

Ask HN: What should I do with my life? - schrodog

I think most of the people reading this have the same interestes as me so I will try to explain my situation and seek some advice. I have a 5 year Electronic and Computer Eng. degree. Through university I was studying just enough to pass the courses and didn't find anything really fascinating. I enjoyed the creative process of programming but hated the debugging part which seemed to take 80% of my programming time. I do enjoy programming at Matlab though. Also I am absolutely not interested in hardware or circuit design (except when I see awesome projects at hackaday). I have done the MBTi personality test and it turns out I am the INTP type, which means computers are like an ideal career for me. I am thinking of pursuing a Master's degree but I don't know at which field. Lately I really enjoy reading about psychology and neuroscience and I am thinking maybe I could take a Cognitive Science course but not sure what I would do next. I am also thinking of taking a Management and Technology course so that I can create in a more abstract way, make plans and not battle with the technicalities. I have to say I am not young (26) and my grades are not that good. I like computers, art, psychology. Any advice or personal experience is highly appreciated.<p>TL;DR Computer grad not interested in programming or hardware design trying to find a way (Master's or job) to happiness.
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dmlorenzetti
I would be wary of pursuing a Master's degree when you don't have a particular
interest or field you want to pursue. Two reasons: avoiding over-
specialization, and making good use of your time.

Regarding specialization. Broadly speaking, the (employment) world is oriented
around the idea that an undergrad degree is a kind of "proof of principle"-- a
general certification that you can slog your way through some problems.
Therefore an undergrad degree doesn't necessarily limit what you can do.
Nobody is going to say, "You have an undergrad in ECE, so there's no possible
way you could work on our chemical engineering problem."

Once you go for a higher degree, though, people start to think of you as that
thing. You might very well find somebody saying "You have an MS in computer
science, so you're too expensive/too specialized to work on our chemical
engineering problem."

Regarding good use of your time. Going for a Master's degree is, generally
speaking, a two-year endeavor, plus whatever money invested, which you may
have to pay off later-- not to mention the opportunity cost of not earning
money during that time. So you need to start thinking in terms of whether the
degree is going to prepare you for what you really want to do. You already
have the experience of getting out of an undergrad degree and feeling pretty
uninspired by what you are now prepared to do. Do you want that to happen to
you again when you get out of your MS degree?

An alternate use of those two years might be to work a job-- doesn't have to
be in your "chosen" field-- and think about what excites and motivates you. If
after that time you have an itch to get a Master's degree in a particular
area, then you won't have to post a question to HN to decide whether it makes
sense for you.

To make this concrete, I'll offer up my own experience as an example (not to
say mine was the best way, but it informs how I think about this question).

I did a co-op program as an undergrad, and learned enough about
Electrical/Computer engineering to understand that I could be good at a job in
it, and could even take pleasure in the day-to-day aspects of it, but
ultimately would feel indifferent to the "big picture" of what I was doing.
After graduating, I did a stint in Peace Corps, then came back and worked at a
research semiconductor fab for a 3-4 years. During this time, I was noticing
how my Peace Corps experience informed my interpretation of things in the fab
(for example, I was probably more aware of energy consumption in the plant
than others). Finally I went for a Master's degree, with a clear idea what I
wanted to do with it.

When I got my MS, I had a few interviews at engineering-consulting type firms,
where the general tenor of the questions was "Now you know, we just plug
numbers into spreadsheets here, right? We don't have time for any of your
fancy-pants simulation and data analysis."

So in my experience, taking a little time after undergrad to figure out what
you want to do is a win, while getting a Master's degree starts to make people
look at you as specialized in a particular way. I'm sure somebody else had the
experience of feeling uncertain, doing a Master's, and loving it so much they
chose that as their ultimate field. That's why this is, finally, a personal
decision-- so good luck to you.

~~~
schrodog
Thanks a lot. I am considering getting a job first although that's almost a
joke now in Greece. Well, actually you can get a job, but you can't get money
from it.

