Break's over; back on your head...

HFWR

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
14,183
Location
Lawn chair in Texas
Well, I just received an offer to go back to w-w-work, so in a few weeks my experiment in FIRE will be over. I'll be technicianing in a university research lab, 8-5 dayshift schedule, with only a "slight" cut in pay from megaconglomocorp, and a Vanguard option for the 403b. I'm kinda, sorta looking forward to it. If the market gods are reasonably cooperative, I'll being FIREing for real in a few "short" years.
 
Congratulations HFWR...thanks for sharing the news with us.
 
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Well, I just received an offer to go back to w-w-work, so in a few weeks my experiment in FIRE will be over. I'll be technicianing in a university research lab, 8-5 dayshift schedule, with only a "slight" cut in pay from megaconglomocorp, and a Vanguard option for the 403b. I'm kinda, sorta looking forward to it. If the market gods are reasonably cooperative, I'll being FIREing for real in a few "short" years.
That doesn't sound half bad, as j*bs go. (Not that I am personally that enthusiastic about jobs of any kind lately.) But anyway, it sure sounds a lot better than most. congratulations!
 
That doesn't sound half bad, as j*bs go. (Not that I am personally that enthusiastic about jobs of any kind lately.) But anyway, it sure sounds a lot better than most. congratulations!

I haven't had any problem with "whattaya do all day", that's for sure. But all-in-all, it's working out great for me. The commute is short, and there are no meetings, no cellphones, no Powerpoint presentations... My severence pay ends the middle of June, so I'll be back to work about when that runs out. Plus, old j*b still owes me two months of cashed out vacation time. I must be living right... :rolleyes:
 
HFWR,

I was wondering how the job hunt was going but was too polite to ask. Congrats on digging up something that sounds tolerable! Will you be dealing with co-eds?
 
HFWR,

I was wondering how the job hunt was going but was too polite to ask. Congrats on digging up something that sounds tolerable! Will you be dealing with co-eds?

This job just kind of fell in my lap. I got [-]some spam[/-] an email from an ex-cow-orker, addressed to everybody and his mother. I replied with a link to snopes pointing out that the email was, ahem, inaccurate. Another ex-cow-orker (and occasional party buddy) noticed my reply, and sent his own reply, which happened to mention this job opening. As luck would have it, two retirees from megaconglomocorp went to work there when they couldn't think of anything else to do in retirement... :rolleyes:

So, I had some inside help.

I haven't been really been looking, doing just enough to keep the unemployment office happy. In fact, I was scheming, in my pea-sized brain, just how cheap bastardly I could be, to avoid ever going back. Alas, even I'm not that cheap... :p
 
Congrats on the jobby-job HFWR. Just don't forget that there's a great big world out there where you can do whatever you want all day.
 
Working in a university setting can be fun. I have some (~ 14 yrs) experience working in the earth science labs, seismology to be specific. Lots of oddball experiments, traveled to interesting an terribly isolated places.

After I left, never again had exposure to really academically smart people. Worked for and with many who held PHd some who had two of them.
All were hard sciences, Mostly physics, geology, next door, marine biologists, they did not have much use for sociology etc. However, would debate it endlessly.

Though you must remember the progression of degrees, BS MS( more of it) PHd (piled higher and deeper)(think stuff, brown warm and mushy). There was the one oddball physicist, if you told him a joke, you had to preface it by telling him it was a joke, else he saw it as a problem to solve and actually would try.

Also recall a brilliant but screwy grad student, who went for the oral defense of his thesis, wearing a white T shirt with a necktie painted on it using magic marker, a ragged pair of pants and holy sneakers. He is now a respected member of the of scientific community, a professor.

I used to say there:never a dull moment. It is much easier to handle the environment if you don't need the j*b.

Good luck.
 
This job just kind of fell in my lap.
I haven't been really been looking, doing just enough to keep the unemployment office happy. In fact, I was scheming, in my pea-sized brain, just how cheap bastardly I could be, to avoid ever going back. Alas, even I'm not that cheap... :p
I have to admit that your enthusiasm for returning to the workplace is just a tad underwhelming. You haven't even started yet and your BS bucket is almost full!

You'll have to make sure that you fully avail yourself of the medical insurance and the tax-deferred compensation before management gets any bright ideas about how else you could demonstrate what a team player you are. Hey, you might even need to pursue a cheap graduate degree-- "Sorry, boss, I'd love to help but I have to go to class at 5:30."

Or maybe they'll sense your lack of patience for "corporate climbing" and just leave you alone...
 
I have to admit that your enthusiasm for returning to the workplace is just a tad underwhelming. You haven't even started yet and your BS bucket is almost full!

You sensed that, huh? :p

My BS bucket was overflowing from 25 yrs in a corporate setting...

I just couldn't make retiring on $500k work this far away from early SS...

You'll have to make sure that you fully avail yourself of the medical insurance and the tax-deferred compensation before management gets any bright ideas about how else you could demonstrate what a team player you are. Hey, you might even need to pursue a cheap graduate degree-- "Sorry, boss, I'd love to help but I have to go to class at 5:30."

I haven't seen all the details of the perks yet. I do know it takes five years to be fully vested in the "retirement plan", which, by happenstance, would take me to age 59. Plus, I have heavily subsidized health insurance as a "retiree" from my last employer, though it never hurts to have more options.

Or maybe they'll sense your lack of patience for "corporate climbing" and just leave you alone...

The good thing about this j*b is that there's no corporate ladder to climb...
 
"I just couldn't make retiring on $500k work this far away from early SS"

So that head to Vegas and slap it on black didn't appeal to you? :D
 
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