You've had one phone interview, then HR calls

[twofish-quant]

Who cares. You could go into finance and get 6-figures and all you have to do is sell your soul.

On the other hand going into finance is not a good idea for this sort of thing because:

1) you have to deal with the standard job hunting headaches in finance.

2) $100K in NYC is not going to get you very far. NYC has a marginal tax rate of 45% and it will cost you $2000/month for a decent apartment

3) You'll feel extremely poor. If you make $70K but everyone around you makes $50K, you feel rich. If you make $100K but you come into daily contact with people that make $1M+, you feel very, very, very poor. Also, if you don't have your head screwed on straight, you can get into serious, serious financial trouble very quickly.

There are good reasons for going into finance, but making large amounts of money so that you can feel rich curiously isn't one of them.

 

[Pengwuino]

I care. It hurts! I understand what you are saying, that my happiness shouldn't depend at all on the fairness of a situation and the salaries of others. But the truth is I am human and it's just not the case. I worked really hard and want to make more money than others who didn't!

As others have said, ditch that attitude - it was cute in junior high, but will ruin you in the real world. Don't try to one-up the Joneses as they say. If you REALLY want to make more money than other people, there are plenty of ways to do it. Hell, for all you know, your friends could be lying. They could be doing something they dislike or may have no job security or could end up in a company that will go belly up next year. They could also end up millionaires with their own airplanes, who knows. It only affects you as much as you let it.