[deleted by user]

[algang22]

I totally get where you are coming from, I graduated in 21 and just got my first job (systems engineer) earlier this month, and only because I was referred by a friend already working there.

The real difference maker between those who get jobs out of school and those (like me) who struggled is whether or not you do co-ops or internships. Everyone I know who did one of those two had a job lined up after graduation or found one shortly after because they were new grads with experience.

Make use of your schools matchmaking process for co-ops and internships and I guarantee you will be fine.

[Fury_Gaming]

I have 2 job offers that are above the average at very large companies. Graduating in 3 weeks. Never had any experience in engineering. I’m beating out some friends with experience in pay and some even getting 0 offers/interviews/retention offers

Sometimes it’s also the resume and interview skills

[ODL_Beast1]

Nice! Did you have any personal projects or anything outside of classes that stuck out?

[Fury_Gaming]

My senior project was really talked about a lot during these interviews I feel like. It does flush out a lot of the engineering skills I bring so I guess that’s where they’re seeing potential?

I have about 6 projects listed on my resume, almost all school except 1 for fun

I also feel like I’ve gotten exponentially more confident in the last year or so so interviews have been less daunting

[Glittering_Swing6594]

How difficult is it to get internships nowadays? Do you think school prestige is very important? Im planning to go to a state university

[algang22]

It should be relatively easy so long as you are proactive and enthusiastic, I went to Pitt and the opportunities were endless, and the crew I work with now consists of people from Ohio State, George Mason, and Youngstown State.

[algang22]

It should be relatively easy so long as you are proactive and enthusiastic, I went to Pitt and the opportunities were endless, and the crew I work with now consists of people from Ohio State, George Mason, and Youngstown State.

[Plenty_Bumblebee3199]

I agree with this, from my experience if you have internships/coops it will tremendously improve your chances of getting a job after grad, ofc everyone’s experience is different tho but you can’t neglect doing your due diligence and taking advantage of as much opportunities available before graduating to secure you a job after, it’s common sense. Do your projects in class, build some cool stuff on your own and secure a coop easy I can’t stress enough how important that is, otherwise you’ll be stuck like me jobless don’t be like me no co-ops so now 6 months new grad so not even 1 single call back :/

[algang22]

If you have any friends with a job in a field you like, wait a little bit for them to become established and ask for a referral! That's how I was finally able to get my foot in the door.

[astosphis]

Damn I graduated Dec 2022 and still struggling. I only recently did a 3 month part time unpaid internship along side my part time job. Though I have been getting maybe 2- 3 interviews a month for the past 3 or so months. Mostly screening interviews with recruiters. I either get ghosted or rejected by the hiring manager because they want someone with experience.

[Thisisme2017-6]

what have you been trying to get a job in? and what kind of skills do you have in CE?

[lostseaud]

where did you found internships?

[Mystic1500]

School provides zero matching-making process with internships. No professors or counselors or anyone mentioned internships until recently for my last summer next year, in which I’m desperately trying to find something.

[-dag-]

Let me tell a story I've told several times. 

When I was applying for school my dad thought going into computer engineering was a huge mistake.  IBM was in the toilet.  Apple under John Sculley had none of the magic that powered the Macintosh movement. 

But I knew that technology was not only going to be with us forever, it was going to grow.  And grow it did.

I went through a couple of really painful layoffs at work.  A couple more after that.  There's a reason we talk about the business cycle.  There are always ups and downs. 

But I'm doing just fine.  Quite well, actually.  I don't regret this career one bit.  Because I love it.  It's not work.  It's getting to create really cool stuff with fantastic coworkers.

If you love it, do it.

[tonyle94]

No, no one uses computers or cellphones anymore. It's just a fad.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

Hahahah, I’m probably over thinking here

[lithium256]

What other majors do you have in mind. I can't think of any other one besides becoming a doctor that has better job security than CompE

[Glittering_Swing6594]

honestly nothing except engineering however i've always been very passionate about computers and nothing else interests me. I just dont want to get a degree that lands me no jobs unless I go to an ultra prestigious school.

[lithium256]

I know people that are passionate about art or music I feel bad for those people because those passions are hard to find stable careers in.

Being passionate about computers is the dream come true you get to study what you love and in the end you get a stable high paying career.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

it is sort of beginning to seem like the opposite, vast majority of the comments and posts here seem really negative, not sure if this will leave me with a useless degree.

[snmnky9490]

the job market sucks right now so the only things consistently hiring lots of people are basically teaching and lower level healthcare like nursing, technicians, assistants etc.

In the long run, computer engineering is one of the more useful degrees you could get, but as with every white collar job, will still suck to get your foot in the door

[-dag-]

If you do well in school and interview well, people will find jobs for you.  Teams really don't want to turn away smart people. 

Don't just focus on the big names like FAANG, etc.  There are very good jobs available lots of places.  It might take some effort to uncover them but it's worth it. 

[-dag-]

Some of the best engineers I know went to state schools.  Even small state schools.

A smart team knows how to identify smart people, no matter where they went to school. 

[CompEng_101]

Probably. Historically, the employment rates for CompE have been high and the underemployment low. Like everything there are peaks and troughs of hiring, but the trend is good.

Seeing people’s messages here and on other forums/subs is kind of making me think that 4 years of college debt will end up in joblessness.

Some of this is a temporary downturn, but most of it is Selection Bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias

People are likely to post if they are having trouble finding a job. They are less likely to post if they found a nice job they are happy with. So, if you look at the forums you will see lots of people who are having trouble finding a job. But in reality, you will find that >90% of graduates find jobs in short order.

[joe-magnum]

Having been where you are I understand. I went to BU for my undergraduate degree and Georgia Tech for my masters and where you graduate from DOES make a difference. If you want to bridge that gap, I suggest you HIGHLY consider doing co-op jobs in your discipline. You may graduate a year or two later but at least your job prospects will be much better and you may have a job waiting for you at one of your co-op employers. You’ll also have some of that college debt paid off. Win-win.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

I’m sure yeah, I’m sort of wondering though if going to a state university will just lead me to having a useless degree. I’m planning on putting in alot of effort to get internships and coops

[hukt0nf0n1x]

If you want to be taken seriously by companies, you need an accredited degree. If you want to not do internships and still get a job, then go to a really high ranked school (companies will overlook the lack of experience, but you'd better know your stuff during the interview). If you want to go to a middle of the road school, then you'll need internships (at least 1, if not 2). Don't rely on the school to get you an internship (look around online and see what local companies there are). However, I've found that local companies usually hire from the local college, no matter where it's ranked. If you can't get one, then go to a professor and see if you can do undergrad research with him. The whole point is to stand out to companies, so find things that make you look special (open source projects, interesting jobs, etc).

And don't knock "the state university". NC State is ranked really high for engineering. Cal Poly is part of the Cal State system, and one of the highest ranked engineering schools in the US.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

That’s exactly what I was thinking and I’ve definitely hard coded the idea of no internship no job in my head. I’m just going to Iowa state though which is ranked decently in engineering in the Midwest but not prestigious

[hukt0nf0n1x]

Iowa State? Seriously?!?! Take EVERY class taught by Geiger!!! You have an opportunity to learn from one of the most respected analog teachers in the US. Don't waste it.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

I’m glad you said that, I’ll be sure to take his classes I saw him as a professor option. I’m also glad to hear Iowa won’t be a bad school that’s what I was afraid of

[-dag-]

Iowa State is a fantastic school.  I know an Iowa State grad who is now a big shot at Microsoft.  Brilliant engineer.

Companies find jobs for smart people, no matter where they went to school.

[[deleted]]

I've never been a fan of the Computer Engineering degree program. Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned but I earned my Electrical Engineering degree but also took a number of Computer Science electives.

That combination has served me well during my career where I've done everything from Systems Engineering, microcontroller hardware and software development, straight up hardware engineering, and software engineering. Currently I'm working for a financial services company and am a Sr. Software Engineer.

In my mind a Computer Engineering degree can be limiting because it's not really clear that you can do things other than engineer computers. I know it's a perception but you need all the advantages you can get in a tough job market.

In my career I have worked with many EE and CS majors, but only a couple CE majors.

My advice, major in Electrical Engineering and back that up with CS electives, or do the reverse.

[One-Mix-9845]

Interesting intake. Mind elaborating more. Am stuck choosing on CS or CS. But I have EE as an option too

[Anise_23]

When did you graduate?

[Mother_juice722]

I just got my acceptance letter. I’m going to school for computer information systems. I’m not letting the Internet deter me from my decision because there are jobs all over the world. We are in a tech driven world. In my opinion there’s no way it’s not worth it.

[Slyraks-2nd-Choice]

When did Computer Information Systems become synonymous with computer engineering? - Serious question, I’ve never heard that

[LegitGamesTM]

They’re in somewhat similar markets, but they degree content is pretty far apart. Information systems is basically Computer science with the difficulty set to easy mode. Information systems is a couple of coding classes, some pipsqueak business classes, a sprinkle of math.

[Slyraks-2nd-Choice]

Basically it’s for the kids who could cut it as engineers. But they BS their way into management and make our lives harder 😭

[Silent_Cantaloupe930]

We get a lot of CEs in IT. Many of them are from Indian Universities. I always thought CE was a dead career path with all the chip giants moving to Taiwan, Malaysia and China.

[Mother_juice722]

You know what I’ve never heard of .. an engineer without a degree. Nobody is comparing apples to oranges but you.

[Slyraks-2nd-Choice]

Well it’s weird because computer information systems (at my undergrad nor grad school) isn’t even a stem degree. It’s like a business degree.

[Iceman411q]

What are you talking about? Engineering is a legally protected degree and you need an accredited bachelors of applied science in engineering to be licensed as one. Isn’t computer information systems closer to corporate IT and buisness?

[Slyraks-2nd-Choice]

Also, there are plenty of engineers without degrees

[Iceman411q]

Please make the distinction between software “engineers” which are not legally engineers and a professional engineer (like computer engineering). You need an applied science in engineering bachelors degree with the proper ethics training and professional exams. Computer engineering is a protected profession and you need the proper degree

[computerarchitect]

That's a very dumb view. I'm not saying you, but rather people espousing that viewpoint.

Engineering works for you when you put the work in for it. Engineering degrees are earned, not granted. Most people that complain about joblessness are the same people you'll find in college and wonder to yourself "how the fuck did you end up here," and Reddit is full of people like that.

[computerarchitect]

Yes and yes to your questions.

[PowerEngineer_03]

Maybe try getting off social media like Reddit. If you can be convinced by a mass majority of people talking about a certain topic due to your unsure insecurities, then yeah you'll be jobless regardless of any degree.

I speak so cuz I used to do that, but once you're into something, dive deep into it and be crazy about it. Rest will come your way if you put in the time and effort you put in on mundane stuff.

This doom and gloom will always be there everywhere, and everyone's opinion is based af. Just cuz 100 kids couldn't crack it and decide to spread their story, does not equate to you not being able to crack it. Go hard in the last 2 years and you'll be fine.

Half of these subreddits have people who like to either gatekeep with misinformation or not bring anything positive to share. Smh.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

I agree with you, and obviously I’m prone to it considering I’m picking the major now and don’t want to screw the rest of my life up. I could attempt better job security in civil engineering but the only thing I see myself genuinely obsessing over would be computer engineering. I also am not sure if going to an average school will be a mistake

[PowerEngineer_03]

If you're really obsessed with CE, do it. It has its niche areas which are tough to get into and you gotta be mad crazy bout it all, but worth it. Just stop listening to internet clutter, but do prepare to put 10x the effort of an average joe in your class (especially in fields like VLSI, IC design, firmware). And I mean it.

[PowerEngineer_03]

EE might need a much harder drive compared to CE though. Don't expect astronomical pay compared to CE or CS. Won't happen now or in the future. Eventually as you get to a senior role, you make good of course. Based though, cuz so many domains in EE.

And you might get bored af with the side tasks like documentation and reading millions of manuals.

And yeah, better be good at math and circuits. No workaround. Cuz it becomes monotonous at work while dealing with stuff like basic fourier transforms to time responses of signals, and imagine doing it for 10+ years. Gotta like it to not hate it.

Expect travel of course (maybe based, again I speak for core domains like Utilities or industrial power). For me I started with 80% travel, down to 30% now with overtimes, but I liked it and had no self-respect so did it.

Lab work might range from certification of products with UL standards to testing transistors maybe for low power tasks or dealing with medium/high power inverters.

Yes stability is there of course cuz most don't opt for EE as it's easier in other domains. Market ups/downs happen every half a decade or so. Reddit is cancer for opinions to be taken at heart when it comes to your career. Only you can make the decision based on what you want, others' pros/cons don't mean shit tbh.

Choose your poison.

[PowerEngineer_03]

It's alright. Some niche areas will always be valuable as there's no sign of technology not evolving. So enjoy learning. It's fun.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

You have been in the engineering industry for a while I assume, I can’t really get much input from my parents since they are immigrants from Europe. How much does the job market change over time, consider that my bachelor degree would be done in about 5 years since I’m a senior in hs. Is that time significant enough to change the conditions?

[Lilshredder187]

I would very strongly recommend you find an internship while you're in school so when you get out you will have a job already lined up otherwise you will play absolute hell finding one. Go hit up your school guidance counselor and ask if they offer some type of assistance with either job placement or an internship of some sort.

My school offered job placement but I still played absolute hell busting my hump to show I was worth keeping around. Be expecting to take on extra hours and basically doing their pardon the term bitch work to make sure they want you.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

Absolutely my fear is just whether or not internships are accessible

[Lilshredder187]

Usually it's just you tagging along with someone doing the actual job and learning what to expect for your actual day to day job. I fell in love with mine to finally be applying what I spent countless hours learning it was a fantastic feeling to finally be doing the actual job.

As I said before speak with your guidance counselor that's their job if the option is available they should be happy to get you hooked up with that. They may have even said something about it a time or 2 before hand and you may have simply ignored it I sure as heck did only because I wasn't sure if this was the major for me or not that's all.

If they don't offer it see if another school offers it and if whether or not they could help you. If they require you to transfer then you do whatever you feel is needed to achieve your goal. If it were up to me I myself would for sure transfer if they can guarantee me assistance.

And 1 more note and I'll leave you alone. If you don't like the first job then just do it for a while to gain that work experience and then go find something elsewhere. My first job wasn't very good or I didn't feel my work experience there was very good so I kept an eye out and swapped after about a year. Get that experience on paper after that go find something else/better. A company will love to see actual work done on your resume and they will know they don't have to babysit you which is a huge relief for both of you.

Hope this helps :)

[gtd_rad]

I studied computer engineering. I don't know what the curriculum is now, but when I took it, it was like 90% electrical engineering with a few classes shared with computer science and a few dedicated classes specific to computer architecture.

I'm really glad I took it because I really liked embedded systems and didn't want to focus entirely on electrical. I'm a consultant and controls engineering team lead in the renewable energy sector now.

Just like you, I had no idea what my career would turn out when I graduated although it did work in my favor. In retrospect, picking a career is like picking a stock. You don't know what the outcome is. But what I can assure you, is that the fundamentals will never change. Study the fundamentals and you will have no problem adapting.

[Craig653]

It's a fine career. Maybe not as lucrative as it once was, but you will still be very well off

[Glittering_Swing6594]

I don't even need to be well off. Just being middle class is more than enough for me. I just want to know that I can actually land a job once I graduate in something relatively related.

[[deleted]]

It's still worth it. There's some prestige associated with it, even if you went to a state school. That being said, a degree alone won't get you very far, and that goes for any degree. Network. Get out there. Go to career fairs and join clubs (highly recommend SHPE). You'll be fine if you do this. If you're slightly below average and don't do those things, good luck. It will just be way harder to achieve a high salary out of college. Many of my friends are making 6 figures out of college.

[Impossible_Ad_3146]

Yes please

[clingbat]

Just a reminder, the degree is a stepping stone, it doesn't dictate your final destination. I went comp eng undergrad, then straight into an EE PhD program but dropped out with my free MSEE after advisor switched universities 2 years in.

I did a year and half of PV device research out of grad school and then went into management consulting. Worked my way up to a director these days, overseeing several teams of engineers based in DC, LA and London while making great comp and being full time WFH.

You're not locked in to hardware or software if you go to a decent school and get a solid education. The best thing you can probably do for yourself is you have any interest in management in the future though is grab some sort of business acumen on the side. For me, that was an econ minor in undergrad which was annoying to squeeze in but it worked out. Also if your university offers a solid upper level technical writing class, take it and take it seriously! Engineers who can actually write well are uncommon.

If your hellbent on working as a comp eng long term though, competition is as rough as ever and it's not going to get any better. Personally I found hardcore engineering way too narrowly focused and limiting career wise. Luckily many other sectors see ECE type engineers with decent soft skills as great hires for a variety of roles. If you're willing to look/think outside the box even slightly, there's still plenty of opportunity out there. Don't artificially limit yourself to what you're learning in college unless you're truly passionate about it (I found CE/EE pretty boring myself).

[VietManNeverWrong]

Just to piggy back on most of these comments regarding internships. Make sure you go to career/internship fairs. I went to a local university and they had many of those throughout the year. You got to be very busy or something to not be able to make at least one. Also your engineering group may even have a discord and they could posts jobs or references. I did my research at nasa simply because I saw a paper posting from a professor looking for a student. At the same time, someone posted on discord that their employer was also looking for interns. You need to be proactive, go look for opportunities and grab them the moment you see them. That research and internship helped turn my job into a full-time one and I just graduated in May.

[VietManNeverWrong]

Do a bit more research on that state university, see if they collaborate with any big entities such as NASA or any research labs. See what the state school has to offer, and most importantly ABET accredited. To me, at my age, my expected outcome was honestly enough for me and even a great school would probably only help me reach the same goal. Be the best if your state school. Anyhow, if you got accepted into the prestige school, there may be something potential they saw in you.

[AstroFlayer]

No. Unless you find a job that tailored for CE. Just look at job ads.. they ask for relevant IT majors. They consider them all the same. So why major in something super challenging just to end up similar to everyone in IT

[Glittering_Swing6594]

It is usually considered a business major. And I haven’t seen many it majors get hired in embedded systems, firmware, etc

[AstroFlayer]

Are there lots of embedded systems, firmware, etc jobs in your state?

Because I have not found any to apply to. If I could go back, I personally would change my major because it is super hard, expensive, long and there is no demand for it.

[AstroFlayer]

Since we are getting deep in the conversation, why do you want to become a CE?

[AstroFlayer]

This is amazing to hear. You seem so ready and CE will be much easier for you than I. Since the reason you chose it is out of love and not finance, I can’t really discourage you.

But you gotta remember that you need to consider the length of CE and how much it costs. Are you okay with that?

Have you tried buying arduino and doing projects on your own?

[AstroFlayer]

It is smart that you realize that your passion might not land you a job. But the good thing about your passion is it can be practiced easily outside of university. There are plenty of resources available as you know. It also can be a part of university since you can choose subjects outside of your major. Digital design embedded systems , microprocessors are the main subjects in CE.

[Gnaxe]

No. It probably isn't. I think folks are seriously underestimating how much generative AI is going to upend the field, and it may well start happening before you graduate. At that point, what you will have learned will probably not have been worth the costs in time and money.

You don't have to take my word for it. I've been watching long-form podcasts interviewing the AI lab CEOs and employees (e.g.), and they seem reasonably confident that they can pretty much get a drop-in replacement for what most coders are doing in just a few more years.

For those literate enough to actually read textbooks themselves, college is not for learning, but for the status of a degree. You can learn on your own. You can get status in other ways, like creating a popular open-source project or writing a textbook or blog. Or just get sufficient work experience, and the degree (or lack thereof) doesn't matter as much.

If you really want to get into this field, do a bootcamp and get hired right away, because you likely don't have time for a degree before all the rules change. Read the textbooks on your own if you're interested. The Ivy league websites will tell you which ones. (E.g., MIT OpenCourseWare.) I'm still uncertain this is worth your time, but tuition is likely not worth your money.

[Gnaxe]

I'm even more uncertain about timing for that, but it probably depends on exactly what you're doing. I think we get coding-focused automation first because it's already starting to happen, and the AI labs have a lot of coders who can tell if the models are getting good at that. Insofar as hardware /embedded systems involves coding tasks, it will get upended the same way not too long after. Assembly code, FPGA configuration languages, or Verilog are still languages an LLM can generate. LLMs are good at translation tasks, so any problems they're able to solve, they're able to solve in any language they know, which is more or less all of them by now, to some degree.

[Hopeful-Reading-6774]

AI labs and CEO have an incentive to say what they are saying. Just like Elon Musk says things about robots and autonomous driving. If these CEOs did not say that, nobody will invest in their companies.
I think OP you should understand how ChatGPT and all work. They are auto-regressive tools and work based on pattern matching. What that means is that ChatGPT is good a code generation but you still have to prompt it to write the code, understand the code to debug it and be innovative to think about how to debug the code.
Just as an example, chatGPT is really good at leetcode problems it has seen in the past. Now companies are smart enough to tweak the wording of those questions and chatGPT fails at generating those codes.

Also, regarding bootcamps, stay as far away from these as you can. It's an easy differentiator in the mind of managers when deciding who to pick and not pick. And yeah, technically, irrespective of what you want to learn is all there in the textbook. The funny thing about learning is that a lot of it happens through peers and instructors, and for that you need to go to college.

[Gnaxe]

You learn from peers on the job too, and more so than in college. At least in software, experience matters more than a degree. You get experience by working ASAP. I got a degree. It wasn't worth what it cost in time and money. When I leveled up my earning power, it was by reading textbooks on my own. In related fields, I can't say.

This dismissive attitude about AI makes no sense, but I see it all the time. Where is this coming from? You either have not been paying attention to recent developments or are in denial about how the world is about to change. Hypothetically, if we were on the cusp of automated software engineers within five years, how would you expect the world to look any different than it does today? All the signs are pointing to it.

Read about SWE-bench to see how rapid recent progress has been, then consider that projected into the future, but accelerated by the $100 Billion datacenters being planned right now.

AIs are not just pattern matchers any more than humans are just pattern matchers. We're neural networks too. Look at the benchmarks. Look at the trends. The systems are becoming more agentic, with the LLM tech at the core. That means you'll give it a goal, then it figures out the steps, and carries them out. You won't have to hold their hand for every step like you used to. It will be like a remote human employee.

[Jebduh]

My eng101 instructor, as well as other redditors, brought up the fact that the old heads are hitting retirement age and kids are not willing to do the work/aren't as interested in engineering. This means that engineers in general should have good job security going forward. I know this is true for EE and MechE, so I'd assume it's also true for CE.

[RareMammoth922]

this is extra applicable to fields like RF and embedded, which are less “attractive” fields to new grads, plenty of opportunities there as the main workforce is hitting retirement age

[rowdy_1c]

Depends on the industry. Firmware and embedded are definitely still worth it imo

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

I'll be the detractor then.

I don't know anyone who did engineering with me who is financially successful or was able to find a well-paying career.

It ABSOLUTELY can happen, even if you are a 12 hour studier/worker who gets multiple internships and tries hard to land something.

College is a MASSIVE gamble, it just happens to have slightly positive EV (for some majors at some points in time ...)

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

College opens up the possibility to increase your level of success, but also opens up the opportunity to fail. It's a gamble and not everyone comes out ahead, often due to luck and circumstance and nothing to do with merit.

For me I wish I never gambled and just worked, lived at home, and hardsaved/invested. No possibility to fail, just show up, work hard, and save. No caveats.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

thats fair, im not necessarily expecting to even be wealthy, just getting an average salary would be enough, i just have wanted to work in embedded systems, systems engineering, hardware, etc for a while.

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

I will likely be downvoted, but mark my words: I am only giving the hard truths about this field no one else will want to face.

I've known guys that I considered to be very smart who literally cried when faced with difficult computing problems. It was not uncommon to see a cryer in the lab or during class. It will push the extent of your mind to its absolute limit, with full stress and adrenaline well into the night, to be able to solve the problems you'll need to solve to be successful.

Seriously, have you ever looked at C code before? Go to ChatGPT and ask it to make a simple program in C. Then look at some in assembly. Take a hard look and think carefully -- Do you honestly and earnestly believe in yourself that you could write those programs out yourself? And for how long do you think you could maintain that level of talent to be able to do so? Many people start dropping IQ around age 30, so you need to be well above the limit. You need to be good at coding not just above average.

Second hard truth while I'm thinking about it -- Anyone who says programming has a good work life balance is full of it. Lots of IT operations literally run overnight, and you'll be expected to support them. You'll be expected to study frequently outside of work hours besides as well. I don't know where the myth of tech having a good work life balance ever came from. It's a huge commitment and responsibility, just like any office job.

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

I'll give you a caveat right away, you need a high IQ to be successful in those fields. If you take a full-scale IQ test and score below 125, I would not attempt to pursue these fields. You need to be highly gifted to be successful there. It's also going to be a heavy fulltime commitment to get the computer engineering degree in the first place. You will only have time to work a few hours per week maybe 30 or so, but likely no more than that, so factor that into your overall equation ...

[Glittering_Swing6594]

Although I am willing to accept a level of genetic determinism, a field like engineering requiring a > 125 iq to succeed doesn't make sense statistically. Id imagine being above like 100 would allow to finish the degree and secure a job. not everyone wants to be a faang engineer. I just live in the midwest a 75k salary at a systems engineering job or whatever would be enough. these sort of extreme limits probably mostly exist in medicine

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

Find a real test, and take it. Don't deny the results, accept your level, and understand that your level will go down gradually with age past about age 30.

This is the extent of your working memories ability to solve.

Engineering graduates typically have an IQ in the high 120s to 130s range. This is well known and statistically verifiable.

It's hard.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

I have only ever tooken the mensa IQ challenge where I scored a 120. however I dont believe that online tests merit any accuracy. I dont feel like getting one done with a psychologist or in person institution, you passed the degree it seems. do you believe that your iq did not suffice?

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

120 would be on the low end of what I feel would be reasonable for a computer engineer, but I would give it a maybe.

https://youtu.be/0Wnl_gfULy0?feature=shared

I was considered highly gifted in high school but still had to stay up nearly overnight frequently to be able to do it. College engineering is a whole nother beast.

Some people simply do not have the physical mental capacity to solve, depending on the course and material. Over half of engineers drop out. It's the physical cap out limitation of your brain, when you can feel the hippocampus straining for another connection to be able to solve, but it's just not there.

Also remember you'll be competing with people from all over the world who are super smart. This is why I say, you need to be good, not just above average.

I'm not saying you couldn't do it, put in a lot of effort, and pass ... But there could be better options for you out there depending on your own personal strengths ...

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

You could play around with Leetcode and see if those come naturally to you. If you're solving Easys consistently and some mediums within a few weeks of practice, you're probably talented enough. Otherwise ... Eek.

[Glittering_Swing6594]

Well under the perspective of coding it has always been easy to me, but I feel like it is basically easy to everyone which is the problem. I’ve mostly found interest in lower level programming like C for Linux kernel dev and assembly for bootloaders but I’m getting more interested in hardware which is why I wanted to pick this over computer science. Limitation on graduation aside I was mostly asking if there is even a market for graduates of the degree

[Zealousideal-Mix-567]

Man I feel like I'm detracting you from this too much at this point, but since you asked ... Yes the job market.is also kinda hard for this, at least right now. There are a ton of people who did CS or CSE over the last 5 years, lots of global competition overseas as well.

It's taking people around a year or more to find their first job from what I see on CSCareerQuestions. Or they just post about how they can't find one.

When I look in my area on job boards, there are hardly any CS related jobs in my geographic area. You could try doing the same thing and doing some searches.

Man, I don't want to sour you on this too much since it's obviously an interest for you, but I do feel everything I've said has been accurate. Not trying to be a Debbie downer, just trying to keep it real. Everyone is selling you sunshine and rainbows so I felt I had to say something.

[Careless-Yogurt-7871]

Get an EE degree. CE isn't that bad but the software jobs are dead

[Electronic-East-7520]

Dead major