First and foremost, I am not even an American student. That most certainly doesn’t allow me to get the upper hand. Secondly, I have never acquired any internship position or part-time job whatsoever. To make matters worse, currently I have a cumulative GPA of 2.07, having had to repeat 3 courses. Chips are certainly down and I really cannot think of anything else other than to just teach English back home in my country. I am an economics major and have little or no understanding of almost all concepts that I learned in my economics courses. The only good news is that I completed all courses required toward the Bachelor’s in Economics, although I have one more year left before graduation, on the brink of declaring computer science as a minor. I am afraid that I will not be able to get the job that I want even if I end up doing well in the remaining 7-8 courses. Even if I do well, I will end up with a cumulative GPA of no higher than 2.42. That will put me at a downright disadvantage in comparison to most other people. I am currently looking for a potential part-time job or an internship position back home, but I highly doubt that I will find a decent one, let alone the fact that I might not even be able to find one. To be honest, I don’t even know if I found the right path for me. Given the circumstances that I’m holding on to a loose end with a shitty GPA, lackadaisical understanding of many concepts, and no internship experience, I wish I could travel back to the past just to fully decide the optimal path that I should’ve followed from the start. People may think that I am just a dejected individual who has no hope, but in fact I am a pretty positive-minded person to be able to not give up even when the chips are down. This brings me to unconditionally accept all advices and honest opinions from you guys. Thank you.
Sure, without any work experience you will have to try harder to find a job and it will be especially useful for you to make use of any professional network you might have among your extended family and neighbors. I doubt whether you can be an econ major without any understanding of econ concepts whatsoever. I encourage you to develop a daily practice of reading a newspaper and you will soon see the importance and relevance of econ concepts in your daily life. Finally, you can still make a big change in your GPA by excelling in all of your courses next year.
First of all, in all but one country in the world, the majority of adults never get a 4 year college degree. As such, you are already ahead of 50% of your fellow citizens regardless of where you are from (if you are from Canada, then you are only ahead of 49.8% of your fellow citizens).
“I don’t even know if I found the right path for me.”
Probably true. It sounds as if economics is probably not your calling in life. It is VERY common for students to get to their senior year at still not know what they are going to end up doing for a living. Some of my friends and colleagues have children who have graduated university and have no idea what they want to do next. This is normal. People figure it out over time.
If you have one year left in university, and you have already completed all of the economics courses that you need, then this gives you an opportunity to try out other fields in your next year. You mentioned an interest in computer science. Definitely take some computer science courses next year and see what you think of it. If you like it then you should be able to find a way to learn enough to become a software engineer. You could change you major (which will slow down graduation at this point), or perhaps get a second bachelor’s in computer science, or even get some sort of community college degree or certification in computer science.
I agree with @CheddarcheeseMN that you are going to find over the next few years that some of what you have learned in economics becomes more real when you read the paper, see what happens to companies or to national economies, and as you just generally see the world operating. However, you are probably correct that economics is not where you will end up working for a career. You will figure this out over time.
@CheddarcheeseMN and @DadTwoGirls I appreciate your honest inputs and I guess I need to keep trying and making the right decisions, regardless of whatever the outcome will bring.
I agree with most, if not all, of what you said. On a side note, what I should’ve also asked initially was: “does graduating from a college with 0 internship experience really mean the end of the world?” As I said, I am currently seeking either a part-time job opportunity or a potential internshi position back home in my country, but I am pretty sure that things will go South and I will not be able to find one unfortunately. But, more importantly, I think you and I are on the same boat that I need to set something else as my main priority: focusing on future grades (mapping out what courses to take and hopefully doing some pre-learning), seeking different interests/study (other than economics), and maybe even partaking in a different route such as getting the degree in computer science. I just need a simple answer as to whether or not accumulating an internship experience is a must-do task that may potentially lead the path to failure if not done so. Or maybe I should invest my time into three overlapping tasks as I said above.