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Comment by nightlifelover | Hacker News Reader

"There were other characters in this drama. The sales guys were complete tools, with a total IQ, summing over all of them, still safely in the double digits. The traders were crafty and quick-witted, but technically unsophisticated and with the attention span of an ADHD kid hopped up on meth and Jolly Ranchers."

Ok it seems perfectly possible to make a lot of money while being a complete idiot. I'm getting an MS in engineering and since I was studying the last few years I don't have any money (except about the minimum which is required for a living) What worries me most is that many engineering jobs are not well payed, even though they require skilled people. So I wonder how I could turn the hard work I did (and still do) to get my degree into money.

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Don't despair. Engineering is a nice lifestyle -- you can work at any size company, you can travel if you want, and you can switch to independent consulting or join a consultancy if you want. You can do a startup at any time, too; engineers create things people want. I don't know of any other background that will give you as much flexibility with your career.

Sudden jumps in income tend to stress people out; the key to happiness is a gradual lifelong rise in income, so you're always comfortable. Engineering will accomplish that for you. Personally, I felt like I'd solved the "money problem" with my first two engineering jobs -- there was nothing I wanted that I couldn't easily afford, and I liked the ratio of business trips to staying at home.

Don't take that description too literally. I really doubt you get to be a trader at GS without having a good brain in your head. Sales is more about working and building relationships than sheer intelligence, but to do it well still requires a lot of work and talent in that direction.

Heh it was written by somebody with a PHD in Physics or so.. but my point was that a lot of highly intelligent people are loosely paid (for example think about a lot of post-doc positions in academia) while some other less educated people get a lot of money it seems..

Oh absolutely. My father had a PhD in chemistry, was very intelligent, but never made more than a modest middle-class income. He worked in academia. If a high income means a lot to you, academia is a hard place to find it unless you are one of the few superstars that bring in a lot of grant money. At if you are, you are mostly a salesman anyway.

EQ vs IQ.

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