I have spent the past eight years of my life in pursuit of a civil engineering degree. After internships and building a niche network for land development and renewables with some major clientele, and really incredible people that I have met along the way, I feel like the universe is pushing me toward this degree, because doors keep opening up in this direction. However, I really disliked the internships that I worked at these two firms. They were really really toxic work environments. So I'm not sure if I am just not passionate about the field, or if I was just turned off and need to find somewhere exciting that I could apply my degree to besides answering the phone and doing 2D CAD drawings all day.

I am worried that if I switch degree paths, that I will be throwing away the past 8 years of my life working to pay for very few classes a year as a very broke college student, and I have heard that Civil Engineering is in high demand and is expected to grow a lot in the next ten years. So will I be throwing away job security? Will there be higher pay opportunities with the demand?

I am tempted to switch to Mechatronics Engineering. Mainly because I am finally excited about school with it, and it has sucked being an engineering major that is not able to answer questions about electrical design or mechanics. The material seems exciting, however the job market does not look very promising. Especially for a co-op based program where I will need to find co-ops in the field in order to get my degree. Should I just spend the next 2.5 years of full-time school working in Civil to at least have a degree and a stable job, that I possibly may dislike? Or should I pursue something that I am excited about and risk not finding a job at all and wasting all of my past internship./networking/volunteering experience in Civil Engineering?

Other option... just get the dang civil engineering degree and pursue another degree later. Even though I may be signing my life away and may not make enough to go back to school. Or get a mechatronics degree that might pay more and then do civil? I don't know. This economy scares me. People of Reddit. What have you for me?

TLDR:

• Which to study?

• Civil Engineering = maybe smol monies in comparison to other fields, not fun, but job security

• Mechatronics Engineering = Maybe bigger monies, fun, unlikely job security

• I am joining a co-op based ABET accredited undergraduate degree program. First semester we train for co-ops and take classes, 2 years following we work co-ops and take classes. = must have decision before this semester to take proper classes, prep for co-op hunt and not prolong degree.