Kids n 370s

chops

sounds like you got the shaft there...to graduate from a top engineering school 15 years ago put you right at the beginning of the dot com boom. which means you could've easily been making 6 figures within a year or two of moving around (jobs were like candy back then).

ImportConvert

+1, my X gf is an engineer, and things are tough right now in that field. 15 years ago was the bomb.

At age 26, a 40K car is not hard at all to afford provided you aren't supporting kids, etc. and you got a good job.

Jessobear

Dude, I hope you're not one of those guys who's in college and think that you're going to make bank the second you get your degree. Engineering and the dot com boom have nothing to do with eachother unless you're a network engineer.

I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in 2000 and got my first job for $43,500. Believe it or not, I was one of the better paid graduates other than a couple guys at the top of the class who got super sweet gigs. Engineering tends to be a really conservative field and they tend to not throw money at people.

As far as giving a 17 year old kid a 370Z, that's just a bad parenting decision. You can't blame the kid. What kid wouldn't want that? To be fair, my first car was a '77 Trans Am (that I bought myself) and my parents let me get that. Being a stupid HS kid, I did everything in my power to try and crash it. I used to go out and purposely spin the car to try and see just how sideways I could drive it.

ImportConvert

Like I said, Engineering is a VERY tough field right now. My X gf graduated about a year ago and has moved all over the US chasing a job. She is probably just going to go to Dubai, though, the way things are looking.

Law is another degree that got hurt pretty bad by an overabundance of qualified employees.

It sounds like you were more...reckless...than most in highschool. I never did that with my LT1 Trans Am, nor did my friend with his mustang GT. I did end up crashing the Trans Am, very minor, but it wasn't doing doughnuts. The car downshifted in a corner (screw an auto...) and broke the rear-end loose and, through inexperience, I over-corrected. $1800 in damage, noone got hurt, cheap lesson learned that I am now thankful for!

Nothing is free. You are going to take your lumps. I am glad I took my little lump when I was in a cheap F-body than later in life when I am supposedly "old enough to deserve a sports car"* and wreck something very nice. Take a look at all the people out there who excell in their fields regarding motorcycle/automotive sports. They didn't get where they are by starting when they were 30. They started driving/riding performance machines at a young age, and had plenty of little misshaps. It's called LEARNING. Through experience. Is it the only way? Yes. Yes it is. The only way you are going to learn to control a sports car is by losing control of one now and then in the process.

The rich kids may wreck a $30K car, but who cares? That's like you wrecking a cheaper car like I did. Everything is relative. I don't see you on here bitching about someone throwing half of their un-eaten fast-food out when it cost more than a small villiage makes in a day in Africa and would feed the same villiage for just as long.

It's all just relative to where you are standing when you look at it.

*Where do people get off on thinking that someone is mature enough to shoot and kill other people in defense of their country. Drive an M1 tank. Handle communications that are sensetive to national security...but not drive a $30K car? I don't follow, understand, or agree with them one bit.

chops

i am not one of those guys in college, however i am a graduate who's been very grateful for what i've accomplished to be where i am today. while i was in college, i never thought i'd graduate and make bank. in fact, i thought quite the opposite, figuring id fall into the same trap that millions of others have, unemployment. however, hard work and networking gets you places...

anyway in reference to the engineering, excuse me, ive been too caught up in work lately. when i refer to an engineer i think software engineer, or hell even hardware engineer...and back in 1995, those guys were raking in the $$$. you had a few job offers waiting upon graduation, and could actually negotiate a salary, definitely not something thats common, if at all even around in today's job market.

wolf370z

I guess I just completely missed the point of the thread.

$43,500 right after graduating? That's pretty awesome.

__________________
Good drivers just drive.

houkouonchi

Indeed. My dad has his degree in EE (electrical engineering) and he is a software developer and has been since he came out of college.

I myself dropped out of college to start working full time and I am glad I did. In my Industry (linux system administration) experience is more important than a degree. Now I have After working for the same company for 4+ years I now get 25 days per year of vacation time (plus another 10 paid sick days). I am 25 years old, own my own home, own a 370z and make over 70k/year. The company I work for has grown to almost double its size since I started and has shown extreme growth over the recession. I definitely count my blessings.

I think a having a college education is important but it certainly not gonna help in all the industries that you can work in. I wanted a degree so I would have a fall back in case I didn't get into the industry I wanted but in the end I think I am glad I went with my decision to drop out when I did. With the experience I have now I don't think it would be to hard for me to find another job. Of course I love the company I work for and I doubt they would go under considering how well they have done through the recession so I highly see myself working anywhere else in the next 5 years.