Any computer engineers willing to give advice?

I am going on my third year in college and am at the point where I NEED to figure out what I would like to do with the other 40 years of my life. After much research (and procrastination) I have been thinking about computer engineering. The thing is I only know what I have read about the field, which turns out to be emotionless textbook explinations.





This point is-





Would anyone be able to break down (as much as you would be willing to) what it is ACTUALLY like to be a computer engineer. Not so much the whole ';Analyze requirements to develop overall hardware and software systems. Plan layouts and installation'; definition I can find on any site. I am talking about the humane side of it. Such as-





What is it like starting out?


How long does it take to fully feel like that industry is you, and not like you are trying to make it that way?


Any regrets?


Is it more stressful or fun?





Anyone with any knowledge in the field that they are willing to offer would help me a lot!Any computer engineers willing to give advice?
Starting out its just like any other field, you first have to meet the people you work with and get comfortable with them.





I think that once you're in it you'll find out pretty soon if its for you. If you hate what you're doing then you probably shouldn't be doing it. But if you enjoy computers and learning about them, then you should be fine.





No regrets at all, I make good money, work with good people and enjoy what I do.





It can get stressful sometimes if you're in a crunch, but I don't think that theres any jobs out there that aren't like this.





Good luck.Any computer engineers willing to give advice?
I made a career of it, and had lots of fun doing so. There is a nice sense of accomplishment in designing a program to do something reasonable, have it avoid doing something unreasonable if you give it goofy instructions, and finally producing useful answers. Debugging a program is always a challenge, and the best debugging tools are tied in with the operating system so that you can contrive to find out at any point in the program's execution what it is doing and why it isn't doing what you want. The big problem for me was jumping into the middle of a project and trying to learn what the existing code was doing; it took months. Fortunately, the employer was patient; everybody else had already been there and done that.
I've been doing computer-based control systems and 'embedded systems' since the late 60's, I've always done my own interfaces (and lots of other hardware as well 鈽? and I speak a dozen or so programming languages. My advice to you would be; Unless you're planning on going for a PhD and working for a 'think tank' or other Government funded (and highly classified) research operation, you're better off getting an MBA or a degree in Law or Accounting or going to Medical School.





Most of the good jobs are going offshore these days, and (as with most engineering careers) age discrimination will eat you alive if you don't get into a supervisory or managerial position before you're 40'ish.





If I had it all to do over again (and knowing then what I know now), I'd have probably just stayed a professional studio musician (which is how I worked my way through college and several years of graduate school).





HTH





Doug