of course not expecting a pay rise for nothing, it would be dumb of them, but I am adamant on showing my willingness to progress faster/take on more duties (unfortunately that's all up to them at their slow method of teaching as it's based on the average individual, which I am not. If they decide to go down the approach of "work for a year or two to get used to the job" and only then think about progressing me, they are a. wasting my time and b. wasting an asset in their hands).
Very few people negotiate, especially women, because a lot of people consider it 'risky', when in reality if you don't negotiate then you're shooting yourself in the foot, which is why I made the point about leverage/demands in the first place, they won't pay me what I'm worth, they will also take away whatever I don't negotiate out from the deal.
As to what I like to do hobby wise; music production very beginner level, dancing, and then the obvious cooking exercise and reading. I enjoy discussion/sharing view points and understand other people's view points, which is one of the things I've considered looking into if I were to get into some form of content creation.
What I'm good at, skills wise that's limited. I'm good at excel and computer programs in general, but I don't see how I can monetise it at my level yet. I would say I'm a good planner and I like to have a strategic approach to learning things, understanding that doing something mundane and less entertaining will be better for my growth/development, i.e. instead of playing the music melody I already know, I focus on the weak points of the melody which I haven't learned. As corny as it may sound, perseverance/mindset which I've developed recently is definitely a strong characteristic of mine, but right now it's just getting that fire, like you've mentioned, to spread onto other aspects of my life, and maintaining it.
Another thing I've started doing is essentially 'recruiting' people who are into self improvement in my friend groups and having discussions with them, even if they are short or go off the track, we like to discuss ideas just to get us thinking, then my natural planning/strategising tendancy kicks in and we start to branch out into what we should look into, finding resources, etc.
TRPPRT2021 1y ago
Also - thank you :)
mattyanon Admin 1y ago
Anytime.
re finding a mentor: extremely hard, yes. re looking for opportunities: that's great, but you have to create them too. learn to get very very good at a few things.
Quick google suggests 15%, but that also includes old people, prison population, babies, etc.
Working age 20 to 50 is half the population, so it's around 30%. Of the remaining 70%, some will run round the park, some will workout at home, some will regularly do sports.
Again, don't talk about leverage. This isn't some film where you negotiate your pay with "leverage", which implies an element of threat. Instead provide value, demand value.
True
If I said "start your content creation TODAY", what would you do?
Exactly - hence my suggestion to take your time and GET GOOD.
Good. Active learning.
Determination is fantastic.
This is all good, but here's my concern:
You want to be a content creator, but I think you want the results rather than doing it.
You like to plan and things, but you're not actively building new skills that will benefit you?
Might be wrong here, you might be actively working on useful skills (you sound close to it), but you might also be procrastinating and planning and avoiding. Not sure, hard to tell.
TRPPRT2021 1y ago
You are absolutely in the right. Overall I do procrastinate (past few weeks set me back due to being ill for a while, but I don't want to make excuses forr myself, as I was still wasting time before that), definitely less than I was a year ago, which is when I started my improvement journey and taking it more seriously, and whilst I am proud of myself for improving, I'm 22 and a bit, I started late, I really need to be a fucking machine if I want to reach my goals and be in the top 1%. Am I on target for that? Yes, but I want that sooner.
I definitely am guilty of looking too far into the future, so to speak, instead of actually starting, i.e. with music production I would be thinking about monetising my beats/music before I could even finish one single beat or play a melody on the piano, which thankfully I spot now more easily.
Mark Manson actually mentioned a similar thing in his book 'Models', how there are 3 archetypes of men who struggle with dating and how they go about it, If I remember correctly, first is consumed by 'anger' "fuck relationships" mentality, second is the "I don't need a relationship", when in fact they do want one, and third, which for obvious reasons resonated the most with me when he was talking about it - the intellectualising archetype, wanting to be prepared as best as possible, researching rather than acting. Similarly to before, still guilty of it, but now it's usually more rationalised/justified (i.e. I'm not gonna start a business tonight revolving around wood working without researching about wood working, tools I need, etc first), and now I actually do go out and do the thing that 'scares' or gives me 'anxiety'.
What would you say I should look into? Skills in terms of soft skills along with something you might be aware of that I would benefit from in the future in the working environment (i.e. right now I'm looking at negotiation, influence/persuasion as the soft communication skills)?
And how would you advise me to get over the planning, avoiding and procrastination?
Once again, thank you, I really do appreciate this :)
mattyanon Admin 1y ago
Good that you recognise this.
Here's the thing.
If you really wanted to be doing a woodworking business, you would be making things, ordering tools, researching things to make, etc. You'd fucking START, not sit around wishing.
So hard to know what's best for you here. If no other ideas, work out how to get better in your current job.
Negotiation, influence, persuasion: sure, you need a bit of this, but being good at something is more fundamental.
Communication: this is always worth working on. Being a great communicator is worth a lot in everything in life.
Fundamentally though: what are you negotiating about? You can be the best negotiator in the world, but what are you negotiating over? You can't get a million for an empty box.
Commit to fucking doing shit and beware of avoiding it. Things need planning and time, but don't use that to shield yourself from the bit you're scared of....... if you want to make a youtube channel, upload your first crappy shitty video today, don't start saving for a professional video camera.