The Bravohood

I graduate may with my associates in computer networking.

As i love technology ,and am loving a good amount of these technical classes i have to take,however i am not in love with the networking side.

I am wanting to pursue a bachelors next.

but I am kinda confused on my next move.

I do not want to pursue my bachelors in networking.

I was looking for something that balanced medical field,with technology but nothing caught my interest at the local uni

I will also be working full time while pursuing my bachelors

What does interest me to a degree is Computer Engineering,the money is there

however my weakest subject is math and it kinda is a hesitant issue for me

Questions:

Do we have any engineers here?Just looking for feed back on what type you are?How do you love your job?Pros,cons..How was your educational experience? etc

Hey man,

Glad to see you’re working so hard on getting a great career. If you are a technically minded person, engineering is great for you. Once you are out of school, the work is straight forward and very logical, so as long as you know what you’re talking about it’s smooth sailing. Also, you rarely have bosses that are jerks because engineering is a very black and white field… so there is something to be said for peace of mind.

I’m a mechanical engineer, so I design drilling rigs. I think Spacedust is an electrical engineer if I recall correctly, so if he sees this maybe he can comment on the computer/electrical side of things.

I went down the technical route, so it’s a lot of calculations and stuff. If you want something more social, there are plenty of jobs where you are overseeing and approving stuff, so you talk to vendors all day. If you are really socially minded, you can go down the management stream. It all depends on what you want to do.

I think there are a couple of things that you need to think about before you go down this road. First, a degree in engineering is a full time thing, I don’t know of any schools (or atleast reputable schools) that will let you do it with a day job. Classes alone are going to be an 8-5 job, and the homework is a killer. You might be able to keep a part time job on the side for spending money, but you are probably going to be relying on student loans to finance it.

There is going to be a lot of math. I only had to go up to Calculus 3, but the electrical and computer guys have to take Calculus 4. All I can say is that I don’t envy those guys… so make sure this is something you are ready to commit to because first and second year courses come at you hard and fast. By third year you’ve developed good work ethic from just trying to survive the previous two years, so most people consider it smooth sailing from there.

The school I went to had everyone mixed together in first year, and then people got to choose what kind of engineering they want to go into. BUT, the choosing was in order of their GPA, the better your grades, the better the chance of getting your first choice. Maybe this is something to keep in mind, or maybe the school you are looking at let’s you choose which type of engineering when you sign up.

Also, what don’t you like about networking? If it is the technical aspect, and following too many complex rules, engineering and hard sciences will pretty much be the same thing.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I’ll be glad to answer them

Check out something like Management Information Systems. Back when I was in college that was basically a hybrid giving the student some exposure to the technical side while also some business stuff.

Sorry to hear you don't like the network field. It's not for everyone. Since you mentioned math, I have to point out that networking requires almost zero mathematical expertise.

Also MBA is def worth looking into. And they probably have something specific related to medical field since there are all sorts of additional requirements (HIPPA, etc.)

Search job sites for something that interest you and look at what they're saying you need degree wise

I'm a senior studying electrical engineering.

As for the math concern take as many math courses as you can at a local community college and transfer them in to your school. I took calculus 1 and got through it but it was tough. I then took Calculus 2 and 3 as well as Diff-E-Q 1 and 2 at the community college and got straight A's in all of these courses. Also take physics at the community college those courses were rough at the university.

The math in the engineering courses at most universities isn't that bad because they don't let you use a calculator on the exams so you don't have to worry about any crazy trig related integrals.

In short take as many math and science courses at your local community college that you can it will save you a lot of money and they will be a lot less difficult.

Do your best to get an internship if you pursue engineering. Take the offer from the biggest company. They often lead to jobs with signing bonuses and count as time towards your next promotion.