About 4 years ago I took a solid (albeit somewhat low-wage) job in the UC system. It turned out to be a great gig with few regrets.
Also around that time I had recovered from the dotbomb mess well enough to be in the market for a condo/house. I didn’t have much in the way of a down payment so I started researching what other options I had in the way of financing.
It was around 2005 that I figured out I either had to go back to the private sector and make more money or take out some super-risky loan product. I also started reading about the ‘housing bubble’. Given my experience with the SoCal economy I also figured we were in for a major recession once it popped. So I decided to wait it out at the Uni.
Fast-forward to ’08 and it looks like I made the right decision. I have my income locked in (got a big raise too), take a free shuttle to work and have great benefits. UC is showing record enrollments, which is no surprise as institutes of higher education do better in a recession.
I’m not ashamed to admit I got wiped out during the tech boom. I went from brunching with the CTO of Akamai, being wined and dined by Dell while making 50k on private IPO’s to racking servers at a Uni for 50k a year.
And you know what, it was worth it. I learned humility. Something the RE bulls could use in spades.
For every loser there is a winner. It really does pay to be on the right side of history.
