Sounds like you pine for social status.

When you get older you'll see that it doesn't mean much. Once you achieve the status you've set your eyes on today, some higher status will beckon. The treadmill will never stop.

You can find happiness in work only if you find happiness in the work itself. Not only because of some monetary or prestige-based result.

Prestige chasing is not a recent phenomenon, but it is certainly more common now than it was in the past.

My father and engineers of his era entered the field for the love of making things. Yes, it provided a solid middle class job, but their aspirations were to work on some machine they were fascinated with, and to provide for their families. Becoming a millionaire or billionaire was not in the realm of possibility.

And yet they were so happy and content.

In my own generation many engineers are filled with angst. The stories of rich engineers fills them with envy ... and sometimes drive.

Because some engineer made it, you feel your good grades mean you can make it.

But success in business is not often linked to your engineering chops. And sometimes its not even linked to your hard work.

You need a combination of a lot of different traits.

And even with the traits you might be born in the wrong country and not make it.

But it is no loss to not make it. Happiness is not guaranteed by commercial success.

And many without commercial success are happier than those with commercial success.

As one of many who turned down a Google job long before it reached its lofty current share price, I have often had reason to question my life choices. My former colleagues who took the Google jobs are very comfortable (understatement). Sometimes I have pangs of regret. But they pass.

My regrets are mostly not for myself, but for my wife and family. I see missed opportunities where I could have helped the people I love.

But I am fortunate that my family really doesn't need my help that much. My wife is self sufficient (actually makes more than I do). My extended family can take care of itself, even if I have to lend money every once in a while (which hurts).

I focus on these things. I also try to do those things which make me happy--like going to meetups that I enjoy (Go, Docker, CoreOS, Clojure, etc.), playing video games, watching movies, hanging out with friends. When I do these things with my rich friends, I realize our happiness is not materially different from moment to moment.

Really our subjective wellbeing is exactly the same when we are living in the current moment. Only if I contemplate my mistakes of the past, or the possibilities of the future does my happiness and theirs diverge. Otherwise we are traveling along the graph, parallel to the time axis, with two almost co-incident lines. In times of volatility their line may even dip below my line ... deaths ... bad days with spouse ... etc. Mine may soar above theirs sometimes ... a great meal, the birth of my nephew ... meeting a cute puppy ... giving some money to someone I know will use it well.

We will all have some ups and some downs. You are in the downs right now.

The downs happen a lot in our twenties because we don't understand at that age that our brain is sometimes like a state machine. We have to manage the state transitions from bad states to good states using conscious actions, applied whenever we find ourselves in an unwanted state.

You will soon realize what you need to transition from bad mood to good mood.

For example, if I am hit with melancholy I do several things which 99% of the time guarantee a cure. First I run or lift weights till exhaustion, and then I eat a big meal with a friend and discuss some interesting topics. And then I come home and give my wife a tight squeeze and sleep. In the morning usually I will have transitioned to being upbeat again.

You will find for yourself what your transition processes are. Just try some stuff.

Good luck.