20 year old needs some job/life advice

StuChainz

Hey guys. I know this might not be the right forum, but it is about jobs mostly. Sorry in advance for the long post.

So basically, I'm currently at uni, but I'm getting to a point in my life where I just don't think I'll be happy living in England my whole life doing a job I don't even really care about. The only reason I'm studying is just because it's the "normal" thing to do to go to uni after A levels (and I felt added pressure to do A levels/Uni as I'm really smart, so i thought i should continue the "intellectual" route).

My whole life I've coasted by, never done any work, skipped classes etc. because i found everything boring. I still got straight A's, but my heart was never in it. I always liked maths, but didn't think that would be too useful as a degree.

Now I'm studying civil engineering, and although I enjoy being challenged for the first time in my life, I'm still not exactly enthusiastic about doing this as a career for the rest of my life.

My current plan is to do this for another 3 years, get my masters degree, then move to the UAE for a few years for some experience and money. Then maybe move back to the UK or over to the US.

However, there's a big part of me that just wants to give up and go teach diving in Thailand or something. I was travelling for 2 months during my gap year, and I absolutely loved it. I feel like, what's the point on saving up money and booking time off work to go to a country like that when I could just move out there and have an amazing life. But at the same time I will miss my materialistic life out here, the Western culture, my friends, family etc. Thai people don't speak much english and I'm awful at learning languages so it would take a long time for me to be able to communicate with the locals. I don't like the idea of being a "minority" and speaking the wrong language.

What do you guys think?

Also, if I was to graduate, then take a year or 2 to go travelling and figure out what I want to do with my life, would it be much harder for me to find a civil engineering job when I get back?


Sorry again for the huge post, and possibly being on the wrong forums, but any help and advice from someone older and more experienced than me would be much appreciated

pmd123

No great insight to offer you, but would seriously suggest that if you do want to take a 2 year gap to go teach diving in Thailand, then the time to do it is once you have your degree in the bag. If you were to drop out now, it's a decision you could seriously end up regretting 5 years down the line.

Finish degree, 1 year gap then masters before starting your career would be my thoughts, although degree, masters and then year off shouldn't be too detrimental to your long term future. 2 years off and then ??? is a recipe for disaster.

StuChainz

Yeah I'm definitely planning on finishing my degree, its a good safety net if nothing else. Hadn't thought of taking a year between y3 and my masters, thats a good idea. thanks

bristol_pilot

Certainly finish your degree, you will have many more options with a degree than with just A-levels and no experience. If you take time out to teach diving (or whatever) after your degree, I suggest you just take one year to do that not two, reason being that many employers of new graduates specify that you must have graduated withing the past two years. Going travelling for too long after graduation is one of the more common reasons I see for 'failure to launch' of a graduate career.

PasturesNew

Finish the degree, there are 1000s of opportunities to "leave it a bit longer" if you don't, until one day you wake up in your 40s and think "... oops".

Finish the degree.... then it's banked for life.

As for the rest .... who knows, it doesn't matter too much at this point. Just get the degree banked.... then take off wherever your whim takes you.

theoretica

Is it possible with a masters degree, as it is with undergraduate, to defer you place? So you have it arranged but then go travelling for a year? Have you looked at volunteering abroad? Are there any charities which want civil engineers?

FBaby

Definitively finish your studies. A Masters will always come handful to get what you want career-wise and it will be much easier to do it now then later when you most likely will struggle more to afford it.

I went to uni and then did a masters more because that was what was expected more than with a clear goal in mind. I did enjoy it a lot though. As it is, my job has nothing to do with what I have studied but undergraduate and masters, but these have been invaluable in getting the interviews and jobs I wanted. I'm so glad I did it then and got over with it when it was so much easier to do it.

You have plenty of time to decide you have enough of what you are doing and want to change your life radically, but it will always be easier to do so with a Master's in your pocket already.

StuChainz

Thanks for all the great replies people.

Theoretica, I'm fairly sure I can defer my masters, but ill have to look more into it.

And FBaby, that's what I've been thinking. Even if I decided Civil Engineering isn't for me, it's still a great degree to have under my belt if I want to get a job in a different industry.