I can’t stay calm anymore

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I have always been ashamed to talk about myself, because in the eyes of others, my education and field of study should be sufficient to enable me to get a good job and earn a good income, but that is not the case in reality. I am a female with a master’s degree in chemical engineering; I graduated in June 2012 and have been employed for over five months now. The graduate school I attended was a highly renowned institution known among those studying chemical engineering. However, due to my poor undergraduate background, the difference between my undergraduate major and my graduate major, as well as various other personal factors, I faced repeated setbacks in finding a job. In the end, I ended up working for a small private chemical engineering design firm in Tianjin. The company was small, with no real systems or regulations in place, and there wasn’t much work to do. With so few employees, there was also little competition, and the atmosphere among colleagues was relaxed. As for the salary, it was pitifully low. But I consider myself someone who can endure hardship, so at the beginning I was full of confidence about my first job. I believed that as long as I worked hard and diligently, I could achieve a lot even in such a small organization. During these months at work, I’ve certainly learned a lot – there have been opportunities for business trips and participation in projects, and there are many other things I’ve gained as well. But these past few days I’ve felt uneasy; it’s probably because of an undergraduate who started working with me – he resigned to pursue further studies. It’s also influenced by my former classmates, most of whom have landed jobs at good companies or enterprises, and that’s what I envy the most. As for my current job, although the pressure is low, I still feel that there’s nothing meaningful in it. I have a fixed schedule for going to work and coming back home, I have to carry out the tasks assigned to me by the more experienced employees, and on top of that, my salary is pitiful. Suddenly, I realize that I’m living in a state of confusion and lowliness. So, I think I should work hard to gain work experience and improve my skills, so that I can switch to a more ideal company in two or three years. I must do this too, but the goal is clear while the plan is vague. Therefore, I hope experienced friends can give me some advice – apart from the commonly used AutoCAD software, what other software are large companies interested in? Is it really necessary to become a registered chemical engineer? I don’t want to keep wasting time in such a “relaxed” way anymore