Why does nobody talk about how a 20 year old bank teller gig quietly paid better than my degree job

Jake White · 2026-10-31T07:30:04.93177+00:00

My uncle Ray worked at a savings bank in Worcester, Massachusetts for 31 years. When I graduated in 2009 with a communications degree, he said to me at a cookout, "Get a job counting other people's money before you go chase your own." I laughed it off. I spent two years doing copywriting for $28,000 and change with no benefits worth mentioning. He kept saying the same line every holiday. In 2012 I finally applied at a credit union as a teller, mostly to shut him up. Starting pay was $31,500, full health, a pension after five years, and every bank holiday off. The work was dull in the best way. You balance your drawer, you learn faces, you go home at 5:15. I moved up to loan processing and now I make more than most of my college friends, with zero student debt left hanging over half of it. Ray passed in 2019 and I never really thanked him right. Curious if anyone else here got steered into a boring money job by an older relative who turned out to be dead right about it.

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Why does nobody talk about how a 20 year old bank teller gig quietly paid better than my degree job | Boring But Great Jobs - HW Forums