The Plan

I've had a lot of time off recently because I've quit my VMC job. From my point of view quitting that job was an obvious move. If you go to work and all you want to do while at work is not be at work, then leave that job. If you receive nothing but frustration and indignation from your profession, choose another profession.

So I've left VMC. I'm actually able to survive on my Homestead job, but it's just survival so I'm looking for another job. Despite my continuous economic peril I'm confident that I'll still achieve my key goal of "Survive until June," so I've learned to stop wasting time worrying about money and instead waste time on the various self exploration things that I came here for in the first place.

If you recall the key issue, the one that must be dealt with before I return to UW, is picking a major. The major heavily determines the career path and if you're unhappy with your career you're going to be unhappy with a lot of other things. VMC proved that one to me. I've gotten a lot closer to an answer to this question recently.

First of all throw pharmacy, psychology, and law off the table. Those things all still interest me but anything less then a Doctorate in psych is useless, and AFAIK most law schools would prefer someone with a technical degree to someone with a pre-law degree. We'll come back to pharmacy.

So what's still in play. The short answer is Engineering. I hate saying that after all the time I've spent lamenting my pre-destination to an engineering degree, but it's really going to be the best choice. It fills my needs, and it plays to my strengths. The problem is that it's not a real conclusion, there are different kinds of engineering. So now the table is

Electrical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Computer Science
Bio Engineering

Okay scrap chemical E. It seems kind of rude to my father for me to say this, but I think Chem E is going away. It'll get divided up between Material Science and Bio engineering and stop needing its own heading. EE, Bio-E, CS. I'm really not sure between those three. I've heard recently that there may be a spike in the need for good CS people, and I've also heard that there may be a flood of Bio-E people, but I decided that I'm not going to take demand trends into account when making this decision. I'm not going into the field for a little while, I'm not getting a quick degree to fill a need while it's around, this is a life long thing. Demand trends will come and go, but I think all three of the ones I've got on my list will continue to be needed throughout my lifetime. I also think that the brain drain will hit all of them, so I'm not taking globalization concerns into mind.

That's where the discussion stops though. I've gotten a focus, and I've gotten it down to three sub-foci. After that I really don't know.

For now.