<p>Ive always liked electronics, programming, robots, that kind of thing as a hobby. I figured I would eventually be some kind of electrical engineer or a programmer, but I just completed an internship this summer and am kind of worried. When I applied I thought it would be great, just like the stuff I like to do as a hobby, but with awesome tools at my disposal. But it turned out to be just plain boring. The company specializes in UUVs, and I got to work on electrical things and programming, but no matter what I did, it was pretty boring.</p>
<p>However, somwthing I realized I do like doing is making money- i started a little online electronic kit business and it is just fun seeing the money flow in. So would it be wise to just go for a moderately entertaining, high paying job? I figure that later on in life I can continue with the little hobbiest kind of stuff I do now, and to support it I can just get a good paying job.</p>
<p>Ive been raised to basically become a engineer, but at the company, I saw many people from top engineering schools basically live boring lives, trying to make the best of it by making little jokes during the breaks ("I just got the new windows installed at home, they look great.". "but do they pop up every week saying new updates are available?" uhhhh...lol?)</p>
<p>I figure this is kind of like the reason people dont marry to someone in the exast same profession, too much of something is just bad.</p>
<p>Well, I would first try to find some internships or positions that more closely resemble the “stuff you like to do as a hobby” - give us more details and maybe we can suggest some. Otherwise, I doubt anyone would fault you for choosing another field. If you like manipulating money, you might like finance, and might be a perfect match for financial engineering (google it).</p>
<p>By the way, one thing you may find is that companies (or individual departments in companies) often begin to homogenize in character as people who do not fit that particular personality profile leave for more sociable surroundings. I’ve seen departments just like you described, but I have seen others that were very lively and sociable, who had a lot of fun during their day. Plus the job itself can be a lot of fun - I know engineers who travel the world, or spend their days doing aerobatic testflights (got to know if that radar can survive combat maneuvers!).</p>
<p>It just sounds like you’re a little burned out. You’re studying electronics, doing it as a hobby, and doing it as a business. Maybe you should try to diversify a little bit. I’m an EE major but I do a bunch of leatherworking and sell my stuff online.</p>
<p>Such negativity. Lots of scrooges on this thread. I love what I do, and have been doing it for almost 30 years. People unhappy in their job may be in the wrong job or may be generally unhappy people. There is help for that.</p>
<p>I would go for the highest paying job you don’t mind if you believe you don’t have a true passion for engineering. Realistically, you’re probably not going to find many, if any, jobs that you will actually love and figuring that out early is probably a good thing. It’s much more likely that you will find a job that you don’t mind and don’t dread going to in the morning. Find one of those that pays well and the larger salary will hopefully offset the ho-humness of the job.</p>
<p>Also, as was mentioned earlier, diversifying your interests is a good thing. Stop being an engineer 24/7.</p>
<p>part of the reason some engineering fields pay a lot is because you have to travel or move your home from one job site to another often. it’s hard to get people to do that so they pay more. some engineering fields aren’t likely to lead to management positions. you should really look more into the whole lifestyle of a career, not just how much it pays before you decide. if you can shadow people who have different college degrees you can see what they really do and that helps a lot.</p>
<p>I don’t think many people on this board understand this. Hence the topics about “I want to program for electronic arts baseball games but not Sony because I hate them.”</p>
<p>The truth is you don’t have that much select-ability. If you have a true passion you’ll probably have to work hard to put yourself in a position to work on such stuff. Generally it’s not going to happen out of college unless you have tremendous experience.</p>
<p>I know it is cliche, but it is TRULY not about money. I have have turned down more money because:</p>
<p>1) I did not want to be on 24-hour call (for administering databases and software)
2) I did not want to manage 75 folks of an IT department
3) I did not want to relocate</p>
<p>As far as management, that little 5% extra was not worth working long hours everyday.</p>