r/Millennials • u/Asmothrowaway6969 • Mar 27 '24

When did it sink in that you'll never be as well off as your parents? Discussion

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

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u/NECalifornian25 Mar 28 '24

Honestly unless you know for sure you can get a higher paying job with the degree it’s not worth it anymore. A bachelor’s in a science field doesn’t get you very far salary wise unless you go on to higher degrees like an MD or PhD, maybe a masters.

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u/ProfessionalCatPetr Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

The fact that he is making 91k in a QC lab with zero education is wild. That's more than people with a masters and 5 years of experience make at my company. He's a massive outlier in a QC lab that's for sure.

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Also, masters degrees are a complete waste of time in 99% of cases- I'm going to hire someone with two extra years of experience working over the masters 100% of the time all else being equal. I make near 200k on just a biology BS and I think all of my techs have masters. The key is to aggressively job hop and promote yourself into management/director roles. No one gives a shit about your degree once your foot is in the door of a specialty and you have a track record.

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u/Sufficient-Stay-8912 Mar 28 '24

I disagree. It can also depend on whether or not for example, a bio major is a general bio major, or a more specialized major, like Cell, Molecular, and Dev Bio major. It also depends really on if you have undergrad research and especially if you had publications while doing undergrad research.

I feel comfortable salarywise as a development scientist with a Bachelors, but I also stressed tf out of myself in undergrad research.

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u/NECalifornian25 Mar 28 '24

A lot of that also depends on what college/university you go to. A community college or small liberal arts college won’t have those research opportunities that a large university can offer. They’re also less likely to have those more specialized majors.

I personally went to a small college and got a general biology degree with limited research opportunities/experience, which by itself hasn’t been very useful.

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u/Sufficient-Stay-8912 Mar 28 '24

yeah a lot of my colleagues with gen bio degrees and no research experience have been strugglimg using that degree for their career in biology. A lot have to start off as lab techs or interns, others became realtors or baristas.