Hey,

This is a really strange situation I am stuck in.

I would like to put my career in a nutshell.

I did my first degree in chemical engineering, against my wishes. I never really had any specific interest in doing this degree. However, I did it out of a lack of specific career choices after completing my high school.

I am not quite sure whether it was really my University that I hated or the course that I was doing, but I did very badly academically during the initial few years of my engineering, with a year's drop out of college.

This was back in 2006, when I completed my engineering degree. I would say I feel quite empty or half hearted with this degree. I am not quite sure if I have learned a lot during my degree.

I did pass out with an average grade however.

Out of a long term interest in IT, I decided to pursue a degree in Computing and programming. I finished a masters in applied computing Science from the UK from a reputed University. After finishing my degree, I got employed as a web programmer, but due to lack of experience or I am not quite sure out of my own uninspired way of working, I lost my job. Just to find out whether, I am really good at programming or not, I picked up a couple of books on C programming, and rigorously solved them, to find out that I am quite decent at it.

I am now unemployed ( I do work in a store to earn money, but thats not really employment).



My major problem now:

I feel empty in a sense, that I feel I am a jack of both trades, but master of none, and feel unemployable. I havent done any presentations or anything in the chemical engineering field due to lack of any interest during the time I was doing my engineering. I am not quite sure what career I should pursue. Should I invest more time and money (I am 26 years old already) in pursuing another degree in IT/Computer Science or go back to engineering, and develop a career in the same, or should I combine both these skills and do something inside the engineering industry ? I forgot to add, should I go back to pursuing another degree in Chemical engineering as well ?

Any feedback should be very appreciated

Dear sir:

Your situation is quite similar as mine before, I can fully understand your feelings. I had been puzzled by the question of that which career I should choose between computer science and ChE. At that time, I was already 28 years old. Finally I choose the way of working in the area of ChE. Reason is as below:

1. Work in the field of ChE with the ability of IT is a kind of advantage, my consumed time on IT before is not wasted. On the other hand, work in the field of IT with my back ground of ChE will do no good for my future, the time I sent on ChE is wasted forever.

2. ChE is a field of much pleasure If I really concentrate it, it helps me to understand a a lot of our daily phenomenon, and it is a field which you can find sth new every day.

I love the field of Chemical engineering indeed now. My suggestion for you is as below:

1. Thinking carefully about your interest. Any way you choose will lead you to a prosperous future I believe, and the precondition is that you really dip into the field you choose, and never give it up. You are forever young when you are thinking of starting your new career. Don't consider too much about your age.

2. If you can't find a proper job as your preferred career at current time, teach yourself in your spare time to build yourself strong enough, and find any opportunity to start your career, correct your attitude to start from scratch, learn eagerly from others.

Don't hurry, step by step you can have a bright future I believe!

Best regards,
P.Wang

Hi,

Wang got a key poit that "dip into the field you choose, and never give it up." I think you could review your life at first and ask yourself, do you ever dip into sth? If yes, what you want to do is to find your interest, but if no, you should be careful whether you have no patience on anything. Good luck!

Hi !

As stated in earlier comments regarding carrer I want to add some info.
Never loose hope & keep try & try.In this world there are good persons also who can understand your calliber.Assume this period as if you got a time to strengthen yourself.Life is very short & you will not find time to strengthen yourself once you struck in right job.
I was a ChE but now I am a Piping Material Er. & is still strugling .......

Regards
PME

hi all
That really very true that one should not give up bcoz as we know that life is short n time is less so put ur best efforts untill life give u challange so to all my friends i would like to say when going get tough then tought gets going!so cheers n enjoy life
Regards
poonam

Hi,

You really have some very nice points of advice there! Please hold your head high!

1. First decide which of the branches you'd like to take (I'd suggest ChE)... Start liking it ... you have no choice. I think it is, may be, too late to start on a new career course for you.

2. Enter a good organisation. May be as a trainee engineer. Once you are in, you can still branch out to any department in the organisation that suits you, that you like. It could be Operations, Design, Development, Projects or even Sales.

3. What is important is to act fast, make up your mind and then do not vacillate. You will definitely do well.

All the best.

amol0010,
Best answer, "Why not try to apply both?" (which you already hinted at). If you get into process controls, and especially automation, you will be in an area where both your majors will offer skills that are useful for your job. Furthermore, after gaining experience, you should be able to "blow away the competition" since there are few with similar skill sets. But whatever you do, get some passion about it.
Good luck,
Doug

Hai May be you think a career in Computational Fluid Dynamics. You can work in coding field. As you are good in programming this helps a lot. Computational fluid dynamics is a area where you apply your engineering principles in modeling a problem and use advanced computing tools to simulate it. As you studied Chemical Engineering and have good programming knowledge, you can try in CFD coding area. As you said your age is not a constraint at all. I am now 28 years old and just started my PhD. You can also think continuing your education with this field.