How American Education changed my Asian mind?

I recently graduated from University of Texas at San Antonio with a Bachelor in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics.

I started as a Mechanical Engineering major in A&M University, Corpus Christi, which was my first experience with American college. I think I liked it. Everybody was nice. I loved the professors, especially Calculus and English. I felt the warmth there for some unknown reasons. The people are more friendly and I feel a sense of community whenever I go to the library or other departments. Indeed, this is where I created some of my closest friendships in America. When I transfered to Del Mar College, I didn't have that many friends. However, I worked as a student assistant at Math Learning Center where I met so many amazing people. The tutors and the superviors were really nice to me. I felt it was basically my second home where everyone helped each other.

Things got different as I moved to San Antonio for my Bachelor of Computer Science. I didnt know anyone. I was alone and I felt lonely. The UTSA vibe was quite different. Everyone got their own group of friends and here I was, just by myself, trying some people in common. I wouldn't say I made much of connections there. The education was quite subpar but I think it was worth the money I put into.

As I grow up, academic excellence is not something I care too much about. It's odd since, in Vietnam, I would spend all day and night trying to study to compete with other classmates. But here, I feel like money was more of my focus and it is still now. That's why I chose SAS with higher pay and better benefits. However, I am not so sure that their assignment for my department will be my professional focus, which is Software Engineer at the moment. I am really unsure. It is mostly the reason I could not sleep for almost a month, thinking about where I will end up. What if it is something that does not relate to coding at all? Will I bury myself under that hopeless salary, yet with repetitive tasks that I found absolutely no interest in. Maybe I am overthinking. A lot of the times I think I should have just accepted the other offer from EDS. I really should. Though their pay is not as high and the benefits are not that good, I will have a better career prospect being a Backend Developer. After one or two years, I can jump easily for a better position. I think my problem was I didn't want to stay in San Antonio and I want to move to Austin. I keep reminding myself that I should give it a try at SAS but the anxiety of not knowing where I am going to is horrible. It sounds like "Do you know where you're going to? Do you like the thing that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know?"

I made myself clear that I want to go for the Software Engineering route. I don't think at the moment, I can go for Machine Learning Engineer, which requires at least a Master degree and years of experience as MLE needs to turn theoretical concepts from recent thesis into functional models.

But who knows? This is my first professional job. I might like it. I might not like it, just like Futurex internship, which turns out I liked a lot in terms of team management and system flow. I really admire Thaddeus Fuller and wish he could be my mentor. He was a patient and supportive manager as well as an expert in software engineering. In the worst case scenarios, I stay there for two years and I restart my life again. I don't think I would waste the time there. "Make the best out of a bad situation!" I promise I won't give up. I worked for 4 years at something I absolutely was not fond of so I am sure I can handle 2 years.

Good luck to me!