I am a biology student in my final undergraduate year. I have chosen to study this degree as biology always came naturally to me, so everyone in school advised me to pursue it. Truly, I never enjoyed the subject, but it was very easy.
This will be a long post as I need to vent my frustrations.
I have experience in very different areas of biology, and I have worked academically and in industry, on placements etc. There was not a single thing I liked about these jobs and the way I see it there is no other kind of work I could do with my degree. The industrial job was office based and I could not even last the full duration, I left halfway through. I could not stand being tied down to the same desk for 8 hours a day with barely anything to do, and being beholden to so many people who were above me in the food chain. I had worked a lot of smaller retail and fast-food jobs up to this point, but it never got to me, however working in this office made me break as I realised this is likely what the rest of my life would be. The minutes genuinely felt like hours, I would cry almost every Sunday which was very uncharacteristic for me, and worst of all I spent all my free time drinking alone at home. I also worked as a research assistant in a laboratory, this job was much easier on me, mainly because I had different things to do throughout the day, but it came with its own downsides. The main one is the constant circus that is keeping up appearances and applying for research grants, having to pretend to be invested in whatever the lab is researching when you just don’t care. Attending seminars, conferences, constantly reading new papers – which by the way are written so much more complex than they have to be so scientists can feel clever. That is another thing I hate about this field, most of the people are so arrogant and full of themselves.
After returning to school from my placement this year I have lost all motivation to continue. All I can think about is that it’s either that or some dead-end retail job, and at this point I don’t know what’s worse.
Well, what’s the point of this post other than to vent? I would like to hear your thoughts.
Can you relate? How do you cope? Is there any other way I could use my degree?