My Top 3 College Regrets in Engineering (DON'T DO THIS)

My number one regret from college was not doing a single internship. During the between my freshman and sophomore year, I did 4 courses over the summer, which is basically the maximum courseload. That is reasonable, which explains why I wouldn’t have been able to do an internship that summer. That summer was also the time that I was getting into boxing, losing weight, and transforming my body. Therefore I didn’t really have time to go work on a personal project outside of my summer classes if I wanted to enjoy the summer somewhat as well. Furthermore, I had the time of my life rooming with my best friend, cooking and having long chat sessions.

However, the regret comes from the summer between my undergrad and my Master’s degree, where I didn’t pursue any internship whatsoever. Honestly, I don’t have any good reasons for not pursuing a summer internship. That year, I had decided I wanted to go to graduate school, so during the early part of the semester, I went through the whole grad school application process. However, for some reason, I entirely missed out on the fact that I would have a free summer in between the Bachelor’s and the Master’s degree. Instead, that summer, I worked on grad school assignments before entering the classes, preparing myself for the grad school. I also went on vacation to the Philippines and Korea instead. While I absolutely enjoyed the trip, I totally could have vacationed there as well as squeezed in an internship in the interim period between when school ends and the internship starts. I would say part of the reason is that all of my friends around me were just 2nd years in college, and many of them weren’t pursuing summer internships, or they were just doing some summer research under a professor.

The reason why this is my biggest regret is because I think it limited my full time job opportunities when applying for jobs. Even landing at Amazon, had I interned here before joining the company and gotten a return offer, the return offer sign on bonus would have been higher by perhaps another 10 to 15 thousand dollars. Furthermore, assuming an income rate of 8,000 per month at Amazon for a summer intern, which is the number I have heard from other people, over 3 months, that would be 24,000 dollars. After tax, that would be about $20,500. Basically, by not pursuing a summer internship for 3 months, I lost out on perhaps $35,000 dollars. $35,000 dollars in exchange for 3 months of work sounds like a great deal to me. Although in the long run, that one missed internship doesn’t matter, It is still one of my biggest regrets from university.

Next up, the second biggest regret from college would have to be not starting gymming earlier. Basically, for my entire freshman year until summer came around, I didn’t do any exercise whatsoever. Once in awhile, I would try some running, but I would always give up and not make any progress. I was one of those guys, who if I went to the gym, I would kind of just walk around to different machines at random and just try them. I wouldn’t say I was very fat and out of shape, but I feel I was definitely not getting my exercise in. Once I got really into training that summer, I realized how valuable lifting it. First off, it teaches that transformations can and do happen quickly, and you just need to put serious effort into it. My energy levels skyrocketed that summer, and I could easily run all over the city of Boston with ease. Overall, I would say I was much more confident in my body after that summer and my mood improved because I had higher levels energy. The last thing it taught me is discipline and how to stick to a schedule. Lifting taught me structure and discipline, and making sure to never give up on something. I think that I really missed out on a year’s work of lifting progress, as well as a lot of the positive benefits from exercise including mood and discipline, because I didn’t start lifting earlier. If I could change anything, I would definitely have started from day 1.

My third regret would be not taking group projects seriously enough. Having been to grad school now and actual work, I realized how valuable group projects are for engineers. All engineering tasks are done as a team, and you can’t solve anything alone. Group projects teach you to make friends and work together for a goal. Some of my greatest friendships and experiences have been made because of good group projects. However, in my undergrad, I didn’t take these projects very seriously. For my first engineering design class, which involved a team, I didn’t treat it as seriously because it was only a 2 pointer class. However, in retrospect, I think that done right, that is one of the classes that should give you one of the greatest memories for your university. I wish I had taken senior design more seriously as well, because had I not had amazing group projects in my graduate school, that seriously would have stunted my development as an engineer.