@ Pupik: Good insight. I don't expect to be wealthy as soon as I come out of university, but I also don't want ot be making less than $60K a year. I'm not expecting to be one of those "overnight sucess" stories, but I also want to have some sort of a luxurious life. I really like the private sector idea. What about being self-employed/ opening up a firm/business/office?
I couldn't tell you, to be honest. For one, I don't make a six-digit income! I know a few people that do, and they work hard to be there, or had a lot of help along the way. Either way, maintaining that type of career is usually lots of long hours and/or hard work. But the saying goes, if something is "fun" or "interesting" or "enjoyable",
then it isn't really hard work.
My brother-in-law works for a major software company, and he makes $100K a year (so we've heard). But he also graduated with multiple degrees and works 5-6 days a week, 50-65 hours a week. I know service writers that make the same kind of coin that merely graduated high school, but were good at what they did. Same kind of hours, though. But there's also lots that don't make that kind of money, and move on and on to job after job, due to a lack of or deterioration of their skills, emotional drive, enthusiasm, creativity, intelligence, or intuition; you're not going to stay long at high-paying places if you don't produce continual and reliable success.
Very few jobs with limited/no experience pay that well; after all, pay is usually commensurate with experience, and employers know that someone out of school is willing to jump at one of the first opportunities available. On the other hand, many (but not all) companies do not want inexperienced prospects; they go through cycles of wanting experienced staff, then they want to "mold-from-scratch" with fresh faces and few prior "bad habits".
Basically, work at it, that's all. I'd recommend you choose something you like to do before worrying too much about how good/bad it pays, unless it really is a dead-end career path. Most of my friends, classmates, and co-workers took various paths after high school, some to big name schools, others took lass-famous routes, others went straight to work at the bottom. There's no guarantees in anything; entire industries change and evolve mightily within 5-10 years. Demand fluctuates, or the skills involved become more or less specialized. There's no promise that you'll make more money ten years later, in many cases; lots of people wind up with that problem, when more and more people can learn the same skill, and the available talent pool increases, or is willing to work for less money.
I mentioned doing an internship, and you'll get an idea if that's the career you want to get involved with; you'll hopefully network and meet the right bunch to get you pointed along the right career path. Some people I know were able to use the internship summers as actual "years experience" (Note: I never interned, kind of wished I did...but I've worn a lot of interesting hats over the years).
