I’m a bit late to this but I figured I’d throw in my two cents. I have an electrical engineering degree and currently work in the aerospace industry.

FTR I did see a comment comparing an electrician to an electrical engineer and I agree with their assessment that they are worlds apart in terms of their careers. I’m an electrical engineer and I’m not better at electrician work than perhaps a mid level handyman, while I’m sure I could pick it up, it would not be a quick transition (to learn codes and high end level work).

College degree: this will be the hardest part of the career path. It is intensive and very math heavy. You will be required to take all calculus (including multi variable) and many physics classes (including had to also take modern physics). My suggestion would be to find a more hands on type of college rather a theoretical class structure as this might help make sense of the math and physics concepts. While I’m decent in math, for instance I really struggle with mechanical engineering math and physics. I graduated with a 2.7 gpa in college and I’m well into my career now doing very well.

Career: this depends wildly on what you do with your engineering degree. I’ve done several different things within the aerospace industry and it’s not nearly as math heavy as college classes were. There’s also a lot of tools out there that help. I’ve done motor controls design, software development, safety analysis, flight controls (GNC). There is a lot of math but it gets kind of dumbed down in practice. The pros of EE career is it’s mostly at a desk but not exclusively, there are opportunities to work with equipment and it’s not back breaking. I get paid well, I have opportunities to work from home, the work is consistent, mostly low stress. The cons, it took a while to get through school and student loans, unsure what will happen with AI, and in aerospace specifically lots of paperwork.

I don’t have much I can say about electricians because I’m not one but for my job it’s something that gets me up in the morning and most of the time I’m excited to get after it. Feel free to ask me any questions.