bighurt,

that's more or less exactly my plan other than moving far

Glad to hear you're not going to walk away from the degree now that you're so close. Fair or not, just having that will help you later in life, I bet.

You mentioned that you're only interested in designing and playing video games. (I know nothing of how games are implemented). Seems like there might be a path there--use your technical skills to take ideas to actual games?

When I was hating my employer earlier, I was thinking about starting a similar thread, but mine would've been "... Thinking of retiring". Thank you for starting this thread. Given me a lot to think about too, only I'm on the back end of career cycle.

One other thing...it seems like you're younger, but not typical college age, and also don't have a lot of things holding you down. This is probably a good time to make a "mistake". You can recover from that adventure in years down the road.

In other words, try development (for example) to see if you like it. If not, move on.

I’m going to reevaluate after finals, right now I’m just way too stressed

FB targeted ads are getting scary, after this thread I am now getting ads for articles about “imposter syndrome” in the tech world.

I just really want to stress to you that ultimately you are still in a very poor state of mind to be making such firm decisions (like that you hate a certain environment, cannot work in a 9-5, etc.).

Right now just focus on the good advice you already plan on following:
1. Graduate
2. Move to a less ridiculous location

In the meantime, you should create a really good resume/ cover letter and do the resume bomb approach.

This is is a guaranteed resume bomb strategy:

1. Track all of this
2. Create a great resume/ and great generic cover letter
3. Apply to 20-40 jobs
4. Note the responses/ conversations you are having, how you want them to change, what you like, etc.
5. Create a modified resume/ generic cover letter
if (!job) GOTO 3

I asked because, after reading your blog, it seems to me like your mentally in a less than fine place right now. I'd agree with Larry that in this state of mind you'd better not make firm big decisions.

Also, and maybe I am overstepping my boundaries here (if so, I'm sorry), the girl you're seeing seems to do more bad than good for your mental health.

i'm not sure how good my resume is but it gets good responses. I might focus a little more on my technical section and less on my captain stuff. The captain stuff is irrelevant but provides good talking points and I try to parlay the fact that I am a team player and comfortable in a leadership role and able to take my own initiative. It's gotten really high reply rates so far but I want to run it by a few people again before I go full resume bomb.

I'm told by a lot of people I don't need a cover letter, I'm not even sure what it's for.

I can't move until I get a new job first, unless this wasn't clear. Cost of living is way too high and my boss is unlikely to give me the hours I need to afford a new place.

yea she might be a little bit but i think it's more to do with school stress and my own overreactions than anything else.

i'll admit she can be a little demanding and unreasonable but also really supportive and sweet.

she's like a 9.9/10 too, i think regular sexual activity with a very attractive girl is more positive of an effect on my depression than the negatives that go with dealing with her little mood swings and ambiguity of the relationship.

In your case I don't think a cover letter would be a bad idea:

Cover letter - captain stuff, a look behind the resume
Resume - technical

I think when having a non-traditional background, cover letters are very helpful.

if you mean my milk carton captain job i think this isn't even disputable, I've hated it for a long time. one of my therapist's initial pieces of advice was that I needed to remove myself from that environment and surround myself with peers ASAP. she thought that the constant reminder of my last relationship, seeing the guy that cucked me, and the combination of terrible boss/insufferable coworkers and low mental stimulation were making me depressed.

i'd 100% agree with this and have a hard time changing my mind about it. like i said 2 days a week there is mostly fine, if i get a real job I may not even quit if i go down to just 1 day a week on the weekend.

i can't stress enough how much i hate a few of my coworkers and the resentment i feel towards my boss. the latest slap in the face with the pay was kind of a final straw and a big trigger to the creation of this thread.

if my boss got fired, which seems semi-likely, then things would really improve on that front but it's probably a good thing i hate it so much because if i loved it, moving on to a new career would be much harder.

yea that would be good, but i don't have a lot to write on the technical other than subjects I've studied and my GPA.

i'll research this, come up with something, and then send my resume to my uncle who has worked in multiple industries for like 30 years, and was the VP of a large bank for a while and get feedback from him, and then take the resume to the career center at my school.

one of the most beneficial courses I took was an english for CS majors class that focused on resume writing.

Dude, let me be clear here.

I would have left that job no less than 100 times in the 14 years you have been there.

This:

The thought of going into work to that situation to make like 15-17/hr would have never even crossed my mind. It is essentially torture to your mental health for double minimum wage. It is borderline torture to yourself.

I think that environment likely has caused some mental issues to become a bit hardened in your mind. You need freedom and you need a lack of self-depressive stimulation for a while.

I've worked a few low paying jobs. They ****ing suck and I hated being around a lot of my co-workers. Some were complete twits and *******s. While I don't love my current job, nobody is really an ******* nor do I deal with them all that often (I work mainly remote). Just be patient and just know that most people don't love their jobs. To me, as with many, it's a means to an end. If you want to eventually find the perfect job, figure out a path to get there.

I think a few of my friends have found theres but it's taken them a long time. Even so, they've moved around a ton when they've found it for similar jobs at similar companies (for instance one of my friends works in Video Game Marketing--he went to law school, worked for TBS, got his MBA, worked for Hanes, then Wal-Mart, then EA, and now some smaller video game company which I assume he loves). He would goto conventions and shows for video games despite not working in the industry just yet. Most of these firms have probably a laundry list of interested folks who would be great for their jobs but they would probably prefer people who are super passionate about their jobs and that's where I think he finally got his in (on top of being qualified and intelligent).

I write these for a living. Blame Facebook. They give us advertisers everything we need to know to put our ads in front of our Target demographic. A friend of mine cashed out 5years back, writing a Facebook API that Combs your selfies to see if you show your teeth or not when you smile, and if so... How aligned they are. There's levers that you can pull in targeting, cosmetic surgery candidates, for example to put those ads in your feed.

It's such an interesting and every changing industry. So much that people who have a mastery of of scaling digital ad revenue will always be in demand.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Until regulation destroys it as it rightfully should.

FB's use of data is insane to me, there were acquisitions blocked in the past to avoid connecting too much consumer data, and now facebook has exponentially better data and no rules.

People really underestimating how much 135k is ITT. That's like 10 years of aggressive savings at a middle class job. You could probably buy a 50k 1bd/1ba condo and live somewhat comfortably working only seasonal minimum wage gigs for the rest of your life in the midwest.

This is maybe the worst piece of advice I've ever read.

Not really advice, just making sure he knows his options.

i like it

Which country do you live in?

^^^ Right, LOL. A Nissan Maxima is gonna run you more than 50k.

I could buy a parking spot and a storage locker for a condo for that price, though, and still have $15-20k left over.

Michigan.

I hope he ****ed maryanne, cause she couldnt do anything else

Combine programming with math and get a job with Cambridge Analytica. Be part of the problem, not the solution

northern michigan is elite in the summer

Had a really difficult last 36 hours and my mind was pretty much blasted of what was left of my mental energy but I had some opportunity for personal reflection, and I decided I do really like CS - the science.

For a while I thought that I didn't, but tonight after my finals I only had ~1.5 beers and went down a rabbit hole of CS research stuff from MIT and some other websites I stumbled across. Spent an entire hour reading an algorithm paper. That's not something someone does unless they're extremely high or have an interest in the subject, and I know the former isn't true so it must be the latter.

I think what I've been really frustrated by, and confused for a lack of passion, is the depth of my education. It seems to skip across a million subjects. It's a total "mile wide, inch deep" type of education. It's a bad mix of a ****load of practical stuff that doesn't go deep or recent enough to be useful in the real world, combined with shoddy math and theories that are mostly brushed over (what i actually like).

I think this is why I mention a master's degree. I really would like to learn a lot more of this, but only particular subjects. I really like algorithm analysis but that wasn't my area of focus in my Bachelor's, I went for "Systems and software" because it was the most practical and the most common interview/real world type of classes.

I don't have a good understanding of post-grad studies but my thoughts are that it'll be just more of the same broad education, superseded by one area of interest. I don't want to take a bunch more classes about **** I don't care about, I want to learn what I like and do research (if i do more school).

if this is possible I'd like to add it to my list of directions to go other than the "spam resume, get new job, move, success" formula that seems super obvious and practical.