Switch Out of Engineering?

Tinuviel8
Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:35:16 +0000

OP, It sounds as if your decision is already very well made: there is nothing in your post to suggest that you would still enjoy or are even really considering staying in the field long term. I think you sound much more like a science major; perhaps pick up a minor in technical writing as well since you mentioned you would love to go that route?

“I don’t know if I will ever like this. I know I can get through it, but I don’t see the point if it makes me miserable.”

And honestly, there wouldn’t be much of a point except that you would be able to earn a living- something that does not necessarily require a college degree; why go through with a course of study for something that makes you so unhappy- your comments suggest that this isn’t likely to be limited to the short term.
Yes, the job prospects for pure science majors can be bleak depending on education level and where you get your info from (who knows the actual situation, such as do we really have a shortage or excess of STEM majors? etc), and they can certainly be far less profitable than any form of engineering- BUT, if it is something you love or at least find some enjoyment in then you may just find that it does not feel as much as work…think about it, you do not want to force yourself into a career if you may already foresee yourself dreading going into work the next day; you can point yourself in a different direction now. And a career that makes far less but that brings great enjoyment would be preferable to a good many people, myself included. However…
“I picked this because I liked the idea of working for a biomed or pharmaceutical company.”
Another problem may be that you aren’t quite sure what it will actually be like- and you may want to try an internship just to be comfortable and certain with any decision, allowing you to see if you liked the idea more than the actual job of engineer.

At least you will have a good amount of science major prerequisites/core courses out of the way (chem, orgo, bio, calc, physics) with both types of majors, right? So changing shouldn’t set you back too much…always good.

You probably want to dig deeper into why you loved the idea of working for those types of companies/that kind of work. Desire to help people? Might you have a underlying preference for research? etc…

In the end you just have to do what makes you happy. You are right there really is no point to do it just for the job prospects/amount of curriculum complete/thoughts that it will get better if you can never see it esp. after a bit more exposure. You may just end up finding yourself back in school for the degree you would have picked if you don’t find this out now!
Life is too short. :)