u/Supern0va916

I graduated with a bachelors degree in natural resource management this past year and I’m finding out pretty quickly just how much experience jobs want with no really guarantee for good pay (job market looked way better when I swapped majors). I have friends that all went the engineering route and have great jobs right out of school. One of those friends in particular only has an associates in systems engineering and is making close to 80k. I initially started out in computer science but swapped fields but I’m thinking it may have been a bad choice looking back. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to go and get an associates in systems engineering? For context I’m 24 and I’m starting to feel like I’ve fallen behind and I’m worried I’m gonna end up locking myself out of a good lifestyle if I don’t change career paths. I’ve always had an interest in technology but computer science just wasn’t for me.

This might be a bit of a ramble so bear with me. I’m currently working in an environmental lab so I frequently visit water treatment facilities to collect samples. A guy working there has told me time and time again that I should try to become a water treatment operator. He’s said that if he could start over again he would get into it early at my age and be making 70k within 2 years but the first year pay is horrible until you get hours. Is this realistic or not? The way he talks about it seems too good to be true but I’m honestly quite fed up with my job and I’m ready to make a switch but I don’t want to fuck myself over. For context this is in central-northern Alabama. Another thing is that I have a bachelor’s degree in natural resource management. Would this help me out in this field? I’ve seen so many conflicting opinions online so I don’t really know what to believe.