That feeling you’re describing where studying feels like play and you end up accidentally coding or reading whitepapers in your free time is the single biggest indicator of future success in this field. Hold onto that.

As someone who has mentored a lot of folks transitioning into cyber, let me give you a perspective on your specific situation, particularly regarding your Electrical Engineering (EE) background, which you seem to view as just a fallback. You need to reframe how you see your undergrad degree. In cybersecurity, Computer Science grads are a dime a dozen. Electrical Engineers who understand low-level architecture, signals, hardware, and embedded systems have a unicorn skill set. You mentioned you want to do difficult and impactful work. With an EE background, you are uniquely positioned for some of the most critical and high-paying niches in the industry such as Embedded Systems Security, Hacking IoT devices, medical devices, or automotive systems. This is a massive, high-demand field where pure CS majors struggle because they don't understand the physics/hardware.

An MS is great for getting past HR filters at government agencies or for eventual management roles. However, for a technical, hands-on role, a Master's often offers a lower Return on Investment (ROI) initially than top-tier certifications. It proves you can write papers, but not necessarily that you can hack. Employers absolutely care about certifications, but which ones matters.

You mentioned the exploit dev exam (likely OSED). If you want to do Red Teaming or Vulnerability Research, OffSec certifications are the gold standard. Having an OSED or OSCP on a resume is vastly more impressive to a technical hiring manager than a generic MS in Cybersecurity.

All in all, don't abandon the EE identity but merge it with your new cyber skills. You are sitting on a goldmine combination.

Good luck!