this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Chandler's job was just made to be some generic finance sector job, right? It's definitely possible even today, but he'd be working a lot more hours. You'd never see him on the show.
Ross being stable even as a PhD grad student seems a lot more unrealistic to me. He even loved on his own. But maybe it was family money.
Ross wasn't a grad student though. he was a PhD researcher + professor. back in the 90s, that would've been a decent gig.
I was under the impression Ross was still in a PhD program the first year, working at the museum seems like a gig for a PhD student. Worrying about the museum displays and stuff like that in season 1.
Nah, just your typical PhD paleontologist dinosaur nerd. The times they showed that side of Ross was probabaly some of the most realistic moments in the show.
nah there was a whole episode where people were banging next to where his dissertation was in the NYU library. he ends up banging a girl that was interested in his paper while policing the library next to his paper.
It wasn't (and still isn't) a decent gig as a young professor, especially not in a field where you can't bring in much grant money. Making even decent money in academia requires decades of seniority, and the really big bucks requires popular fame (a la Stephen Jay Gould) or enormous research grants that your institution gets to take 30% or 40% of.
nah back in the 90s, it was a pretty good gig. not rich rich. Ross wasn't rich rich either. but you made more money than your average Joe and society was way cheaper back then, even in new york. there were also way less phds, so there was higher demand and cost of education was way less. I dropped out of my program in the late 80s for a private sector job, but my friends that continued lived pretty decently.
Ross wasn’t a grad student; He had his doctorate. Initially he worked at a museum of natural history, then eventually got fired (for screaming at his boss) and went to work at the university as a professor. Either way, in the mid-90’s, he would have been comfortable.
I mean they mentioned he and Chandler graduated in 1991, so if Ross got a PhD in 3 years that is probably a record, lol. I was always under the impression he was in a PhD program the first season of Friends and that's why he was working at the museum.
Chandler was more some bureaucratic data guy. The way they describe him is inputting numbers into speeadsheets at a megacorp. But he eventually becomes a manager.
When he tries to leave early on because he hates it so much they call him and offer a huge raise to get him to come back, so I think he's more than just a random data entry guy that could easily be replaced.