this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

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If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 91 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's what being an adult is like. You don't study for the fanfare, you study for a goal or for yourself.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

That and if you have a significant other, you might also score a celebratory shagging.

Edit: Never mind, just realized this is an anon on 4chan posting about engineering school.

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[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 67 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think it's practical. I haven't known many engineer types to make a huge deal of graduation per se. It's just the next step in a bigger procedure.

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[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 56 points 2 weeks ago

I’m kind of surprised; most colleges and universities I’ve seen still have a ceremony for people graduating at the end of the fall semester. It’s not nearly as elaborate as the one ending the spring semester, but it’s still something.

Still, most of life is going to be like that. Usually no real ceremonies for the last day on the job. Move out of your old house/apartment is a lot of work at the end and then you lock the door for the last time.

Congratulations, you’re an adult now.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 51 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Slight difference; being an ex on has the opposite effect on your ability to get a job.

[–] bulwark@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Agreed, Exxon is a horrible company but I hear the pay is good. It would be tough for an ex-con to get a job as well.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 weeks ago

Oof, touché.

Leaving it as is.

[–] _____@lemm.ee 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've never attended a singe scholarly celebration since my middle schools where I went and realized that it was completely pointless

plus the whole preparation and fanfare is draining for me, id like to actually celebrate by relaxing not stressing over an event

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 15 points 2 weeks ago

I feel that. Too many people, and most are just sitting there, looking at other people and clapping.

[–] namarupa@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Validation need not come from anywhere outside yourself. Set your own goals. Do your best. Pat yourself on the back. People who 'recognize' you only do so superficially anyway. No one can truly know what you've done or where you've been.

[–] currycourier@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I mean, sure, but it is still nice to have some external validation now and again you know?

[–] infinite_ass@leminal.space 8 points 1 week ago

In monetary form even.

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[–] Pulptastic@midwest.social 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Two things. 1. If you hated it maybe it was the wrong choice, 2. You can walk in the spring commencement if you want to, that’s what I did for grad school.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I love engineering, I hated University. The framework of school is not for everyone and reading 300 pages of complex stuff every week for 4 years is boring to death and it isn't for me, and for a lot of people.

School of all levels caters to one type of learning, and not everyone is good with that style.

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[–] petersr@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)
  1. if you hated engineering in uni, will you love the work afterwards?
[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yup. If you enjoy the work but hate the school environment, you'll probably like being an engineer.

I'm a software engineer, so it's quite a bit different than other types of engineering, and I hated formal education but I absolutely love my job, even after many years.

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

BTW, can I get your opinion on something ? It's called Fossil from an engineer perspective

[–] rodbiren@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Depends if who you work for. If you work for bad management prepare for some goon to tell you what you should be doing, be wrong about what they tell you, not know what they want, and to demand it sooner than you tell them it will take. They will then change their mind and still expect it to take less time. They will be constantly frustrated with you and you will hate it.

Good management will find work with clear value to customers and you will feel valued and be given *mostly adequate time to do your work. You will put in your hours and be paid. You'll still be jerked around by typical corporate politics, but it's everywhere so buckle up. Better than ditch digging unless that's what you want.

Good management should insulate engineers from most of the corporate politics. My manager, for example, knows we get surprises, so they add in extra time to whatever estimate we give, and he tells stakeholders that this is a firm estimate, which they'll inevitably push back on and they'll concede down to something a little higher than our initial estimate (i.e. handle the corporate politics).

[–] DeadWorldWalking@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago
  1. Does it matter if you hate the work if it's the only thing you can find that pays more than subsistence wages?

  2. Do any of our lives matter in this hell?

Depends on the person, depends on the University.

From what I've seen (very old anecdote here, take with salt) some engineering colleges will do everything within the ethics/honor code to obstruct your path to 2nd year. Then they do it again for 3rd. The result are brutally hard classes that are designed to weed students out more than teaching the subject at hand. Even on its best day, school doesn't mirror the real world, but neither does semester after semester of arbitrary hurdles for a degree. The workplace simply has entirely different, but far more palatable, bullshit on offer. IMO, it's completely valid to hate school but love your job afterwards.

[–] frigidaphelion@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Getting out of the military is a lot like that as well

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[–] Taalen@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (8 children)

I just didn't go to my graduation ceremony, despite there being free dinner. Was (and had been for ages) struggling with pretty bad depression and didn't feel I deserved any of it.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've got 3 degrees and have a Gold Duke of Edinburgh award (if you do bronze, silver, and gold, you get to shake hands with a failed king)

  • Never went to any graduation ceremony
  • Never went to Buckingham Palace to shake hands with Prince Philip.

I am right now, sitting at home in my jammies eating burritos. I regret nothing.

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

How do I become smart? All I do are online courses for tech and such. I have an established career. Good money, house family and shit....but I want the prestige of at least having a degree. But I'm functionally retarded with math.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

How do I become smart? All I do are online courses for tech and such. I have an established career. Good money, house family and shit

Congrats, you are smart.

The challenge you have now is to acknowledge and feel it.

but I want the prestige of at least having a degree

So here's the problem. you want the prestige, not the intelligence. You can get a degree in various ways if you want, and have the time. You can attend a university course part time, or through their online facilities. Choose a topic you've done a lot of online courses for and try for a degree.

But I’m functionally retarded with math.

There's resources online to help with this, maybe the new methods will help you understand math concepts better. Common core, khan academy, and the sponsor of this lemmy post, skillshare

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

For some tracks there are even speedrun/lower-cost guides for online degrees through places like WGU. They except transfers from online courses as well. You can do it cheap, especially if you get tuition reimbursement.

I just found out my state (Massachusetts) offers associates programs at any state CC for anyone who doesn't already have a degree. For adults over 25 the program is called MassReconnect. I'd have to look into transfers, but I imagine those could be transferred to WGU towards a 4yr or post-grad degree. Some of the CC programs can also be done all (or mostly) online.

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[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You don't need to be smart. Back in my uni, there were student initiatives to record the questions and answers of previous exams. The Math department itself gave out previous years exams to study from.

The key to remember: exams aren't written my professors, they're written by the postdocs who have better things to do, and so they just rehash the same stuff from the year before.

If you want to get a useless piece of paper that tells you that you are an expert in topic X, then don't learn X, learn to pass the papers for the X exam, and learn X later in your free time if you're still interested in it.

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[–] emergencybird@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I graduated in the winter in 2023, didn't attend the ceremony or anything. I have really bad social anxiety so the ceremony seemed like more stress than a celebration for me, I just ordered food and relaxed. But I do remember, after walking out of my last final, thinking "damn do that's it huh", I know it's just a bachelors degree but I didn't believe in myself enough to even think I'd ever actually graduate. Things turned out okay though, even had a job lined up before graduation which was lucky given the current job market for software engineering. Believe in yourself, your hard work got you that degree, proud of you man!

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[–] transMexicanCRTcowfart@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

If one is not inclined to social gatherings but still feel a need for something to signal this passage (or any other), a good option is to perform a personal ritual of choice.

Human brains seem to be inclined to appreciate symbolism.

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The school to hospice informal incarceration pipeline is omnipresent for the working class, and college/trades level is right there in the middle. Right after kid jail and before wage slavery.

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[–] lung@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I just had em mail me the thing

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Why you do graduation ceremony btw? We don't do that here.

[–] CluckN@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

It’s a pretty big accomplishment so the schools like to throw a little party. It also allows students to invite family to see the campus and get an idea of how fast they can chug a beer.

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[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] pretzelz@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We are, we are, we are, we are

We are the engineers!

We can, we can, we can, we can

Demolish forty beers

Drink rum, drink rum, drink rum, drink rum

And come along with us!

'Cos we don't give a fuck about anyone else

Who don't give a fuck about us.

That's what the first engineer I ever met said, but to be fair he was a combat engineer. Those guys are scary. Stick to electronics and bridges...

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I have an MSc and have spent the day cleaning gutters, I have no idea what to do and am unsure whether I'd be better off dead.

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[–] thedarkfly@feddit.nl 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I wonder why they hated school. Maybe the problem was the school and not the topic? Otherwise I feel sad for them disliking the topic they chose as a career path :(

I feel like there's so much interesting stuff out there, there must be something useful that they find at least interesting.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Engineering school is pretty brutal. I love the career and in many ways I loved the schooling, but it was long nights of hard work on difficult stuff, a lot of which you need to understand for the profession but won’t have to do personally outside school. As a whole engineering school has a reputation because of that disparity as well as because some people go through it because it’s a well paying career and not because it’s where they feel they will be happiest, and engineering isn’t a good choice for folks like that.

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[–] Arkthos@pawb.social 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Thankfully there is often a pretty big difference between studying and working.

I found there to be a level of stress in my studies that I never had a problem with later. An idea that any moment not spent pouring over books was contributing, at least in my mind, to inevitable failure; doubly so with exams looming ahead.

For me finishing my engineering degree was such a massive relief and work is so much better. I'm in anon's boat.

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[–] atro_city@fedia.io 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Educational institutions are mostly there either to make money or as a public necessity that the rich underfund to have a malleable electorate. The institutions are therefor often understaffed, incompletely equipped, or spending money on things of no benefit to education. The majority of lecturers are thus often quite underpaid, overworked, and unmotivated, which leads to many students being unimpressed.

There are very few institutions and staff that really can show up to work with a smile and be satisfied with their employment.

It's at times baffling and yet understandable why people do not vote for people or parties that want to treat education as a priority. They are a product of the influence of the rich and powerful on our institutions. That this dude is unsatisfied is no surprise to me.

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