I have one more year left on my undergraduate degree. It should be alright between senior design, technical electives, and freetime for game design. However, as I've begun looking at my options after graduation, I have realized that if I take either standard pathway, I am going to be bored out of my mind for 4-5 years after I graduate.
The main problem is that there is no way to get hired for my dream job (robotics researcher) right out of college, without years of work experience in the field or a graduate degree. If I go for some work experience, I will get paid well, but the work won't be interesting, I won't have much free time, and I may not even end up getting the job I want. If I go to grad school, I will take classes and do research, both of which will be interesting the first few weeks, but end up grinding me down even more, and I still won't have much free time. The upside of getting a graduate degree is that it is much more powerful than work experience.
The thing is, I'm really itching to DO something, whether it is researching a robot, designing for a mechanical engineering firm, or even making a commercial game. I'm not looking forward to being forced through another two years of coursework that I don't care about, year-long research projects that get stale after the first few weeks, or stuck in a job that doesn't get me closer to my goals. I've talked with grad students at my lab, and I even remember some of the engineers I worked with at a wind power firm two years ago, and I know what will end up happening if I get stuck in either situation: burnout, or quit halfway through, leaving me with nothing gained since graduation.
There are a few unlikely possibilities that I'm going to try to look at:
1) Get recruited into an industrial research lab or think tank. This is very difficult to do, especially because it relies on connections, and Houston, Texas isn't very well connected with the robotics community (it's mostly east coast and west coast).
2) Start a kickstarter and make a commercial game. I have plenty of legitimate ideas, but kickstarter is not exactly guaranteed funding. I would probably also need to rely on someone else for art, which may or may not pan out.
3) Entering and winning a math or engineering competition. This is by far the most difficult option, but it would be interesting, net both funds and recognition, and would definitely get me closer to my goals.
Anyways, I wanted to ask the older members on this site, especially Blizzard, what their experience was with their first job or grad school, to see if I can decide between them more easily.
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