Since I didn’t get the job offer that I wanted for the next work term, I’ll be staying in Waterloo doing some extra courses as my “Plan B”. I’ve got the preliminary go ahead by the ECE department, so it is only a matter of paper pushing to make it official. What is “it”? A “Joint Honours Economics Major” added to my engineering degree (unsure on whether I’ll be getting the BA designation in addition to B.A.Sc).

As most of you know already, I was already doing an economics minor. While I was planning for some 4th year econ courses a while back, I stumbled upon the fact that I need only 4 additional courses to complete a joint major program in economics. Well, at that point, the only way to fit these 4 courses in my schedule was to take 6 technical elective instead of 7, and delay graduation by a term to take the remaining 3 courses. Not wishing to delay my graduation, I ruled out that idea quite quickly.

However, since I have been fortunate enough to be unemployed for this work term, I decided to trade in the co-op term for that additional study term I needed to complete the extra courses. At this point in time, I don’t think getting a lower ranking co-op job will provide me with benefits other than having cash in the pocket. This extra study term will help in providing me with more academic credential in what I am fairly good at, and perhaps also bridging the gaps in between my knowledge to help me in business finances and investments. Combining with a computer engineering degree, it’ll certainly open me up to an even wider array of career options.

For any first year students that may be reading this blog entry, here’s the single best advice you can ever get from an upper year student… “At this school, you can do whatever you want; all you need to do is to talk to the right people”.

Now… onto looking for a potential supervisor for my thesis…