<p>Andrewsky: What?! You’re saying that I should stick with engineering? I already quit the research assistant position thinking that I would do something else with my life! Now I have to go back to focus on a career in engineering :(? How will I get internships? This research thing was supposed to help me but that was before I decided to quit engineering. Now what will I do? I can’t walk back and ask for it back. What will I do now? How will I get into the field? And if I’m not passionate about civil how will I be successful?</p>
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<p>Relax, you will be fine. There are a lot of people who go to college and get professional jobs afterwards with no internship experience. You enter the field the same way everybody does, by filling out a job application. </p>
<p>There will come a time when you will need money to pay bills and not worry about how passionate you are about work. It’s called work for a reason. I’m not sure everybody involved in public policy, IT, or geography enjoy their work like it’s their hobby. A civil engineering degree is not a bad foundation for entering those fields though. It is not like you are an English major and have no idea what you’re going to do with life. You will actually have job skills that will be in demand. </p>
<p>I think you are just having some variation of a quarter-life crisis (wikipedia this).</p>
<p>Finish your degree. Without one you will have a tough time and will be full of regret.</p>
<p>You don’t HAVE to work in civil engineering after. And you don’t need to like or do research to finish your degree.</p>
<p>And engineering degree is very respectable, you have a decent GPA, and you can work in a variety of positions that require/appreciate quantitative skills.</p>
<p>This is especially true of IT/software development/computing. Many of the jobs offered there require specific skills (i.e. knowledge of certain products, software, languages) that even most CS majors won’t have because they’re not really “academic” topics. If you want to break into this field, you <em>can</em> very much pick it up yourself, of course you have to be passionate about it.</p>
<p>Here’s an anecdote (true story, take my word for it) - one person I know of did a business degree, felt that he had partied too much and didn’t get a rigorous education, went back and got a mechanical eng. degree, and then was promptly recruited by a bank and lived happily ever after. Did he need that Eng. degree? No, but the employers were impressed. I don’t think he ever did anything having to do with eng. since.</p>
<p>Just don’t quit now, it’s the worst decision possible. You figured out what you like and don’t like, use this opportunity to move on in a productive way.</p>
<p>That is an inspiring anecdote PerpetualStudent (I have a BA going back for a BS in Civil).</p>
<p>“Any help is appreciated. I feel lost right now”</p>
<p>Jesus loves you.</p>
<p>Yes. First of you, you are about to finish your engineering degree. Make through it. Even if you hate it, you have no choice but really to make through it.</p>
<p>I know there are always surprising people with such talents that they eventually become the stars of new businesses. But for now, let’s give yourself time to finish the school.</p>
<p>With your engineering degree you can become anything you want, really. Especially engineering that study physics and math heavily, you can always find yourself a position that may fit you.</p>
<p>From a legal prospective, you can bring your knowledge into your attorney career, in particular those constructional and environmental cases.</p>
<p>From an agency side, you can bring this into the positions that help planning the city, but you don’t actually get to design it. Maybe part of the team?</p>
<p>Or even education - you can become a math or science teacher with your engineering background.</p>