To that I have to ask, "Is that what is going to take to make that person happy? Having a job with an elite company? As for me and mine, we're quite content in jobs we feel passionate about and / or take pride in making a reasonable living and using the time outside of our normal working hours jobs to pursue other passions. In short, work to live, don't live to work. Everyone is different of course, if it takes an elite job to make someone happy, by all means, play the game of the Ivy League schools / Elite companies.
It seems to be a mindless game. When people get too wrapped up in it, it causes severe problems.
My personal problem is that I lack any passion for my job, take no pride in it, and have no passion for anything outside of working hours, ergo I'm bored out of my mind.
Which is why I say that I never figured out what to go to with myself and I couldn't begin to tell you what makes me happy.
On the plus side, since I don't actually have any real status, I'm extremely unlikely to take my own life due to "status failure".
The physician who killed himself was found by his 14 year old daughter. I'm thinking that's going to cause a bit of psychological trauma. It seems to be triggered by severe career path failures.
