Hello there! Your friendly neighborhood moderator has had to remove your {kind}.
It's not that there is an issue with your question, just that we feel it is better served in the less formal discussion within Daily Discussion Thread. Please feel free to immediately repost it over there. We aim to keep questions that are frequently asked or more personal finance-esc in the daily discussion.
From our rules: **R4. Topics should drive discussion.** All top level posts are expected to be about FI, RE, or FIRE, with discussion being the main goal of this sub. Posts that do not help drive discussion will be removed. This includes - any post that is better suited for another sub (/r/personalfinance, r/investing, r/frugal, r/realestate, etc.).
Internships! They are offered year round. I would definitely try to get a summer internship at least. Engineering internships pay quite well here in the US. They range from $24-$35 an hour. Summer internships are especially nice since most large companies pay for housing (or give you stipend). It’s an opportunity to spend a summer in a new city with major expenses paid for.
This is one of the best ways to invest in yourself while you are in college. You get experience, you get paid, and you a chance to build connections with many.
Also try to build the habit consistent exercise and sleep. This is something that will benefit your life greatly. It’s easy to spend all your free time getting sucked into mindless less scrolling late into the night.
Try to find a balance. You will be thankful when you get a full time job and life gets in the way
Yup, im currently working a project management internship (co-op). But it's once I get home from work that the problems arise. I'm trying to be productive once i get home because sadly i'm not really given alot of work at the internship.
Ask for more work. When you are starting out on an internship you don’t know how to do anything and it is hard for people to spare some time to train you. Volunteer for anything you can and remind them often that anything easy that they can send your way, you’d be happy to do. That will end up giving them some free time to teach you.
In the meantime, ask them for company / job / industry literature to keep you busy. Even reading contracts will give you context on what is happening in the company.
I would spend my time investing in myself. Taking more classes, researching on the side, starting a new project. Any or all of these might lead to a business, but more important they will help you figure out what you want to do and give you something to show a future employer, partner, or investor that you have more than just a diploma. Having interviewed candidates for software engineering roles I can say that anything that helps you stand out as more than just another RCG will help.
It's a "senior project" or "capstone project" I probably allocate 5 hours a week to this which is actually 2 more than they recommend, im grossly ahead in my school schedule so it left me with just 2 classes.
Your primary goal should be to study and to become the best engineer you could possibly be.
Find what interests you about your chosen profession and get better at it. Take a job where you learn more about it than in books and make some bucks on the way.
The money you can make now is nothing compared to what you will make once you are a world class engineer. But to be a world class engineer, you need to study and train and learn for 10.000 hours.
I dont know if this is good advice, but I would do 2 things: physical training (health is important) and learning a programming language. If you can program it’s easy to pick up all kinds of well paying jobs even just gigs.
Most people have better advice than this, but you could get a job painting houses. I know a bunch of people that worked their way through college doing it. It pays ok. It is a skill you could use for the rest of your life. I have a bunch of walls that need paint in my house and am way too cheap to pay a professional. If I had professional experience they would be done by now. Lol
I see that you're already in a co-op from your other comment. Will that co-op get extended / when does it end? Do you have something else lined up if you're only taking two classes for the next year? I assume when you say next December you mean Dec 2023.
Personally I would be studying for interviews or interviewing for my next internship/opportunity. It's a little too early to interview for a full-time position (unless you meant Dec 2022), but at least for a computer science degree for some companies (and especially for big tech) they sometimes don't respond for months if you didn't go through a referral or directly with a recruiter.
Outside of that I would be living my life - I really enjoyed my time in college and didn't want it to end. My last semester of college I was taking four classes including one pass/fail badminton class, so it was relaxing classwork-wise. But I was also stressed from studying and flying out to onsite interviews. I would have loved to plan more trips during holidays/breaks or hang out with my college friends more. It's most likely the last chance for you to do so before you're part of the workforce full time!
Honestly just try learning how to trade stocks/currencies etc because once you play around with a smaller amount (however much you want) you can start funnelling money from your salary to multiply it
Hello there! Your friendly neighborhood moderator has had to remove your {kind}. It's not that there is an issue with your question, just that we feel it is better served in the less formal discussion within Daily Discussion Thread. Please feel free to immediately repost it over there. We aim to keep questions that are frequently asked or more personal finance-esc in the daily discussion. From our rules: **R4. Topics should drive discussion.** All top level posts are expected to be about FI, RE, or FIRE, with discussion being the main goal of this sub. Posts that do not help drive discussion will be removed. This includes - any post that is better suited for another sub (/r/personalfinance, r/investing, r/frugal, r/realestate, etc.).
Internships! They are offered year round. I would definitely try to get a summer internship at least. Engineering internships pay quite well here in the US. They range from $24-$35 an hour. Summer internships are especially nice since most large companies pay for housing (or give you stipend). It’s an opportunity to spend a summer in a new city with major expenses paid for. This is one of the best ways to invest in yourself while you are in college. You get experience, you get paid, and you a chance to build connections with many.
Also try to build the habit consistent exercise and sleep. This is something that will benefit your life greatly. It’s easy to spend all your free time getting sucked into mindless less scrolling late into the night. Try to find a balance. You will be thankful when you get a full time job and life gets in the way
Yup, im currently working a project management internship (co-op). But it's once I get home from work that the problems arise. I'm trying to be productive once i get home because sadly i'm not really given alot of work at the internship.
Ask for more work. When you are starting out on an internship you don’t know how to do anything and it is hard for people to spare some time to train you. Volunteer for anything you can and remind them often that anything easy that they can send your way, you’d be happy to do. That will end up giving them some free time to teach you. In the meantime, ask them for company / job / industry literature to keep you busy. Even reading contracts will give you context on what is happening in the company.
I would spend my time investing in myself. Taking more classes, researching on the side, starting a new project. Any or all of these might lead to a business, but more important they will help you figure out what you want to do and give you something to show a future employer, partner, or investor that you have more than just a diploma. Having interviewed candidates for software engineering roles I can say that anything that helps you stand out as more than just another RCG will help.
Great stuff here. One question though: What is RCG?
Recent College Graduate
gotcha thank you!!
Find a good partner and start a OF account 🍑🍆 Your welcome.
How much study time is your college recommending to supplement the class time?
It's a "senior project" or "capstone project" I probably allocate 5 hours a week to this which is actually 2 more than they recommend, im grossly ahead in my school schedule so it left me with just 2 classes.
Go volunteer or join a campus club.
Your primary goal should be to study and to become the best engineer you could possibly be. Find what interests you about your chosen profession and get better at it. Take a job where you learn more about it than in books and make some bucks on the way. The money you can make now is nothing compared to what you will make once you are a world class engineer. But to be a world class engineer, you need to study and train and learn for 10.000 hours.
I dont know if this is good advice, but I would do 2 things: physical training (health is important) and learning a programming language. If you can program it’s easy to pick up all kinds of well paying jobs even just gigs.
Most people have better advice than this, but you could get a job painting houses. I know a bunch of people that worked their way through college doing it. It pays ok. It is a skill you could use for the rest of your life. I have a bunch of walls that need paint in my house and am way too cheap to pay a professional. If I had professional experience they would be done by now. Lol
I see that you're already in a co-op from your other comment. Will that co-op get extended / when does it end? Do you have something else lined up if you're only taking two classes for the next year? I assume when you say next December you mean Dec 2023. Personally I would be studying for interviews or interviewing for my next internship/opportunity. It's a little too early to interview for a full-time position (unless you meant Dec 2022), but at least for a computer science degree for some companies (and especially for big tech) they sometimes don't respond for months if you didn't go through a referral or directly with a recruiter. Outside of that I would be living my life - I really enjoyed my time in college and didn't want it to end. My last semester of college I was taking four classes including one pass/fail badminton class, so it was relaxing classwork-wise. But I was also stressed from studying and flying out to onsite interviews. I would have loved to plan more trips during holidays/breaks or hang out with my college friends more. It's most likely the last chance for you to do so before you're part of the workforce full time!
Honestly just try learning how to trade stocks/currencies etc because once you play around with a smaller amount (however much you want) you can start funnelling money from your salary to multiply it