Managing My Future Income Risk

Over the past two years, my path towards graduation and a career after graduation have been completely altered and several events have affected the way I manage my future income risk. Allow me to elaborate on my path leading up to the past two years.

I entered the University of Illinois majoring in statistics. After a semester of being in this major, I did not feel like it was the right choice for me and decided to transfer into economics after taking, and thoroughly enjoying, an introductory microeconomics course. This was a particularly risky decision at the time, as I did not have much experience in economics other than a high school course and a single introductory course in college. I also did not know what kinds of jobs could be attained by majoring in economics. With a job in the forefront of my mind, I sought more information through the advice of academic advisors and my parents to reduce this risk. Both of these sources explained the versatility of economics in the job market, and in the beginning of my sophomore year, after completing a few required courses, I decided to officially transfer into the Economics major. I have found that the emphasis on developing critical thinking and basic understanding of market behaviors will provide a solid basis for many different jobs which goes to show the versatility of this major.

At the end of the first semester of my sophomore year, I made an appointment with my advisor to check if I was on track for graduation. With a career in mind again, I also asked what courses she would recommend that I take in future semesters to help with my career. Rather unexpectedly, she responded by telling me that I was on track to graduate in three years. I have since decided to pursue that path and am now a senior in my third year of school here. This has moved my timeline back an entire year and has forced me to start thinking about a career much sooner than I had originally intended. Not only does this provide an interesting and rather impressive talking point with potential employers, I am also potentially more financially sound by making this decision. Many students will be swimming in great amounts of student loan debt, but I am better off by making this decision and saving a little more money than the average student. A more accurate way to describe this would be instead of better off, I am less worse off than the average student. This will allow me to theoretically consume more sooner than later. I will also be able to obtain a job and start earning an income sooner than the average student. For both of these reasons, I believe I have reduced my future income risk.

With the end of my college career coming to a close sooner than expected, I also decided to apply for a few internships in order to build my resume and build a rapport with a potential employer. The internship I attained is the same one I have described in my previous posts at Zurich North America in Schaumburg. The experience and connections I gained from this job have been quite valuable to me in managing my future income risk. First, the job experience has given me a context to apply course concepts to which has made my college courses much more valuable. This allows me to understand course concepts better and also bring talking points from courses into job interviews in the future. Second, the connections I made during the internship, given those connections are the positive ones I have made, are simultaneously sources I may use as references for future job applications and potential future employers. By potentially being able to utilize these connections, I make my job search more efficient either with applying to the same company I have a rapport with or the positive recommendations they may provide me for other job applications. In either case, I have reduced my future income risk.

My cousin Kurt recently graduated from Illinois State University and is now working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a college student, Kurt never thought he would be working in a different state than Illinois. Clearly, this is not how the future panned out for him. His experience has shown me that the ability to be versatile and accept different opportunities is a very valuable skill to have. I believe the versatility of the Economics major, the experience I have gained and the connections I have made have developed both of these lessons Kurt has shown me through his experiences in the job market.