EE major here, expecting to graduate in 2024. I’ll have to admit that I’m only here because I wasn’t admitted to the CS program and I’ve mostly been paying attention to trends in the software development industry, so please pardon my ignorance. My country (Sweden) has a great software industry but the hardware design and manufacturing industry isn’t nearly as strong. The advice I get is that EE has great career prospects in semiconductors, IC design, microelectronics and defense, but most of these positions will require relocation which I’m not interested in. I’m clueless about RF and power systems, and besides, the compensation tends to be worse than the previously mentioned industries.
Currently, I’m grinding the “self-taught programmer” stuff, taking CS classes and doing IT jobs to get the experience for a full-time dev role. The CS bubble burst didn’t affect my country that much because we didn’t have overinflated salaries and excessive expansion during the pandemic. Would there still be good prospects in EE if I choose to focus on it (assume passion for CS is negligible), or would it be a better idea to keep going with CS?
I’m in the US, in aerospace, and am ignorant about the job market in Sweden. Still, I would look for companies that might use a software savvy EE, even if they don’t design ICs. For instance, any company that builds or tests electronic devices might want someone like that. I manage a Space Software Engineering organization, and I hire people who are good software developers, but also have experience interfacing software with real-time hardware. I tend to hire Computer Engineering or Robotics majors for that, but my peer managers for Special Test Equipment tend to hire EEs.
One suggestion for you: start looking for the jobs you want to do that are in your country, and see what education and experience requirements they have. If you’re in school, apply to internships.