Ok, had to google that…I’ll just say yikes to racket sports. At least in golf the ball is standing still when you have to hit it. 
Back to our regularly scheduled programming…
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We are doing a small college reunion, and pickle ball is one of the activities proposed. No golf :-). There is anecdata for you.
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Believe it or not, my daughter and her roommate were at a bar and the young guys there confessed they play pickle ball, my daughter and her friend had a good laugh, they said that’s what my retired parents play.
I do plenty of networking at my pickle ball court, some with very rich people, but it does nothing to me now, except to realize there are some very rich people in that area and some not very rich people pretend to be rich. The friendliest people I’ve met came from Canada and England, go figure.
Regarding golf, I took my daughter to take some lessons when she was in 7th grade, she barely interested in playing golf.
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I am talking about company sponsored networking events. My company will pay for lessons and clinics for those that want to learn, but a lot companies do not.
Axe throwing is something we are trying to pitch management. It is very stress relieving. And both men and women will find this interesting enough.
There is some overlap between interest in tech and interest in video games. This is not a new phenomenon with the current generation. Even in the early days of the home computer, kids who spent a lot of time playing games on their computer where more likely to be interested in going in to a career than involved spending a lot of time on their computer.
However, there are countless exceptions. Plenty of people who don’t play video games fit in just fine in tech. While video game players are overrpresented, I expect that the vast majority of persons in tech spend little if any time playing video games.
Instead tech employees have a wide variety of interests. Sports can be a common interest, particularly among younger persons. I have worked at tech companies that had a basketball league that competes against employees at other area tech companies, intermural-like sports during lunch break, golf and bowling out of office events, NCAA sports betting pools, frequent long and detailed discussions about the city’s football and baseball team/games, etc. Older persons are more likely to be interested in things like their kids/pets, their home, investments (both financial and rental properties), etc. There are also tech employees who are especially interested in hiking, cars, TV/movies, politics, Costco, pretty much anything you can imagine. It’s been my experience that tech employees are far more likely to make networking connections while talking about such interests during lunch break than while playing video games. LinkedIn and similar online networking is often more powerful for networking than any of the above.
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My son is in business. He is currently a business analyst.
Cool. That makes sense.
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We used a version of what would you like to be doing 5 yrs after graduation, which I think sort of steered our kids into earning degrees/major/minors with talents, interests, and marketability, because all three had lifestyles in mind. Lifestyles included type of place each wanted to live, work/life balance, work type, and flexibility within work type.
One showed interest and talent (ability) in first grade and expressed goals in 8th grade. He met these goals by 28, including a masters degree, type of work, and wife and kids. He plays golf, pickle ball, and a bit of video games.
The others found their way from junior year of college to jobs and situations they wanted and like. One is convinced that although she graduated from a top school it is her extracurriculars and the name of the university that got her foot in various doors and her pursuing opportunities,and good thing no one asked for her grades. (I don’t know what they were). Works for a large tech co with tech pay, not a STEM major
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I had never heard of axe throwing as a business until I was walking in downtown San Luis Obispo last Fall, when I came across an axe throwing business on the main drag down there.
With obstacle course racing, you often have to throw a spear at a target, but I had not seen an axe throwning business before last Fall. And I noticed there’s now even an axe throwing league on one of the sports channels too.
I see quite a bit of networking at the gym with the techie types.
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Bankers are in the relationship business. They do whatever, including playing golf, to cultivate relationships with their clients, who are mostly well-off, and often play golf (other than those young tech clients on the West Coast).
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One tech company in our area advertises that they like to hire students who are also musicians since they have several in-house bands of various musical persuasions. This would be right up S19’s alley but he is disinclined to apply there as they are defense contractors to which he is moralistically opposed.
It’s just my opinion but I don’t think of luck as something a person makes. I see hard work, perseverance, etc as “making your own opportunities”. Luck (good and bad) is more, though admittedly not completely, random. (You can’t win the lottery if you don’t have a ticket.)
The benefit of seeing luck as more random (out of our complete control) is that it may help with one’s mental health…you’re not completely to blame if you’re faced with disappointment. While at the same time, if things do go your way, be grateful the circumstances allowed you to succeed. Personally, I can’t stand being around people who are “full of themselves”.
I’ll share a true story. While still a student, my DS had a second interview in downtown Chicago with a prestigious firm. Afterwards we asked him how it went and as usual we got a “fine, ok I guess” type of response. It ended up he didn’t get an offer. We consoled him and he moved on.
After his next interview in downtown Chicago with a different firm, we again asked, how’d the interview go? His response surprised us. He said at least this time a bird didn’t poop on my head. We were like “whaaat???”.
We learned that the last time he was here, he had an afternoon interview on a nice day. He had grabbed a bite to eat outside and while he was minding his own business, a bird decided to do its business above his head! He had to find a public restroom and wash his head as best he could and then head to his interview. He didn’t make a big issue of it and he was just grateful this time there was no bird.
For a while there, if something didn’t go according to plan for DS, our saying was “at least a bird didn’t poop on your head”.
Bird poop on head = bad luck
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Well, you might then have a kid who misses their calling. I’m a low income kid who attended a great college and did humanities based things and combined a few. Have had three lucrative careers. There are lots of paths to success. My sister who also grew up with limited income and took on a lot of debt for college is highly successful. She got a major in something very different than what she does for a living. Never hurt her.
I wouldn’t limit kids based on their income level growing up to a specific field. Yes, kids need to think about how they will repay loans ( if any) but over time people need to build a life and that includes lots of decisions.
My kids have grown up in a high income family but I’d never push them solely into high income careers. It’s a life balance. What life do you want to lead and how will your career fit that life?
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Of course, it is common for people to think in the following way:
- For themselves (or people like themselves):
- Good results are due to their own stellar talent, hard work, etc…
- Bad results are due to bad luck.
- For others whom they are competing against (for colleges, jobs, sports, etc.) (or people not like themselves):
- Good results are due to their good luck.
- Bad results are due to their own lack of talent, laziness, etc…
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We have family members like this. Kids who went to the best schools, lived in a 17 room house, had nannies and the Ritz around every corner. Never really were interested in working when mom and dad would fly them home/to friends/ internationally first class. Now grown, I’ve seen the other cousins run circles around them. Everyone is doing something. These kids, not so much.
I think you can give your kids so much you take away their initiative and desire to work. Work is great for everyone’s sense of purpose.
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This 1000%. The golden combo IMO is someone who is intelligent, will take a chance and works like crazy. It’s a hard combo to find but the strongest likelihood of financial (not social or societal) success is someone will is willing to put in the work.
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I agree with this. I think that the gamer link to CS is a little over played and maybe more so once graduates get out into the work place. Of all the activities that our S has mentioned since his graduation and entry into the workforce, video games have not come up. Granted he was never a big gamer, but he did enjoy playing FIFA on our XBox. What has he mentioned? Hiking (several times), mixology classes, chess games (weekly activity at work), wine tastings, and skiing.
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It really makes sense. Who would, after 8 hours in front of a screen, like to spend 3-4-5-8 more hours in front of a screen?
My son. He rarely leaves his keyboard before 3AM. I keep telling him the window for this intensity is short. I hope he doesn’t find out the hard way.
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