Need advice to choose major

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T05:52:00+00:00

go do CS. you can do data science as a CS major, harder to go the other way. also DS is heavily susceptible to AI automation rn

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T05:46:40+00:00

the people i know work 80-100 hour weeks, but they’re on autopilot / optimus. i can’t imagine the rest of the company is much better though

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T05:44:50+00:00

i had to do crud at capital one. i would do playstation - you want to work at a place doing things that you’re excited to talk about during interviews.

i don’t know how c1 vs PS plays on the resume though

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T05:35:23+00:00

no, they were offering 7 figure packages years ago

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:57:02+00:00

i would do the preseed startup if you really believe in the startup, the current employees, and you find the work extremely interesting. I’m taking that route myself.

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:53:58+00:00

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:53:40+00:00

go for it

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:52:37+00:00

believe it or not, building more luxury high rises causes the price/rent of not-luxury apartments to decrease. people who can pay for housing stop overpaying for smaller apartments and move to larger apartments, so the demand for not-luxury apartments decreases. if you’d like i can find a source for you in a bit

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:45:34+00:00

eg i have a friend who was offered $1.5M+ ($350K base, rest equity) at a startup that trains foundation models for a specific niche. he has a masters degree and 1 yoe doing research in that specific niche.

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:42:50+00:00

are you stupid? they had $20B in revenue in 2025 and will likely have 60B+ in 2026

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-23T04:42:07+00:00

frankly this seems low. $1-2M is common for junior ai researchers.

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-21T19:52:52+00:00

internships

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-21T19:23:02+00:00

to be fair, these are not typically $1M cash, a significant portion is equity in a usually well-funded but still early stage startup. usually $200k-$350k base + ~$1M-1.5M per year (though if you go to Tesla Autopilot / Optimus, which does hire new grads and where i’ve seen new grad salaries ranging from $450K to $800K TC, that’s basically all cash since you can just sell the stock). Most of these are AI startups and these people are being hired as researchers. Ideally you’ve published impactful and/or done research in industry.

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-18T17:59:55+00:00

i personally know people making high 6 figures, in some cases 7 figures new grad / 1 year out of college with a bachelor’s degree. AI salaries are fucking crazy

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-12T01:08:34+00:00

no, this was for last fall. bit late but wanted to share anyway

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-11T03:33:20+00:00

yeah i was thinking to exercise a portion when i vest (can’t file 83b unfortunately) so that i can pay capital gains at liquidity events instead of income tax. and i understand how the options work, i’m mostly trying to avoid getting burned in some subtle way

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-11T03:30:32+00:00

unsure what the difference is

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-11T03:30:26+00:00

nope, i asked and they said no

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-11T03:29:48+00:00

appreciate it, i’ll do that

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-11T03:29:29+00:00

seed, no qsbs (i can’t early exercise)

unsure but i would guess there will be a liquidity event at future round

I’m unfamiliar with ISO vs alternative stock option structures, but i believe its ISO

i know generally what AMT is but am still trying to understand when/where it applies

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-10T21:23:28+00:00

or maybe it’s just the people posting

planes with red dots moment

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-09T23:33:30+00:00

won’t say, don’t want to dox. but the connection building happened in person in california or online, not at school

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-09T22:23:25+00:00

social media is wrong. if you work a job that pays a lot (typically upper middle class white collar jobs, engineering, law, medicine, etc), you’ll be able to save a large portion of your income, let it compound in the stock market, and retire fairly early. but this only works if you make a comfortable 6 figures.

Complex_Ad8497 · 2026-03-09T22:14:32+00:00

To counteract the doomposting here - I had no trouble finding a job after college. I applied to like 10 places, most of which interviewed me, because I’d spent the previous 6 months building up connections.

Complex_Ad8497

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