Hi, I graduated from NTU in 2019.
I studied engineering, but not computer science/engineering. I see so many of my friends from my course taking coding bootcamps and then getting software engineer/data analyst jobs that pay quite a lot, like 4.5k min instead of what most people in my course would get which is 3.8~4k after 2 years (with FCH/deans list– if that even matters anymore lmao). I have been learning some programming basics and am pretty proficient in excel, dashboards, pandas/numpy libraries and i’m going to sign up for a programming bootcamp part-time because fomo.
Is my engineering degree really useless? I worked hard for it and am interested in it, but it seems that it is not as rewarding compensation wise. A part of me also questions being an engineer when i see friends from my course who were kinda lazy in uni, did badly in engineering school, couldn’t get a job during covid so they went for a bootcamp and are now earning more than me. Makes me feel like the effort I put into my degree is wasted? Is only a computer science degree valuable? Is it a tech bubble? Are the tradiational Mechanical/Electrical/Civil engineering degrees not really useful? Do you think engineering jobs will become obsolete?
Feeling uncertain about my future as an engineer. I’m confident that I can do pretty well as a software developer/data scientist given that I can think logically, am good at physics/math, and generally have a good work ethic. Also if my friends could do it then so can I. On the other hand I like my engineering job and I feel like I can grow my technical skills and contribute meaningfully to society. Is it worth switching industries? Why is tech paying so much more than engineering and how can I make my role pay more? I’m hoping to get some real advice from seniors. Thanks