How to get government jobs after finishing engineering in ECE?

How do I commit to something and get my academic (and by extension, non-academic) life back on track?

• Long story short: I made it through 3/4 of an engineering degree at a university, and about a year ago, dropped out with the intention of completely changing my major and school. I justified doing this because I had had several engineering-related internships, and despite being "successful" on the job, I mostly hated them and saw full-time work as an extension of this monotony. I had always been interested in the arts as well, and felt that studying them would be being "truer to myself" and would allow me to pursue things I was more interested in. I went through with this plan, and 4 months later I started a program in the social sciences at a respected university, which I was enjoying but ended up also dropping out of, due to feeling (especially in contrast to engineering) that it wasn't preparing me for any sort reasonable employment afterwards (a kind of Catch-22, I guess). I have used the intervening time for self-reflection and travelling, which I have been very appreciative of, but now I am a few weeks away from either starting up my social science program again, or waiting another 8 months to be able to go back and finish my engineering degree (which would take another 12 months after that... which makes me cringe). The decision to change my major so drastically, especially after being so close to finishing, is probably considered unusual, especially when you consider I was doing well in my engineering classes (and was, in fact, in the top 10% of my class mark-wise). In retrospect, it probably was unwise, but I had myself convinced that I was being truer to myself and would be happier. This was partially true, but in reality it has turned out that my motivation to finish either program has greatly dropped (although I recognize the importance of doing so). Basically, due to my work experience and having almost completed a degree, I feel more than qualified to do many of the jobs a new graduate would be qualified for (in engineering or otherwise), which doubly saps my motivation because courses are seeming more or less "hoops" that I need to jump through. How do I get past the feeling of wasted time and commit to finishing a degree? And is it really that important which of the programs I end up finishing (i.e., would it be worth graduating a year later to complete my engineering degree)?

• Answer:

  You don't say how old you are but I'm guessing, as you're still 'in education' of sorts, that you're under 30 and probably under 25yrs old.  Assuming that is so, my advice would be this: Do what makes you happiest. If that means dropping in and out of courses for a couple of years until you've made your mind up, then so be it. You are still very young, my friend, and this is the only life you have. Your main objective should be the pursuit of happiness and contentment. If you can achieve that, without causing harm to anybody else along the way, then every choice you make will be the right one. If you WANT to be an engineer, go with that. If you WANT to be a lawyer, or an artist, or a road sweeper, or a magician, or a marine biologist then go with that. If you're not sure what you want to do, try a bit of everything until you are sure. You say that when it starts to 'cost' more time, energy etc, than you actually want to expend, you lose interest. That says to me that it's not really what you want to be doing. When somebody is doing something that they feel passionate about, they would give any amount of the above and more. They'd do it for free, too, regarding financial gain. You need to find your passion. In the mean time, learning other stuff is not wasteful. No 'learning' is a waste of time. It all contributes to to who you are and who you'll become. When my son was little he wanted to take up football. I enrolled him in a club, he went a few times and then got bored and never went back. He then chose martial arts. Same outcome. Then there was cricket, rugby, golf and flying. He tried them all. He never stuck with any of them. He did, however, find his passion. Fishing. He's now, at 26yrs old, highly regarded in the carp fishing world and is offered sponsorships on a weekly basis. Everybody told me I was wrong to let him keep signing up for various clubs etc and that I should put my foot down, demand he sticks with one or stop him joining any more.  I didn't listen to them. I knew that giving him the opportunity to try all these things could lead to his "eureka" moment and the discovery of what fitted him perfectly. And it did. You only get one 'youth' and what you do with it has a big impact on the rest of your life. Nobody laid on their death-bed wishing they had lived a more boring, mundane and uneducated life.  People die happier if they've had a full, interesting and passionate life, filled with good memories and no regrets. You will spend an awfully long time in the workplace and using the time you have now to find what suits you best, will make the difference between your working life dragging slowly by, killing your soul as it creeps along monotonously, and the time flying by full of the sense of achievement and a life well lived. Good luck and remember this...you won't find anything if you don't go looking for it.