Desperate for advice.
Hey ppl,
I'm absolutely new to this website and i honestly don't know how helpful this is going to be but i'm going to give it a shot.
I'm a mechanical engineer and i'm gonna gaduate in a month or so. My grades are good, they always have been but here's the problem. I have interned in 5 engineering firms between my semesters to evaluate my interest. What i found was that i absolutely hate it. It's dull, one-track and very very insignificant.The process may change from company to company but the work feels like work and it seems very forced.
I'm at a point where i have absolutely no freaking clue how i should move forward because although i hate my field the money is decent and it gives me credibility as an engineer. I am the sort of person that would do well no matter where u place me. That can be finance, marketing...it can even be as a chef. I have literally thought about everything that i can do but it seems very vague. I love music and i thought bout studying audio production but it's a very volatile field and in India the market is very niche and bollywood based.Lets be honest, you have to be half mad to actually want to create that kind of music.So the market demand limits my possibilities.
I am also decently creative and i can manage people well so i thought bout PR for a while. But the pay is horrible, as an engineer i would loose all credibility and the job profile is dicey. But i have heard that after a gruelling 17 -18 hours of work, personal satisfaction and the gratification are enormous.
I want money and i want gratification but above all i want to do what makes me happy and i really don't think thats asking for too much. So if you were me, how would you proceed???
"firms between my semesters to evaluate my interest. What i found was that i absolutely hate it. It's dull, one-track and very very insignificant.The process may change from company to company but the work feels like work and it seems very forced."
DON'T DO IT. If it's going to make you want to roll over and fall back asleep every morning. I worked for a few months at a job that I really didn't like - it was a cushy office job working on a computer, my co-workers were all nice people, it was a great place to bike to, basically everything was great, except the actual work. Very very insignificant, as you said.
As for the money part, think about whether or not things in your life are important. Maybe there's something you spend money on that doesn't really matter to you but you do because you think people expect you to be a certain way. Streamline your life. If you look up "minimalism" on the internet there are quite a few blogs... this may help you save money without reducing your quality of life. Or it may not.
Keep your eyes and ears open for interesting, possibly irrelevant ideas. If you overhear someone talking about a concert that they need someone to do audio stuff for (I don't know what audio people do) maybe go over and say hi - don't expect anything out of it, but maybe you can volunteer and get a feel for it. Or, I dunno, start a traveling band with people you meet on the internet like someone who plays the pan-flute (a little) and does contemporary dance.