No offense, but that's not a crisis. You're 19, you have a job, you have some decent savings, you're in school without having to take out student loans, and you drive an S2000.

Life could be a lot more difficult.

But since you asked for advice for people who already finished school, I say stick with it. I made the mistake of taking time off from school. I intended to only take a year off, but that turned into several. Any to echo someone else, school gets a lot more difficult to go through the older you get and the longer you're out of it.

Do what you got to do. If that means you have to sell your S2000, so be it. It's just a car.

Good luck.

 

becomes more difficult as you get older.. and even more difficult after you've taken a break. Do what you can to finish school now. If you need to sell the car, you can always get another one later when you have a more lucrative job.

 

By any means necessary, finish school. I'll be getting my bachelor's in May (I'm 25) and with five years of full-time professional work experience under my belt, I have never been more excited to explore more lucrative career options.

 

Dump the car.

 

Finish school first. To me the point of a degree is to open the door to your first job in your chosen career path. Sure you could be successful without it but most real careers require some BS/BA degree to start out.

Something you said raises a flag, "...fed up more and more by the decisions made by management." I said the same thing at your age (I graduated college at 19) and embarked on a mercenary career. I don't mean killing people, I just mean hopping companies every three or so years when management would piss me off. On the plus side I got well-compensated early in life and lived on both coasts of the USA. On the down side I never got highly vested in retirement plans.

I even started my own company and learned about business the hard way. I know what it takes and maybe someday I'll do it again but working for someone else is much easier.

Eventually I realized job-hopping didn't look so good on my resume. Also the older I get the more sh*t I can eat. My point is you may never get to agreeing with management, even you are management. So I just wish someone had settled me down earlier, if it were possible.

 

I really appreciate hearing everyone's input on the issue. I will definitely not take time off from school, because it will be hard to start back up.

As for the job situation, I'm also thinking of just sticking it out, because I feel that the experience combined with a degree will really open up the doors for the future. I'd like to get a job as a consultant for the phone system I've been supporting, with the possibility to travel internationally. That's where I'd like to be in the next 5-10 years.

The summer between high-school and college I had an internship with a consulting company and that is where I picked up the framework for most of my knowledge. I will try to do my best to land another internship opportunity for next summer, so at least I have a break from my current job.

What I don't really see is why everyone is telling me to dump the car. Right now I can make the payments without a problem. The issue will be next summer when it will come time to pay my school. Then I will consider selling the car, but until then, probably not.

 

Update.

As of yesterday, the operations manager will be taking over the role of director. They will also create a new managerial position just under the director, and my name is already on the list of potential candidates.

 

Only three days and things are starting to look up! Shortest quarter-life crisis... EVER

 

Well, this has been going on for about 6 months now. I just finally posted about it though. Quite frankly, I doubt I'll get that job, but it sure would be nice.

 

Maybe they're reading this thread.

I was in a similar position at my current job...the director left and no one was appointed to the position. Since I was next in line as far as experience and age, the two other employees in the department looked to me for leadership. After about four months of that I brought it up in a board meeting. I was told that I'd get a cut in pay if I didn't take the job...which coincidentally came with a nice raise.