Give advice to a university graduate

[Goodnews]

How do I start this?

Cliffnotes at the bottom.

Perhaps something about myself and my background...

I am 20 years old and will be graduating next spring with a mechanical and materials engineering degree, which is really the problem. All my life, I had people tell me what to do, all of which they were all in agreement with. Go to elementary school, go to high school, get good grades, then go to university. It began in my senior year in high school, my father was an engineer in the Philippines (sadly the Canadian government said that education said it wasn't good enough), so I spoke to him what the perks of engineering were and all of which he listed seemed like good things. However, I was still unsure of what to do, regardless I figured I might as well keep my options open and take the engineering high school prerequisites. Now, because of my indecision I was doing just around average, which became the topic between my high school counselor and I. She told me my marks weren't good enough and she doesn't think I can do it. Being the cocky 17 year old I was, I refused to let anyone tell me what I can and can't do. Thus, out of spite I dug my feet in and worked hard to bring my average up to acceptable levels.

Well now here I am wondering what the hell I am to do. I have moved away from home to go to school, I have lost contact with my high school circle of friends, I have racked up about 40k (CDN) in loans and I know I have to work. My concerns are not of relationships with significant others (I believe that kind of thing just happens and is out of my control), but I do value the friendships I have now.

In terms of my activity here at 2p2, I found out about this in freshman year and was captivated by the idea of living by my wits and playing poker for a living. I have worked at my game (though not as much as I would have liked) and have come to the realization that I could never beat the medium stakes online, and have resigned myself to taking down whatever home game and small stakes the casinos offer. I have lurked in the strategy forums for the majority of the time, but in the past year, I have been gravitating in the BBV4L forum alot more, simply for entertainment. I do however have great respect for those of you in OOT and in El D's forums.

I would like to do some soul searching, but my debt (which my parents co-signed for) keeps me tied down, and I feel as if I should get that out of the way asap before it cripples me in the future.

So if any of you could grace me with your advice, and perhaps some sort of perspective as to how I should go about working on my career in the real world I would appreciate in amounts I could never quantify.

To the forum, is there any regrets you have when you first finished college/university? Things you wish someone told you, or something you should have done first.

The questions floating around right now are...

Should I work some crappy job for a few months then travel for a period of time? But what about my loan and financial obligations?

Should I work and build my career? But what if I get tied down? And I still feel like there are plenty of things for me to discover, and what if I miss out?

If I do build my career, where do I go? I don't want to leave the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) for the convenience of home, but I also want to go to new places. I want to leave home but not my friends.

Cliffnotes: University graduate wants advice as what would be the best thing to do after graduating.

[By-Tor]

you wasted 2-4 years (CDN)

[ncboiler]

Just from the cliffnotes: Drop out from life for a couple of months and live it up. You will be working for the man for the rest of your life so take this small window of opportunity.

[DrewDevil]

Chase your dreams.

[Goodnews]

[ QUOTE ]
you wasted 2-4 years (CDN)

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, I thought long and hard about this. In my freshman year I was not doing well and was just about ready to drop out.

Sitting alone at 3am in my dorm room, thinking about how I could tell my parents that I couldn't do this degree and that I was sorry. I saw myself in the mirror and asked myself, 'Can I really live with myself if I drop out?' the answer came as a resounding no. And I had to know whether or not I could cut it, and if not I vowed to drop out with my (academic) fists in a flurry.

[MichaelL]

Meh... that debt is hardly anything when compared to the starting salary as an engineer (IIRC engineers have one of the highest out of university salaries).

I'd say work in engineering for a year or two, you should be able to wipe a significant portion of that loan off in that time (if you live fairly frugally), then you can travel. Or you could travel first, it really doesn't matter. Unless your loans are interest bearing (here in NZ they're interest free), in which case it's probably better to pay them off sooner rather than later.

[Freakin]

I freaking love your avatar!

[swingdoc]

Talk to your advisor. There are tons of opportunities that may not fit what you picture as the "typical" engineering job. Ask about jobs that involve debt forgiveness. In the US, I'd say take a very serious look at joining the military. You'd be an officer, get to travel, get $10k-20k of debt per year forgiven (in the US at least). Since you don't really know what you want to do right now, do the most interesting job you can find right now and really search for whatever your passion might be. It's okay to not know exactly what you absolutely would love.

[schaef]

The soul searching is critical, though there's always a good middle ground. Get a job, but make sure you're actively working on yourself too, deciding what's really important to you in the long run.

[NT!]

cliff's notes: should have thought about all this stuff a little sooner. when you are asking an internet forum what to do with your life, pretty sure you have hit a low point.

but if you're going to pollute the innertubes with emo crap, go here:

www.quarterlifecrisis.com