How to decide on your first job?

[bschwartz]

Hey guys so I'm going to be graduating with a BS in Mechanical Engineering this May and I'm now starting the whole job search. How do you know what you want to do with your life? It's a very daunting question to me and, frankly, scares the hell out of me. When looking for your first job do you take what you can get and try to figure out from experience what you really want to do? I'm just scared that I'm going to get a job (maybe haha) that I don't like and regret it. I know I can always quit and try something else, but I just don't know...

 

[twofish-quant]

Hey guys so I'm going to be graduating with a BS in Mechanical Engineering this May and I'm now starting the whole job search. How do you know what you want to do with your life?

Try stuff. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn't, do something else. I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with my life, and I'll likely die before I have that figured out.

When looking for your first job do you take what you can get and try to figure out from experience what you really want to do?

Something like that. Also, you'll never do exactly want you what to do. So there is this balance between doing what you want to do, and doing what people will pay you to do.

I'm just scared that I'm going to get a job (maybe haha) that I don't like and regret it.

Nothing to fear here. It's fairly likely that at some point you'll work for a company that stinks in a job that you don't like. At that point it becomes a learning/growth/trying to keep sanity experience.

I know I can always quit and try something else, but I just don't know...

Or you are forced to leave because of a layoff... One thing that I've found helpful is to not have your entire life revolve around work. That way if you happen get into a bad situation, then at least you just take the paycheck and do something fun on the weekends.

 

[chiro]

Hey bschwartz and welcome to the forums.

When you get an interview for a job (touch wood), if you happen to find the right people who you are working with and for, then take the time to just learn new things about your job/career and also about the nature of the work.

twofish said it a lot better than I could have and he sums up my thoughts in a way better than I could have.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

Allow me to amplify what TwoFish wrote: If you haven't tried stuff, how will you know what you like or don't like? I bounced around in several contract jobs before I landed in a place where my desire for real work and my natural curiosity could be satisfied at once.

Sometimes you find a place that seems neat until one morning you wake up and decide to try something completely different. They don't call it a mid-life crisis for nothing.

 

[ModusPwnd]

Hey guys so I'm going to be graduating with a BS in Mechanical Engineering this May and I'm now starting the whole job search. How do you know what you want to do with your life? It's a very daunting question to me and, frankly, scares the hell out of me. When looking for your first job do you take what you can get and try to figure out from experience what you really want to do? I'm just scared that I'm going to get a job (maybe haha) that I don't like and regret it. I know I can always quit and try something else, but I just don't know...

Feel lucky you have the ability to be so choosy! I would take any technical job I could get.

 

[JosephBell]

Hey guys so I'm going to be graduating with a BS in Mechanical Engineering this May and I'm now starting the whole job search. How do you know what you want to do with your life? It's a very daunting question to me and, frankly, scares the hell out of me. When looking for your first job do you take what you can get and try to figure out from experience what you really want to do? I'm just scared that I'm going to get a job (maybe haha) that I don't like and regret it. I know I can always quit and try something else, but I just don't know...

Hi there (By the way this is my first ever post)

Following in the general theme of conversation, I think it would be a good idea for you to try your hand at a few contract temporary posts just to see if anything catches your interest.

However in addition to that if you haven't got any engineering related hobbies currently I would advise you to get some. If you do have engineering related hobbies then a easy move to make would be to get a job in a field related to that hobby if it were possible. This way you essentially get to do something you love every day.