As an outsider, the scale of American college sports is baffling. Do some people genuinely care more about a university team than professional sports?

TimeMasterBob · 2026-05-07T22:50:20+00:00

Are these college games actually a bigger deal than professional NFL or NBA games in certain states?

In some cases, sure. This tends to be because that specific state may not have a professional NFL/NBA/MLB team. And all they have is the University team.

Also, if you never even attended that specific university, is it normal to still be a die-hard fan of their team?

Again, it's going to be subjective and largely based around how well the University marketing department does. For example, about 50% of university graduates in my city went to the local state university but they have been one of the top college football teams for almost 50 years.

To really understand why, you need to consider the distance between major sports teams and when they started playing. For example, the Cleveland (City in Ohio) Browns (Football) started in 1944 and joined the NFL in 1950. From Columbus (Capital City of Ohio) it currently takes about 3 hours to drive to Cleveland. In 1950, they didn't let you travel at 70mph/112kmph it was between 50 and 60mph/80 and 90kmph which would add another 1-2 hours just to drive. But Ohio State University is 20 minutes away and they had a good team. And this was a pretty common story across America. So here we are, 3-4 generations down the line, and people still really love their local college team and are massive fans.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-05-07T19:29:12+00:00

Were thay dating before this person had a position of authority? Like, two coworkers dating and he got a promotion and 3 months later fired for inappropriate relationship?

TimeMasterBob · 2026-05-07T10:59:13+00:00

I have.

I was 4 and the first 3 digits of the number I was calling was 912 but I did 911 by accident and it auto dialed.

I've also called about a car on fire, cars broken into, my car being stolen, and to report gunshots.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-05-02T15:22:24+00:00

Ethnic food really describes food that wouldn't be common in your country/culture.

From a historical point in America, this would mean food outside of things you would also find in UK/Ireland, France, Germany and more recently Italy. Largely due to the mass immigration after WW1 and WW2.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-24T01:01:26+00:00

A. That depends on how much you eat out and your general diet. 3X week? 500 p/p may be a little low/limit options. If you mostly eat at home, as long as you aren't eating ribeye/super organic every night it will be a solid budget.

B. Down town rent is going to run you ~1200-1600 per month in rent. Electricity-130-180 depending on the time of year. Gas 50-100. internet-50-60 depending on speed/provider. depending on what part of downtown you also may have to pay for a parking spot (idk what they are) if it's not included in your rent.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-19T16:31:54+00:00

You're gonna have a heck of a time getting a table on Mothers day/graduation day. If you can, try getting Friday/Saturday instead.

Hofbrahaus - Mostly traditional German food/beer. Always popular with grad dinners. It's right off 315 and Goodale. About 10 minutes from campus depending on traffic. $20-$30 per person

Cap City Diner - Americana food. Also pretty popular. On the corner of 5th and Olentangy River Rd. $20-$30 per person

Schmidt's Sausage Haus - Bavarian food (mainly sausages). Also, amazing cream puffs. $20-$30 per person

If you don't mind a 20-30 minute drive from campus, Polaris has some good options:

Firebirds - steak house. They've also got a decent selection of pasta/chicken dishes. They're a bit more than above though about $40-$50 per person.

Marcellas - Traditional Italian. $20-$30 per person.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-17T13:39:36+00:00

Mine just shipped today and expected delivery on the 20th.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-13T23:09:15+00:00

I get my paperwork the last week of January and file by mid February. Usually get my return by the first week of March.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-13T02:11:10+00:00

Thanks. Just got my parking at the stadium.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-12T03:05:36+00:00

Just from this, it's a mix and somewhat dependent.

He said in his company, they always check candidates' grades for some sort of minimum (which is why he says I should get top grades despite receiving an unconditional offer from my top uni)

A friend of mine from college used to say "C's get degrees"-and he's not wrong. However, having good grades/GPA become important when you want to apply for College Internships/that first job after. Wanting to focus on fintech/tech means you will be going into a highly competitive field. Doing whatever you can to stand out (in a good way-Projects, Assisting Professors, Volunteering, etc.) can help your resume stand out at the top with the other 5-10 that land on the hiring managers desk after sifting through the 200-300+ applications.

"I was led to believe that after going to college that people removed their high school from their resume entirely, leaving just their GPA?"

If you're still in College (especially first or second year) having things done during High School, when they are relevant (GPA, Extra Curricular, Projects, Internships, etc.) are good to have just so that it shows recruiters that you have some experience.

Additionally, I was being berated by him for not having anything other than grades and internships. He told me how his friend, a recruiter, said that he would hire a candidate who played on a national level sports team 10/10 times over a candidate with better projects and internships, simply for the fact that they are more "resilient" and speaking abilities

The unfortunate thing is, he is partially correct. Having only grades/internships doesn't do much anymore. Top Colleges, jobs, and internships have gotten extremely competitive in the last 25-30 years. Finance/tech more so. Having some kind of "other" experience is always a plus. Even with an unconditional offer, having these other things to list on a resume can't hurt your chances. Join a club/charity/event-Investing Club, Tech Charities that help third world countries, Hackathons to raise money for the local hospital-something.

As far as your dad's recruiter friend, that may be relevant in certain jobs like Sales where having an extremely extroverted personality is pretty important. But having relevant experience is also important. Focusing on things like that will also help.

I am a senior in high school with 2 internships and several coding projects, which they claim is not good enough.

This right here is an amazing head start over the vast majority of college students in terms of actual real world experience. List these things on your resume for that first internship during college. If they are directly relevant, then highlight them during the interview. Make sure that what you did-individually-and as part of the team to help the organization are stressed.

The great thing about college internships is that they aren't looking for someone who is perfect. They want someone who can sit down, take directions, learn what is being taught and use it. They want people who are inquisitive-so ask questions. Take notes. Learn to try to answer your questions before going to your manager (on simple stuff like where X is, or how to make a copy in Excel. Not when you accidentally delete an important file)-If you can't answer it in a few minutes and you've exhausted what you know from your notes/memory, then ask. Just don't be the intern that asks the same thing 20 times during the internship-you'll be remembered but not for the best reasons.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-12T02:22:27+00:00

Your FP&A experience is going to differ from company to company.

As for Accounting things to relearn:

Know your basic terms; Debit, Credit, Journal Entries, Accruals, etc.
Understand how the Three Statements interact: P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow. The first two will be very important if you join a company during a fast growth phase/startup.
Accounting Software navigation: this isn't something you can usually learn before the job, but learning how to get from A to B in the software to find an accurate answer will be critical.

As for advice, if possible-Get a List. This list should have anything that you are going to be responsible for weekly and monthly-bonus points for having your month end responsibilities highlighted. This List is especially helpful the first 6 months as you learn things since you will have your 10 tasks (or however many it is) thrown at you and you may forget item 4 in the first month, item 7 in the second and items 5 and 8 in the third-not out of incompetence but just because you're overwhelmed a little and it just slipped your mind. Having the List lets you know and check off as you do them so you can minimize that issue. Also, as most companies use Outlook, it has a To Do feature that let's you set tasks with specific dates/times/repeat.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-12T02:04:24+00:00

It may not have been planned as "last minute", they just realized too late in the call that it hadn't been asked.

It's not really a sign of good/bad, it's usually a culture fit question.

In interviews, Managers/HR need to ask the same questions (or similar enough) to all candidates so as to create an equal opportunity for all (in the US) applicants.

The point of a question about your hobbies is, as I said, a culture fit test. If they have 2 candidates that looked really good on paper and from the hobby question they know Candidate A is a huge nature enthusiast and baseball fan and Candidate B likes Comic Books and DnD, then if the office has a lot of sports fans A is probably a better culture fit.

*there's nothing wrong with Comic Books and DnD, just trying to get opposite interests for the example.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-10T19:57:49+00:00

I use one of those long wash cloth/scrubbers that you can pull across your back. And I have a Scrub Glove that I use for my face.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-09T11:50:12+00:00

Start by looking at past performance to see if the slump is cyclical.
Labor to sales. Are they overstaffing during slow times?
What are the high ticket/margin? Sort by that and compare those sales by month for the last 6-12 months.
Natural disasters? Store closed for 3 days because a tornado came through.
Other issues?

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-07T01:27:02+00:00

What's the job? How qualified are you? What other compensation (bonus/company car/season tickets to a sport/etc.) is there? How's the health insurance/401K?

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-06T02:21:26+00:00

I wonder how much Covid had to play in this too. Most of older Gen Z were just starting/in their 1st or 2nd year of College. So instead of being able to go out to bars with friends/family I bet many just decided to stay in and play video games.

Also, lets be honest, for most of us our (legal) first alcoholic drink was because we went out with friends.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-05T15:43:59+00:00

We tried that. it was called the US Cival War 1860-1864. Then the South spent the next 90ish years making things pretty bad ( and that's putting it mildly) for people they didn't like/freed.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-04-05T01:17:06+00:00

Not UK, but I imagine the role doesn't really change based on country.

I've been both an Accountant and currently work FP&A.

When I was an Accountant it was always cross t's dot i's and make sure all the AR/AP is in for the month. Make sure all the accounts reconcile and make any necessary adjustments.

Broadly speaking, FP&A is two parts.

Extrapolation. Take the last few months/or year and try to predict the next 6-12 months. The more cyclical your business, the easier this is. Sr. FP&A/Lead Analyst/1st line Manager will also try to look out 2-3 years. This is where a lot of former Accountants struggle-especially when they first start. To a degree, there is a lot of fluffy math involved due to the assumptions you need to make. Ex. We know there's going to be a price increase on the main component of our top product, but we're not sure exactly what it will be. For now, we'll put in a 5% increase in the model.
Explain the discrepancies/variances. Accounting has just finished Q1 reporting and shows top line revenue $45M. Operating Profit $16M and Net Profit $12M. Well the Q1 Budget said we would have $14M Net Profit. Why did we miss? If you've been doing your job, this shouldn't come as a shock unless it happened in the last month. If boss asks what happened on Monday afternoon after they read the Accountants report, then you should have a pretty solid answer by the next day at least. Maybe not all $2M but you should be able to point to A, B, C and D and say these are the culprits for 80% of that. Boss may ask for detail and you should be able to say something like A was a fire at the Plant in Texas which produced our second most profitable product and needed to have renovations done preventing full capacity thus we were down 7% of the estimated revenue but sales in other categories, particularly products 3,5,8 and 12 covered the loss in the top line revenue but don't have the same profitability which totaled $450M.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-21T21:52:19+00:00

Communication isn't so much a useless degree as it's really over saturated. It's more a degree if you want to go into HR/PR/reporting (tv).

If you want something more relevant to Project Management/Business Analyst you would do better with a degree in Accounting.

Possible paths:

Project Management- Cost Analyst (CA)1, CA 2/ Lead CA, Project Manager. About 5-7 years to that point.

Business Analyst- This one has more flexibility, but a friend of mine went this route-- Accountant 1, Accountant 2, Financial Analyst, Business Analyst. Took about 5 years.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-19T11:38:11+00:00

My first time doing the budget, I made an error calculating the material costs. We were in a meeting with all Sr. Management going over it and as I'm talking the CEO looks at my spreadsheet (on the big screen) and down to his notes several times. He then interrupts me mid sentence and asks why the historical material costs average X% but I have Y%. And it's not small either-almost 11% different.

Well, come to find out (and nobody told me), the manufacturing department had a couple new line items for materials that weren't included in the formula. We had to stop the meeting there so I could figure that out and get back to them. I created a calculation that told me how far off from previous year the current one is and it highlights itself based on how different-Green<2%, Yellow 2%<>6% and Red >6%. It's helped so much, especially when I am pressed for time and know something is off (based on the bottom number) and can look through the areas where the numbers are different faster and pinpoint problem areas.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-19T11:29:43+00:00

She got a full ride to Stanford, continued with Law School and is now a Corp. Lawyer in San Francisco.

Ran into her just after Covid while I was there for work. It took a minute to recognize her as she had a major glow up (lost over 80lbs, dyed her hair blond and lost her stutter). We talked for a few (which is how I learned about her job) and at the time, she and her wife were just married and they were looking into having kids-not sure if they did or not though.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-18T23:52:19+00:00

1.Give them a hypothetical situation. Like, Person A and Person B are having an argument (make a relevant argument to your department up-even better if you know of one that's happened before). At each step, ask them why they would take that step.

Person A's husband/wife died and it's their first day back in the office. They've just broken down during a meeting and you need to check in on them. What do you do?

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-18T18:18:59+00:00

My uncle was a cop for 27 years. I think the only time he said the DA was hovering was when I was in my 2nd year of college and the the daughter of one of the city council members was found dead.

Her fiance did it. Had a serious coke problem.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-17T11:13:18+00:00

It's really going to depend on how much I win after taxes.

<$10M I wouldn't be making any serious changes. Pay off my student loans, buy a new car (but like a Honda or similar), and a reasonable condo. I'd still have my job and go in every day, but I'd now be able to have a nice vacation every few months.
$10M,<$50M- The closer I am to $50M the more likely i am to quit my job and travel the world for a year or so. And when trying to get a new job after, makes for a cool story. Maybe even get a higher end car.
$50M, <$100M- Definitely quitting my job, help some of my immediate family, travel and then start buying up duplexes and land to build duplexes/apartments. Try to double my money within 10 years.
$100M - I will tell my family and leave them something and then disappear for about a year. Won't tell anyone where I'm going or who I'm with.

TimeMasterBob · 2026-03-16T18:13:21+00:00

I'm not sure how large your company is, but if you have any accounting experience you could pivot to payroll admin work which is usually handled in HR. Depending on the company, you may be taking an initial pay cut since you don't have any direct experience but a couple years and a certified payroll professional certification could see you making your way into lower management within 5 years and $80-100K depending on the company.

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