Financing

[suprachica79]

Originally Posted by n2oinferno

I think the "right" field always seems to be the wrong field when you're looking for a job. It took me a while to find a job in IT, and I only have what I have now because of who I know. Still don't make nearly enough money, always looking for something better. And although I have less than 10k in student loans I had to go and get myself a mortgage as well, haha. At least now I have a house for my kid to grow up in though. Oh well, worst case scenario is I buy something really cheap that I can thrash, wait till the wife's Camry is paid off in a couple years, and then I can go toy shopping.

I did work for Pfizer for a while, actually contracted as IT to one of their manufacturing plants. At the time I had access to their company forums, which didn't have trade secrets or anything but a lot of discussion among scientists and high-ups in the company. It seems like they do have new stuff trickling out, but the big push is combating generics and pointing out that the same active ingredients don't mean bioequivalence.

For a generic drug to be approved by the FDA is must be bioequivalent to the brand name medication so that isn't correct. And combating generics is a losing battle in most cases, hence why every major brand-name pharma company owns a generic subsidiary to offset some of the money they lose. Pfizer had Greenstone, Boehringer Ingelheim has Roxane Labs, the list goes on and on. It's an amazing field, one that I am intensely passionate about, so it's just about finding a way in. I had an internship and I got immense praise from everyone I was in contact with so I'm hopign to secure another more permanant position with them.

[Giccin]

You can do it! Its tough for everyone! :>

[suprachica79]

Yes Giccin, but not everyone has a mortgage without owning a home lol

[Giccin]

Originally Posted by suprachica79

Yes Giccin, but not everyone has a mortgage without owning a home lol

Lol. Helping you keep your head up!

I'm scared myself not being able to get a job once I'm done with schooling. :/ I'm a year away from getting into the B.S in Rad program and schooling is already about... 8k a semester. Of course.. Nothing compared to your 130k+ debt. Lol

[tomaifauchai]

Damn, 130k! I don't know for U.S, but here in canada (In Quebec), even if you go bankrupt, your school debts follow you all of your life ! But with the great studies you did, i'm sure once you'll find a job, it gonna pay your debts fast !

[Buggy51]

Originally Posted by tomaifauchai

Damn, 130k! I don't know for U.S, but here in canada (In Quebec), even if you go bankrupt, your school debts follow you all of your life ! But with the great studies you did, i'm sure once you'll find a job, it gonna pay your debts fast !

Its basically the same for the US :/ sigh...

probably look towards my credit union to help with financing than the bank or dealership.

[tranzformer]

Originally Posted by suprachica79

I don't want this to come off cocky or anything, but you have no idea what the pharma industry is like lol. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. It costs about $1 billion, no thats not a typo, to bring a drug to market. And drugs cost alot more here due to our regulations from the FDA.

If you haven't done so already you should see how much the average drug company puts back into research vs what they spend on executive laries and marketing costs. I don't have the graph on me now, but I want to say research costs were about 15-20% and marketing/executive salaries made up close to 50% of a drug companies budget.

Btw, I'll raise your $130k with my $220-230k. Hope you feel better now.

[MF_DEUCE]

-_- this thread is depressing me, im struggling to decide on a career and you guys seem to be hurting more than me.

But Hope all turns out well for you suprachica.

[tranzformer]

Originally Posted by MF_DEUCE

-_- this thread is depressing me, im struggling to decide on a career and you guys seem to be hurting more than me.

But Hope all turns out well for you suprachica.

Go to CRNA school.

[serialk11r]

Heh I'm a lot younger than yall, just starting college, but to me it appears CS is the way to go in today's industry...if you're competent at coding and such at all, and go to a somewhat decent school, it seems like there are plenty of job opportunities. One thing I've noticed is that there are a ton of research opportunities open for undergrads in CS, and there are also a ton of interships available (thus lots of possible jobs?). A bunch of my friends got internships right after freshman year at big companies, and they got the equivalent of full pay for the 2 months or so they worked (minus benefits)...which is like 16000 dollars O_O

The only other thing I've heard of that pays summer interns that much is a job at a quant trading/algorithmic trading firm, but they hire much much fewer people. They also like people who know how to code though...maybe I should go try to get more competent at this myself rofl.

[switchlanez]

^Pick a school with practical curriculum and breadth. Regardless of school, you will have to demonstrate sound programming skills (Java, C++, Perl) when you interview. Having a reputable school on your resume will decrease the chance of a hiring manager filtering your resume out to the reject pile. Companies usually have a list of schools from which they prefer to recruit.

I "accidentally" became a computer programmer for a couple years. My team was based in the US when I started but by the time I was laid off, half our team worked from India. It's true that demand for programmers is increasing but also consider your competition is increasingly global. Thank God for that layoff because I realized programming is not for me.

Nowadays I'm a mobile test/software QA engineer. Wireless companies tend to favor engineers with scripting/coding skills which I luckily have but haven't had to use... yet. When I interviewed for my current employer (with which I am getting laid off this week) and when I interviewed for my upcoming employer, coding skills was part of the reason I got job offers from both of them. Programmers comprise the bulk of R&D jobs in wireless but, again, more are becoming outsourced.

Are you set on studying this major? What schools did all your friends attend?

[switchlanez]

Originally Posted by suprachica79

We have the same philosophy. Money markets aren't good right now, cd's are at a lower ROI than the interest rate on the loan, there really aren't a lot of places to put your money right now that would net more money than you would pay in interest if you took a loan out so it may be better to pay it outright.

I found an APR of 1.79% with my bank but you're right I can't find investments to offset the loan interest so yeah, cash is king right now.

Reason I know this is I got impatient waiting for the FR-S and got an SX4 Crossover to hold me over. Just like a Scion xA/xB/xD but with AWD and a 7-year/100k powertrain warranty.

[serialk11r]

Naw I'm doing math since I did quite a bit in high school and am rather competent with it. It's more interesting than any science or whatever to me. CS is actually pretty nice, relatively free from technical aspects compared to engineering, and more rigorous in theory than sciences, but I always found the code itself a huge hassle, since in the end CS is about practical usage. Math is more about studying whatever seems to have interesting results, and so I find it more fun. Because it seems like programming is so important I'm starting to think I should get a bit more experience...as far as the mechanics of coding go, I am mostly illiterate. I can write stuff but I'll have to look up syntax and stuff every other few seconds rofl.

[Buggy51]

No love for the Health Sciences?