Don’t be too eager to get a corporate job and wear a suit [Career][lifestyle]

In an earlier post I wrote, “Don’t End the Week With Nothing,” and a user named USMVP00 wrote:

Any chance of there being a TRP Finance sub? I’m trying to learn as much as possible before I get to College and have to pick a major

At the time I said:

Career advice doesn’t necessarily have to be “Red Pill” per se. The big thing in today’s world is about YOU. No one else will look after you but you. We’ve had decades of time in which implicit promises between companies and employees have been voided. Whether that is good or bad, it means that you always have to look out for yourself and realize that no one else will.

That doesn’t mean you should be an asshole or screw people over, but it does mean that intangible like good will are shit and it does mean that you need to work proactively to advance your career.

Finally, career and money aren’t everything. If you’re young take cool fun jobs as bartenders or lifeguards or shit like that. I have done a lot wrong in my life but going from swim team -> life guard was like a free spot at the free pussy buffet. Don’t be too eager to put on slacks and a shirt and go to an office every day. You have the rest of your life for that, if it’s your path. Do some crazy shit. Work on a cruise ship. Bartender. Tour guide.

That got me thinking about career and life path. I’ve been working in offices for a long time now but before I did that I started out being a lifeguard in high school and college and those were awesome gigs at the time. Every summer and sometimes during the school year I’d get paid to sit in a position of authority and check out / chat up girls (when I wasn’t on the guard chair obviously). The atmosphere at most pools, especially outdoor pools, is great, and lots of girls want to crush on the lifeguard. At the time I had very basic guy game that was still better than like 90% of guys that age so it worked. “Hey, how’s it going?” and “Hey, how’s your summer?” were good. I was scared of hot girls but I was also horny enough to very slowly escalate them into sex in a way that seems pussy now but then seemed titanic.

I’ve got above-average work ethic and above-average workout ethics. In high school I swam, but I was never the fastest or best swimmer, just like I’m not the tallest or best-looking guy. In high school and college I also had almost no money so I had to work. For much of that time I had no car or a shit car but you know what? It didn’t matter much. It would’ve been nice to have a sweet ride but that was not an option, not until much later. Cars are super expensive and many people working low-level jobs end up working to pay for their car instead of working to pay for their lives. My clothes were cheap shit and didn’t fit me well. Didn’t matter.

Being a lifeguard at the right place and the right time helped put me in the right place to meet lots of girls I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Having little money and lots of access to girls is better from a getting laid perspective than the inverse. Being a swimmer helped me in college because I swam on the club team and hung out with lots of other swimmers, including lots of cute girls.

During the school year my college game was basically hosting parties at the swim house every week or two and inviting any cute girls I could meet to the parties. When we weren’t having parties my game was, “We’re having a few beers at the swim house tonight, you should come by at 8.” Seriously that was pretty much it, beyond chitchat about classes, majors, and random gossip.

This strategy won’t work for everyone. The basic idea is adaptable to a wide range of interests. I know lots of guys who worked as bartenders when they could’ve been (unpaid) interns or doing other jobs that didn’t bring them into contact w/ hot girls. Smart guys choose their jobs not only for income but also for freedom and other kinds of fringe benefits. Working in restaurants seems like a mixed bag (it can leave you really tired and drained), but I know guys who’d flirt with their customers, leave a phone # on a copy of receipt, and scoop up a couple new girls a month just by showing up and doing a little low-level escalation.

I know guys I went to college with who were way too eager to get in a suit and meet some girl (who they’d get bored with in a couple years anyway) and move to the suburbs so they could drive 45 minutes – 1 hour to work each way. Bad move. A lot of those guys have crises of various kinds imposed by their unthinking acceptance of whatever they think the “right” or “prestigious” path is. Being a lifeguard can be perceived as less prestigious than a lot of internships or low-level, office-based jobs. Who gives a shit? If you want to get laid more it’s great.

Let me step aside to look at that kind of life as some women will see it. Some women try to convince themselves they “love” a guy who happens to have a good job or lots of money, because they think they should be in love with him. Also a bad move that often ends poorly. Women are susceptible to many variants of the crises men face. A woman who marries young, moves out to the suburbs, has a kid or two with a boring guy working a boring job and who gets fat driving back and forth is plenty likely to GTFO of that situation sooner or later. You would too if you were her.

For the younger guys reading this, don’t be too eager to start working in a lab or corporation. I know because I see and work with young guys making that mistake right in front of me. You have your entire life for that, later on. Eventually you will likely need a real job or consulting gig or similar. There are not very many 50-year-old bartenders or lifeguards. When you’re in high school and college, think about the jobs that will help you build social skills and that will get you interacting with lots of hot girls. The corporate world has some hot women in it but sleeping with them is usually not a good idea and competition for them is fierce. Why it’s not smart to sex up women you work with has been widely covered here, and if you haven’t read about why and can’t figure it out on your own, I don’t know what to tell you. Learn how to learn, I guess.

Your career and your lifestyle are linked. You can’t think about one without thinking about the other. If one is unbalanced it will be very hard to balance it with the other.

Eventually you will probably need a conventional job, job skills, and career or skill path. The number of guys who really go their own way career-wise is small. The guys (and girls) who jump for conventional career stuff too eagerly often come to regret it later, just like the hard-core party animals who get laid all the time but wreck their teens and 20s with partying often come to regret not building real skills and careers. It’s possible to party too hard and it’s possible to not party enough. It’s possible to study too hard and it’s possible to not study enough.