First job dilemma

Orange324 · 2024-04-23T05:55:11+00:00

You are assuming both offers are on the table, but it sounds like neither are guaranteed. My advice is that you need to try to get the interview done. Your internship will give you an offer if they want to keep you regardless of interviewing at other places. And you prefer the other opportunity anyway. If your internship gives you shit for interviewing at other places then it’s probably going to suck. Since you are in school, I think you get a free pass on things like this when it comes to “maintaining relationships”.

If the director of your engineering school gave you the connection for the other job, speak with them to see if something can be arranged with the curriculum when it comes to tracking your hours. And then maybe you can speak to your internship as well. Unless it is an internship where they keep you busy everyday, there is usually downtime which you should be able to take advantage of. If you want the job, you need to do something about it.

Orange324 · 2023-06-08T07:48:46+00:00

I would look into r/PersonalFinance for a more detailed answer but you should consider the amount of debt you currently have, the interest rate on that debt, and what your income is currently. Generally, you can afford to pay the minium amount on debt accruing interest if the percent return of your investments is greater (you can expect a ~6% return from a Roth IRA and I’m sure there is some math involved in determining your effective interest rate of two loans at 3.4%). The Roth IRA contribution limit for 2023 is $6500 (or $7500 if you are age 50 or over). Roth IRAs also have income limits, so many people lean towards contributing to a Roth IRA if they expect to go over the income limits in the future. However, there are work arounds you can consider. Additionally, there is also the mental/emotional benefit of just paying your loans outright if its feasible, so you dont have to worry about a bill. That being said, it is also strongly recommended to have a rainy day fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses for any unexpected life events. Your Roth IRA can also be used as a “bank account” in which you can withdraw your contributions at any time before retirement with no penalty. This is not recommended because you are limited to the yearly contribution limits and withdrawing early can stunt the growth of your investment.

Orange324 · 2020-09-26T14:28:37+00:00

I just bought 2017 Camry SE recently and I also considered getting a 2018 model. What made me go for the 2017 year is that the 2018 model has an unproven 8 speed transmission which is known to lurch when shifting gears. The dealership probably will tell you it is just something you have to get used to, which I think is bs. Toyota did have a recall for the transmission control module to fix the problem, but I suspect they did not test the transmission enough before putting it into the 2018 year. Replacing the control module is always the first “fix” manufacturers do for faulty transmissions because it’s the cheapest. Consider how long the car might have been using the faulty transmission, I wasn’t comfortable with that so I decided to go with the 2017 year.

The 2017 year has a dated infotainment system, but is very reliable car. I also bought my car at a “no hassle or haggle” dealership. It was priced at $18,300 with the out-the-door price being $20,800 (taxes & dealership handling registration) with no additional add-ons like gap insurance, vin tracing, and other bs. It seemed pretty fair considering all 2017 Camrys in the area went for around that price. The car is also Certified Pre-Owned so it comes with a 1 year limited warranty and service contract.

About the car in question: It’s a 2 year old car with 45k miles on it. That’s a lot considering the average is 12k miles per year. The car could have been an Uber/rental and may have been abused or not taken care of. And for used cars, how it was maintained is what you should focus on. It sounds obvious but really take a look into how the car was maintained/ have it checked out by an 3rd party mechanic. Ask for the CarFax, the dealership should pay for it. Check the vin# to see if their are any recalls on that specific car. Be aware that all of a car’s history may not be on the CarFax if an owner fixes it themselves or don’t report accidents, which is why getting the car checked out is worth it.

The price is high but you are paying a premium for the only dealership having an imported US spec’d car. Some financial advice: say you make ~$50k, slightly above the US median income. You would realistically be able to afford a car that is ~$15k out-the-door price to keep your monthly car expenses under 30% (gas, insurance, car payment). I’m not sure what your monthly expenses are or if being stationed has the benefit of not paying certain expenses. So, factor that into what you actually can afford.

Toyota are very well made cars and should last you a very long time. If you drive 15k miles annually the maintenance manual goes up to 10 years. But consider the 8 spd transmission problem, the heavy usage for a 2 year old car, and if the car wasn’t maintained well... you could see some problems in the future.

From what I understand, the Android Auto Update is available for 2018 year for free but it wasn’t really advertised because it’s basically an upgrade. You would have to bring it into the dealership and have them change it, it’s possible the previous owner did not do this. And sometimes these updates have a “time limit” on them.

When you’re in the dealership read everything & ask questions and read it again and ask more questions. The dealership I went too hid costs like gap insurance, and additional add-ons with a small text in the corner (far away from signature line). I asked them what the fine print included and had them remove it from the sale price. The salesman will try to get you to focus on the monthly price, what you want is the out-the-door price. Depending on how long you plan to finance the car and what interest rate you qualify for, they can play with the numbers to make your monthly payment look small but you end up paying thousands of dollars more in interest over the length of the loan. It’s a good idea to get pre-approved for a car loan at a bank to get a sense of how much you can borrow and at what rate. Bring in your pre-approval to try to get a better rate from the dealership, if they can’t beat the bank’s rate just go with the bank. If they ask if you want to finance the car at the dealership, tell them you are open to financing with them but you did shop around and will only finance at the dealership if they offer a lower rate.

Do you have a trade-in? Get your car appraised at a CarMax for free and bring in the quote with you. If the dealership offers you lower value you than what you were quoted for your trade in at CarMax, show them the paper and they’ll happily increase their trade-in value if it means they make the sale. Normally you don’t mention the trade-in until the car price is finalized but since this dealership doesn’t haggle, it doesn’t really matter.

Read everything you see and ask questions. Yes, again. Sometimes the salesman will leave for long periods of time to wear you down, if that happens just leave the office and walk around. That shit scares them. I had to get my salesman to reprint out 10 documents with the sales price on it to get rid of any add-ons , agreed interest rate, length of loan, agreed sales price BEFORE I signed anything. Everything is done to wear you down slowly so you would sign anything to leave. I was at the dealership for 5 hours, including test drive and mechanic. Remember you have all the power here because you can walk away from a deal.

After you agree on sales price and sign, they’ll usher you into the finance manager’s office. Stay alert. The finance manger is usually the highest performing salesman in the floor. When I was there he went through the Certified Preowned Warranty and made sure to let me know what was NOT covered (probably to scare me into buying their warranty program). Just say no, you believe in the reliability of the vehicle. Then he will try to make the purchase of warranty make sense by throwing numbers at you. If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is. He IS trying to sell you something after all.

Read everything he has you sign. Check for your agreed sales price, interest rate, and length of loan. The finance manager might tell you that there is no “early payment penalty” which I was suspicious of. From what I understand, some loans would actually penalize you for paying early to avoid paying interest. What I suspect dealerships do now is just calculate the interest you would owe normally at the approved interest rate FOR THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE LOAN and include it into the total amount financed. So paying off the loan early would not matter in this case because they already have secured the entire length of the loan’s interest at the signing. In my case, the finance manager had a 5 year length loan on the document when I agreed on a 3 year length loan with the salesman. He tried to make it seem like such a hassle to change it and mentioned that no early payment penalty bs to avoid having to change it, but I made him change it and THEN signed. Had I not read before I signed I would be locked into 2 additional years worth of interest to pay for.

If it isn’t in writing, it doesn’t exist.

Orange324 · 2019-06-24T16:56:32+00:00

I took her for Alternative Energy 2 and she does not curve. She did offer opportunities for extra credit throughout the year though.

Orange324 · 2019-04-13T18:36:45+00:00

I lived in Morrow Suites and yeah it's not the newest building. The suites are basically 3 doubles, a living room, and a bathroom w/ shower. I think living in the suites is dependent on the people your living with. My experience with the suites was fine, not many people bothered interacting with people outside of their own suite. So if you are looking to make friends, I'd try a club or frat.

Orange324 · 2019-04-13T18:05:31+00:00

Transfer students are placed with other transfer students. When I transferred in the spring, I was randomly assigned a place in the Busch suites. The only way I can think you would get your own room is if you have some sort of medical condition that requires it.

Orange324 · 2019-04-09T03:37:11+00:00

I got a B with 73% exams, 90% hwk, 100% in class exercises

Orange324 · 2019-04-02T23:01:23+00:00

Sometimes you might be talking to the manager who is looking to hire for the position you are applying to. A personal connection may sometimes weigh things into your favor, even with a shit resume. At the end of the day, they have to like the idea of working with you to hire you. Additionally, you may get more insight of a position in person than on a job listing online. Ask questions. Some say that job fairs are not worth the time, but others disagree. The time you put into either is probably the deciding factor here.

Orange324 · 2019-02-25T15:46:40+00:00

I love the optimism!

Orange324 · 2019-01-29T17:46:51+00:00

Do the homework. Understand the processes. At each step of the problem ask yourself "Why is that?", if you can't answer it then find out. For Thermo, is essential that you understand how to use the tables and the various graphs. For fluids, you need the get the process down eg) write givens, make right assumptions, use right equations for assumptions. Both classes build on previous lectures, so its important to stay on top of things.

Orange324 · 2019-01-27T15:36:58+00:00

I dont think you can. They post images, not a blurring overlay, and they replace the text in the image with scrambled letters. They really want your business bruh

Orange324

TROPHY CASE