Had a very interesting conversation with my 19yo neighbour yesterday. He’s done with 12th but is taking a year’s break because he can’t decide between engineering and medicine. He wanted us (husband & I) to advice him on if he should take up engineering.

First came the google-able questions - which college is good, which has placement, what’s an engineer’s salary, etc. Then came the usual questions - how many hours did we study? How did we study? How we got the marks we did. What’s the scope? Questions I never have answers to.

He seemed convinced that a degree was the path to success - to a settled life as he put it. A settled life to him means a luxurious house, happy family and 9-5 job. He seemed to think that we’d have the answers to all his questions and seemed quite disappointed that we didn’t

He’s not even started studying and he’s already worried about finding a job, getting regular promotions and retiring well. This worry has eaten him so much that he’s had to take an entire year off. Strangely this pressure seems to come from him rather than his family.

After over an hour of convincing and multiple examples of our friends who are now off doing things completely unrelated to their engineering degrees was he willing to entertain the thought that a degree (engineering or otherwise) was not a sure fire way to success.

We explained to him that the most important thing was to study subjects he liked and then find fields that related to those subjects. That interest in the job at hand was integral to doing a job well and that a degree in something didn’t mean he could never do anything else.

We encouraged him to talk to others & always take advice (even from us) with a pinch of salt. We asked him to take up internships to see how offices worked & what different jobs entailed. Most importantly to remember that things will not always go to plan & that’s okay.Thoughts?