Future and what path to take

[ejay]

My overall recommendation would be to get multiple internships!

Good point!

I had an internship with a large Survey company set up through the Vocational school. It helped get me one of my design jobs as the work I was doing for the survey company was base mapping for the utility design the company I interviewed for. They recognized my maps/examples as ones they used to design utilities as a source contractor for a large utility company. It helped a ton and gave me a good amount of knowledge. Included in that knowledge was to never work for a large survey company like that. Perks were great but people were super protective of their work as if someone was going to steal their job. In retrospect, i experienced that a lot in engineering environments. You'd think people were asking to train their replacements.

 

[johnny deeker]

Wow buddy you're getting some good advice here!. First off some context. You'll probably have three or four careers so don't sweat the specifics as much as the general direction. Things will build on each other and you will not see it at the time. I am a fan of training the mind first, with university. Add a second language if you can because a second language gives you a completely new forus on the same world.
a six week immersion program in french or spanish will give you the basics.
Then as others have said, work hard to keep costs low, work summers go to school and stay at home. Debt is enslavement.
Then once you have the world figured out, choose what you want to do for a living. It is a long haul and too long if you are miserable. If you are doing something no one else is, you're probably onto something. Those who tell you they have it all figured out are telling fibs and repeating their parent's indoctrination.
There is no huge choice here, just a direction that will best set you up in the future as a contented and prosperous man. Best of luck. For someone as insightful as you I can tell ya, it will all work out, don't sweat it too much but work hard.

 

[johnny deeker]

Just keep building those blocks. Finish everything you start. Keep moving forward. You nor anyone else can predict where you will be or will want to be at 35.
We have a saying here in the Yukon passed down for years....
The same man never crosses the same river twice.
One, because the river has changed
and two
because the man has changed.

 

[Trevlaw]

Haven't seen it mentioned very much yet, but if you haven't heard of it before or looked into it much, you might try looking into the machinist trade. You've gotta get good to make some real money compared to the other trades, and there's no unions, but you might just fall in love with it like myself and plenty of others where that other stuff doesn't matter quite as much.

I went to school for mechanical engineering for a year and dropped out. Not because I couldn't do it, but I hated most aspects of going to school for it. Machining checks all my boxes. Creative problem solving, designing and improving parts, designs and setups. Lots of CAD/CAM work and if you're good with that part that's where the real money is. Not to mention you can make pretty much anything your brain can imagine.

But, if you don't fall in love with it, try something else out. It's not worth the time, money or stress if it's not your favorite thing to do.