Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I'm 20 years old, I work part-time in a restaurant while I'm in school but decided to drop the program because I am so incredibly uninterested that I couldn't bother going anymore. It was a 2 year Mechanical Engineering Technician program that basically prepped people to become Machinist and Millwright apprentices. I hate hard work/manual labor so this wasn't for me. I'm considering switching to the 2 year Civil Engineering Technician program because it seems more interesting. But then I just randomly thought of the fact I'm on my computer most of the day so why not have a career that involves computers. I'll be honest, I don't know much about programming or computers. I don't game, I don't do anything but be a part of multiple automotive forums but these jobs don't require heavy lifting or getting dirty and having a bad back when I'm 40.

So I was curious if any of you have taken computer programming in college. They offer a three year Computer Programmer Analyst program at the college I'm currently attending (I'm Canadian btw) and I took a basic programming course in high school and didn't mind it that much, but that was 4 years ago. I'm going to start working full-time until September but I really need to get my shit together fast...

TLDR: I want to hear about what you guys do for a living, what you made out of college and how much you're making now(you can PM me this info if you'd like), how easy it was to get a job in the field and if what they taught you in college was related to the job you currently have.

I honestly appreciate any information given.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

take an aptitude test dude

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

Move to Alberta, go to the University of Calgary, become a Petroleum Geologist. Make a quarter mill a year. Atleast that's what I'm doing.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I've talked to someone who works at the oilsands and when I mentioned becoming a Mechanical Engineer he said I'd be looking at 150k out of university and up to 300,000 after a few years.

One problem with becoming an engineer... I suck at math apparently. Back in high school I was an A student without trying. Take two years off, go to college and I'm failing Math. The part that's odd is the Math in my first year of college is incredibly easy to what I've done in highschool yet now I'm failing.

Also, you may make 1/4 mill but a two bedroom house will run you half a mill. But then again, gas is 30 cents less a litre and they have 5% tax instead of my 13$ in Ontario.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

Just make sure you atleast pass your AMAT classes, then make up for the loss of GPA by acing your other classes. That's what i'm doing.

Well, yeah the cost of living is definately higher but also the average income is considerable higher than Ontario's especially northern Alberta/BC. Fort Mac is 800k for 2 bedroom house... Lol

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I was talking about Fort Mac as well. I've checked Kijiji and I barely see small houses going for near a mill. Fort McMurray, two bedroom, highest price first. They go for 400-600k But there are some for the 800k range, aha.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I am unfortunately on the same boat as you are. Good luck with whatever you intend to do.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

Move to Ottawa and we can start a multi-million dollar business. The only thing I ask of you is to bring duct tape. Lots.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

The problem with getting a cushy job right away is you need a damned good education (4-year Engineering or Ph.D. basically, or you need to know the right people). Sure you would have started out doing the hard labour job thing but the idea is to move up the grid and get a job managing or in an office somewhere after 5-10 years. If you like computers and the automotive industry, maybe look into computer diagnostics or design/development for specific parts. This is engineering too so it wouldn't come without an education first.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

Graduated with a 4 year B.S. in Aerospace Eng., concentration in Astronautics (spacecraft design). Currently a Payload Test/Systems Engineer at Space Systems/Loral in CA. My job description is long, but basically I oversee testing and troubleshooting of large telecommunications satellites. I'm sure you all have heard of DirecTV, Dish Network, SiriusXM, etc - those are our customers and we build and test those satellites from the ground up. First job offer out of college was about $70,000 yearly salary, which does not include yearly bonuses and any paid OT I might work. The only people that I know who were paid more out of college either had M.S. degrees, or they had studied Computer Science/Programming. CS grads make major bucks. I'm only 10 months into my job, so I'm still making the same amount I told you above, but I'm in line for my first promotion from Associate Engineer to Systems Engineer at my yearly review. Would be about a 6-7% pay raise and put me at $75,000. Annual pay raises that don't include promotions are on the order of 1-3%, depending on your performance.

I graduated college in June 2011 and started work in January 2012, so it took me ~6 months to rope in a job. It was a pretty bad time to come out of school from an economic standpoint and I had also made the mistake of not applying to jobs until after I had graduated. Definitely should've jumped on the job application train 6 months before I graduated. Lesson to all you kids out there who are reading this. Of the 40 or so Aerospace Eng. classmates I graduated with, about 12 of them ended up at the place I work now, Space Systems/Loral. Others I know have gone to Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences. I noted that the people who got jobs fairly quickly out of school had relatively good grades and were generally the better students. At my alma mater (Cal Poly - SLO), the average aerospace engineering grad GPA was around 2.5. If you did any better than that, which means you worked your fucking ass off, you're in a good place when you come out. Good grades are good for only one thing, in my opinion, and that is getting your first job. This was the first job I interviewed for and I got an offer within three weeks. After you land your first job, your work experience becomes a much more heavily weighted factor on your resume. Still, if you finish a 4 year Engineering program and you have a GPA of 3.0, or higher, you should keep it on your resume regardless.

I am applying things that I learned in college to my job on a daily basis, but it's not quite in the way you think. I'm not exactly talking about applying the book-based theory you have to memorize and regurgitate while you're in class (though I have done some of this). I'm talking about more the passive skill set that you acquire after having gone through a rigorous 4 year program. Some of this includes communication, work ethic, and learning to work with other individuals who may not do things the way you do.

While I was in college, I learned the Microsoft Office suite inside-and-out by necessity and had become very experienced with Microsoft Excel. Good enough that I put it as a skill on my resume and it definitely helped me get this job. I now use that program at work every day. I've been at the company for 10 months and I already have experienced and technical staff coming to ask me for help in Excel. In addition, I learned a programming language (MATLAB, the bane of every engineer's existence) that I have used on a couple occasions at work already. It's not necessarily learning how to program that is important either, it's learning the process of problem solving and thinking like a programmer. That mindset helps me every day and the things I mentioned aren't things that you have formal classes in; they are just part of the greater college experience.

This is getting pretty long, so I'll end it here. In my opinion, any investment you make in your education is a good one.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

there are many computer-related jobs that don't necessarily involve programming.

- security
- networking
- web design
- system administration
- support
- sales
etc.


I'm an Information Technology major. I did end up pretty much going the programming route. learning and working with PHP right now, making $15 an hour at an internship. courses I took in school gave me a solid programming foundation, but the classes didn't really touch on PHP at all. no idea what I'll be making when I get out. prospects are solid, though. hit me up if you want more info.

definitely pursue whatever you discover you're interested in. good luck, man!

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

All of those crossed above require programming ability, and / or bash scripting ability.
Networking especially is moving into software vs hardware, since Google as proven that software routing is cheaper than hardware routing.

Everyone seems to be giving you stable advice, all I can say is that you failed math because you weren't trying hard enough.

That's the only reason. I failed math twice in University as well, and I thought that I was putting my all in. I took an easier math class, and now I've caught up to where I should have been.

Give some programming classes a try, or take an aptitude test. Read biographies, or go to a business and ask the people what their job is like.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I'm 1 year into my program approaching a Bachelor's in Computer Science, and I might be in the same boat as you. I love computers to death, all my friends know I talk about computers all the time, and up until about last year I loved programming, now I'm not so sure. I'll probably just stick with it knowing that it won't get easier but that I'll (hopefully) get better, because I don't want to deal with changing majors and there's really not much else I'm interested in. Plus I know once I have that degree, I have a good chance of making a pretty comfortable salary. I can live comfortably on $2000/month no problem, but I think that's just entry-level pay.

What I'm doing for a career right now is a much bleaker story. I work evenings in an on-call position at a telephone survey company, at a varied wage averaging about 9.40/hr (Oregon minimum wage is 8.80, jumps to 8.95 in Jan. '13). The job itself is easy and at some times fun, but mostly unchallenging, and also ridiculously boring most nights. It's the general labor stereotype of "do this, this, then this, and repeat for six hours," only without the physical aspect. I wouldn't mind it except because it's on call, I never know when I'm working, or how many hours I'll get week-to-week. I usually make about $550/month which is not quite enough to move out of my parents' house without the fear of having some expenses go unpaid. I'm trying to get a more stable, slightly better paying job at the local hospital as an Admitting Registrar.

OP, My advice to you is that if you're truly skilled in the program that you're in, try to tough it out, maybe you'll find some aspect of it that makes it interesting. As for entering the computer science field, it's not just about being good at math. Crunching numbers is one thing, but you need to know how to think logically, or as I put it, "think in the way that your brain doesn't expect you to." If you think you can manage that, go for it. If you just want to try it, stay in your program but take a couple of entry-level programming classes on the side (I'd start with basic Java) and see how you like it.

Good luck!

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I appreciate all the advice. Foil, I actually remember you from when I used to be on here every day and always admired you for your intelligence. I'm not saying you're a genius, but compared to me you are, aha. I really wanted to get into engineering but I can't just hop into university for one big reason... I never took any university level credits in high school and in Canada you MUST have a minimum of 6 of those credits that relate to the program you're applying to be accepted. So my only option is to basically take "upgrading" and take some basic college level courses and then get accepted into university.

I love everything automotive related but there are no jobs for that in Canada and I have no interest living in America. I don't want to become a mechanic because 1. They make no money and 2. everyone who is a mechanic and has posted about their experience on forums I've read and such hate their jobs and wish they took something different and more rewarding in college or university.

Going from 80's and 90's in Math to failing two tests out of three really brought down my confidence. It really hurt me mentally. Math was always my strong suit, I never tried, never studied, didn't even own a binder during my 12th grade and I still graduated with an 80 in Math. Now I take notes, I do homework, I study and I failed. I can sorta say it's the teachers fault because he just writes the question on the black board and answers it without letting us do it first. When I mentioned his name to student services the woman rolled her eyes and said I should file a complaint because I'm not the only one.

The reason a career working with computers interests me is because it's clean and isn't labor intensive. I'll look into a bachelors in computer sciences. I just don't feel like I'm good enough and will end up wasting my parents money (they're paying) and I feel like a disappointment to them and to myself. I've gone from doing fuck all with my life (sleeping 12 hours a day, no job, etc) to being in school and working a part-time job and then I end up dropping the program, failing all my courses (I dropped out too late to get "withdrawal" marks), so I'm fucked.

Crashfan: I cannot live off 2,000$ a month, aha. I've made that multiple times working laboring jobs that I got from posting ads online aha. I've had jobs making 15-17 an hour more than once, but hated them because they were outside during the summer and incredibly labor intensive (masonry, construction, renovating). I'm making 11.00 an hour + tips working in a kitchen part time. Even after taxes I'm making 11.50-12.00 because of that tip-out. Our min-wage is 10.25$/hr here in Ontario.

TLDR: I'll take basic upgrading (math, basic programming, chemistry, etc and try my best and see what I enjoy by doing those classes.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

Dude, College/University is hard, do NOT get discouraged by your first year/semester marks, there always is a grade drop... Mine was massive I went from 100s in everything in highschool to 50-75s in everything in University, You have to adjust your study habits, test taking abilities, etc. The first year is always the worst. Pick up your pants go back now that you know exactly what went wrong and where you may need some improvement.

I know my first year sure has been teaching me a lot about myself, Next year I will make the appropiate changes to get my marks from near failing back up to that elusive 4.0 GPA.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I talked with a guest at my work over an extensive time about past jobs in retail. We shared how many years we each have done retail (me: 5 years, her: 20 years). She also shared that she also worked for a home builder company making 6 figures - which interested me.

If you like being outside and building things, maybe look into being a home builder for a company.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

i collect welfare and im living pretty comfortably

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I'm 2.5 years into my comp sci program. Programming is easy til it gets abstract. Syntax and shit is easy enough to handle, but once you start getting into some more advanced concepts like data structures (linked lists, stacks, queues, trees) you might find yourself throwing your computer out the window trying to understand a good way to code them (even though there are preset programs for all of these, yet the instructor will still make you write your own so you understand it :/.)

So yea, gl

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

Same here.

In all honesty I'd probably be happy if I were homeless.

Re: Having a difficult time deciding what to do with my life.
 

I know how you feel. It certainly would be a simpler life. I dunno about you, though, but I probably wouldn't last a month.