<p>I think you all know my story by now. Rising senior civil eng. major, hate my major, confused, only like money, no passions, emotional issues, no engineering work experience.</p>
<p>I googled 'quarter-life crisis' and the definition is a period of time where a young adult experiences anxiety about the future of adulthood. Yeah, that's what I'm going through. </p>
<p>Did any of you go through a quarter-life crisis? How did you get through it?</p>
<p>Also, I narrowed down my future career options. Please look at them:
1. Continue with my engineering degree. Try to get internships before graduation. Work at engineering firm for a few years. Get an MBA. Become a Republican corporate sell-out to make lots of money. Might fail at this goal because I'm dumb.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Use my engineering degree to work in environmental activism & policy. The environment is the only think I have an "interest" in because I believe it's the most important issue of the 21st century. Work at a non-profit or a federal agency dealing with environmental issues. Be poor Democrat but might get a sense of fulfillment. I feel weak though pursuing this because it's such a soft option.</p></li>
<li><p>After my engineering degree, study IT. More time in school, but it might be worth it. Try to get a job because I'm thinking this field is very competitive. Move to India if worst comes to worst and take an IT job there. Would be very depressed though because that country is a *****hole. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Which of these 3 options do you like best? Why? I know it's weird and kind of sad I keep posting here about my problems but...I don't know. Being anonymous on the internet does that to me.</p>
<p>1 is probably not the best for you considering that you don’t seem to like this career path at all. Regardless of how much money you make, if you hate your job everyday it isn’t worth it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I would get work experience before pursuing another degree. If just to cover the debt of another degree. India plan probably isn’t the best for you, considering you really don’t seem like you want to go there.</p></li>
<li><p>This one is plausible. You have at least some interest in the field, and an actual job in the field may be more interesting than your current classwork. you can pursue environmental engineering jobs, or you could use your degree for activism. And there is no guarentee you would be poor from this path either</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Why not go to India for Vacation. I recommend kashmir. Incredibly beuatiful and peaceful.
Kashmir shatters all the stereotypes about south Asians.</p>
<p>Why do you keep posting new threads talking about the same thing: what you should do with your life. You should be old enough to make decisions on your own and take the responsibility to research your options. That means you can’t just ask people for the answer all the time. Even if you’re gonna try this forum, there are a ton of threads that you can find that more than likely will describe atleast a few cases like yours.</p>
<p>For example, you can definitely research how hard/easy it is to get an MBA after engineering, you can research how hard/easy it is to get an engineering job in some field without any research or internship experience, etc. You need to be able to figure these life things out on your own for the most part. You went from asking to what you should do about hating your major to asking whether you should take someone’s advice on one thing and now you’re asking whether you should take the advice from a few people.</p>
<p>Sorry if this sounds callous but I’d guess you’re atleast 20 years old… so I’d expect a 20 year old who’s smart enough to be in engineering to be able to figure out life. Start with this handy website: [url=<a href=“http://www.google.com/]Google[/url”>http://www.google.com/]Google[/url</a>] . You’ll find lots of answers from there, trust me. Smart people don’t know everything, but they know how to find out what they do need to know. You’re in engineering, you ought to be smart, so I say pull a Nike and just do it.</p>
<p>Were you not around a few years ago? That is traditionally one of the most war-torn areas of the world since both India and Pakistan lay claim to it. Like siglio said, it has calmed down somewhat since Pakistan is busy with the Taliban, but Kashmir is the region that inspired both Pakistan and India to develop nuclear weapons. I would bet that it won’t remain peaceful for that much longer. Those two countries can only ignore each other for so long.</p>
<p>boneh3ad, I believe the Kashmir reference was a joke…</p>
<p>Xinio, you’re in a tough spot…do you think you could be happy doing any of what you stated? Sometimes a job has to just be that, a job.</p>
<p>What is your concentration within CivE?</p>
<p>Also, ever think of Financial Engineering, if you like money? You need some badass programming skills though. If you’re good, you can be making $250k/year a few years out. Of course you’ll be working 60-70 hrs/week, but if you want the money, it can be there.</p>
<p>finish your degree and live single. after all, any engineering salary for a single guy is luxurious. plus, hookers are a lot cheaper and more accommodating than an actual wife</p>
<p>There is a lot more to “financial engineering” than programming skills. You need to be really good at math. There is a lot of “mock” signals processing involved in making forecasts as well.</p>
<p>Yeah, my bad boneh3ad, I shouldn’t have boiled down FE to just needing badass programming skills. Most of the people going into it are insanely good at math, and most things in general, though a lot of the really hard stuff is going to be taught at the graduate level anyway. But if you aren’t prepared, you will probably be eaten alive (I’m very wary of the stochastic calculus course I’m going to take).</p>
<p>Stochastic calculus is beyond my current level of expertise, so you’ve got me there. I bet there aren’t too many people on here who know much about perturbation methods, so that is my ace in the hole… That class ate me alive. I completely wasn’t ready for it, it being the very first graduate class I took and all.</p>
<p>Flip a coin and just go with it, but don’t go for more schooling yet. Get a job, any job, and see how you like it. If it’s something you can’t do for a living, then just quit and find something else.</p>
This attitude is the source of your problems. Also, being a corporate sell-out has nothing to do with your politics and has more to do with self respect or lack thereof.</p>
<p>
If the environment is what you are passionate about, go for that. Also there are republicans who care about the environment, but they are more concerned with things lack desertification, preservation of natural resources, and less about things like Global Warming/Climate Change/whatever the new buzzword is.</p>
<p>
Based on the rest of your post don’t do this, you will end up bitter.</p>
<p>Why don’t you join Engineers Without Borders? They have lots of volunteer programs that will give meaning to your study of civil engineering as well as pump up your resume (similar to working an internship). They will show you how to use your skills to improve the world instead of being so cynical about things.</p>