Decisive indecision

Naturally at this stage, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what I want out of a post-university life. There are many factors to consider after all, such as proximity to friends and family, earning enough money, doing something that gives you a sense of purpose and general quality of life. I think that ultimately these all boil down to whatever makes you happy (I know this is cliche, but I’m of the opinion that cliches exist for a reason). However unfortunately, like most interesting problems, finding the path that leads to the optimal solution is intractable.

As for how this applies to my current situation - I currently don’t know what to do or where to even start a life after studies. Through the various internships I’ve done, I’ve established that the software engineering life is something I don’t mind at all, but whether it’s something that I’d like to devote my life to is still very unclear. Another reasonably popular option among my peers is the life of academia, which until very recently, I never thought I’d consider myself, mainly because I haven’t found any of the Computer Science content I’ve learned interesting enough. However taking the Quantum Computing course this term has changed that, which certainly doesn’t help any decision making.

However with the end of third year fast approaching, I had to make some decision, which ended up being to delay that decision and stay in Cambridge for what students here call a “panic masters”. Thankfully Computer Science has a 4th year with a very easy application application process and only one real requirement, which is good exam results at the end of third year (to be in the top 40% of the cohort). Given that I’m currently enjoying studying here, I don’t see a problem with just continuing that until it becomes clearer what I want to do later.

Unfortunately I find that in our society, indecision is often punished quite harshly. We can see this in job applications, for example - when recruiters ask what specifically you’d like to work on at that company, a concrete decisive answer is expected. When you don’t have a decisive answer for the classic “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” - that’s wrong. Many times, young individuals apply precisely to find out what they want to do, and to find answers to these questions. If you don’t seem to have a concrete plan for post-university life, suddenly everyone feels sorry for you. I’m of the opinion that active indecision is indeed a valid choice. As hindering as it may be in many situations, it is ridiculous to expect students and fresh graduates to have their lives perfectly planned out - that is what the journey of life is about.