Finishing your engineering degree but do not know if this is what you want?
Don’t fret. Take up a job, start earning and then think about your career. It helps to start thinking as an adult.
Hey there, welcome to the Go Hatke podcast – Episode number 3. In the last episode we talked about the most common or the second most common on my blog. The question came from an engineering student, in the third or fourth year of their engineering degree and that person was frustrated. They didn’t know what to do. I mean this is a very common question, I’m basically summarizing for you. My first suggestion to them is in my previous podcast.
In this podcast I talk about one simple thing. Realize that you are just beginning to become an adult.
“Beginning to become an adult” — a very interesting phrase there. Let me elaborate on that. All your life, all your needs have been taken care of by your parents. You have not had to take too many financial decisions. And so when you have gone into a degree like engineering, an approved degree so to say, you think you have taken the decision yourself. But the decision has flown down from people who are in charge of your life (could be your parents, the society you live in etc.). You have basically been influenced by the prevailing interests in your social circle. So if your society, your parents, your cousins, your friends have an interest or have an approved list of career that includes engineering, law, medicine, you’ve probably taken one of those careers. If you are from a business family, you have probably thought of going into business. You have mostly been doing something that is maintaining the status quo. And that is fine — you have just started your career life.
So now, you’re in the stage of life where you are in your third or fourth year of engineering, education and you think you are finishing your education you have this whole career, in a field that you don’t know much about. You didn’t really think that deeply before getting into the field. So now what do you do?
Are you stuck? Are you just going to be this person that you don’t want to be all your life?
So let me repeat – you’re beginning to become an adult. What will happen to you? You will finish your engineering education and you will take up a job. You’ll start earning in that job and you will start paying your own rent, you will start being responsible for your own financial decisions. You will be able to buy stuff for yourself and others. You will be able to take vacations. Slowly you will realize the value of money.
At this point, you will keep thinking about your career choices. With that job that you have, with your approved degree, you will have a certain lifestyle. And then you will think about the other interests you have. Then you will be able to think like an adult. You will see, “Oh well, I have this lifestyle, through my job and I want to go into another field, but will it give me that lifestyle?” Now that is where the real decision making power comes. Then if you really have that interest in pursuing something hatke, then you will be able to pursue it and take responsibility for it.
Now what will your parents say? Wont your parents say, “Oh Beta, tumko to woh karna nahi chahiye, tum to isi job me raho”. Well I’ll tell you a magic thing. So all this time your parents, your neighbor uncle or aunty, everybody has always been advising you about matters in your life. But now that you have taken up a job. Your parents are relaxed. They think that their duty in life for their child is over. They think, “Oh beta/beti ka education khatam ho gaya, beta/beti college karke ab job bhi leliya, ab to hum log vacation lete he”. So they are free for a while, they are free about all the thoughts about their child (eventually, they will come back and they will ask you get married or do a Masters).
Till that time, for a few years you have that respite and that is when you should strike. If you really care about something deeply, you need to make that decision at that time. And a trick for that is to live in a separate city. If you are in a separate city, you can do your stuff without really involving too many people. Say for example you do your job and then in the evening you can pursue your passion activity on the side. Say you want to join a band, you want to join a production company for Youtube videos. If you want to write, you can pursue it at that time and then try to make a switch to that full time.
I talk about Youtube videos specifically for a reason. A friend of mine is now a big name in Youtube videos. When he chose his first job he knew that he didn’t want to continue that forever. So when he chose his job he made sure it wasn’t very demanding. It was a low stress job, in fact, it was a low paying job. But it was just enough for him to convince his parents that, “yeah I have a job, I’m going to figure out and I’m you know I am doing my things”. So parents were and society were not concerned about him. He was able to be free and figure out what he needed to do.Plus he chose his job in Mumbai.
So that’s the kind of trick, that is the kind of magic that you can create. If you really have focus, if you really play the game in which it needs to be played, you can make the magic happen.
