These days I'd be tempted to offer this advice: "An engineer is an artist.  Expect the same level of pay and job security."  I'm half joking: the pay is quite good in the USA, though job security is non-existent.  Your job could be outsourced to a low-wage country at any time.  If you're working for a large company in the USA, to management you're a "resource" like toilet paper and light bulbs.  Expect to be treated with the same level of respect.

Some people are born engineers.  To them I say to follow your heart, because you won't be happy doing anything else.  Some people want to be engineers because their well-meaning parents told them it would be a good career.  To them, I say: "Become a spine doctor: all those young people bending over their smart phones are going to have 70-year-old spine problems in their 40s and 50s.  You'll have plenty of work."

I would like to mention that I was very lucky to begin my engineering career near the beginning of the microprocessor revolution so I was able to find well-paid interesting jobs.  It was lots of fun back then, but the increased complexity of modern software has taken away most of that fun.  Fortunately, there's still some embedded work which is still fun.

I working primarily in computing but I believe this also applies to electronics.

The world is changing and you must keep learning to keep up.

I would say whatever you see today will be old by the time you learn it. Therefore never stop learning to stay at the crest of the current wave of technology. And when you have been in this awhile, you will know the difference between balderdash and true knowledge.

C

Clem Martins wrote:

 

I would say whatever you see today will be old by the time you learn it.

Yes and no.  The fundamentals like Ohm's Law, Kirchhoff's Laws, Maxwell's Equations, and Boolean Logic haven't changed a bit.  And C programs today look pretty much the same as K&R except for function declarations (thank goodness for ANSI C!)

MOS transistor logic hasn't changed.  They keep making transistors smaller, but they still use them pretty much the same way as mechanical relay networks.

I would add the advice: master the fundamentals.  That's what you can build on.  Learn from old technologies, because ideas move into and out of favor depending on the technology of the time.  An old technology may come back in a different form, so if you know about it that gives you an advantage over the whipper-snappers.

Learn how things fail.  In school you learned about the "ideal case" and "textbook examples" that work when you simulate them.  The real world is much more complex, and things will fail for various interesting reasons that they didn't have time to cover in school.  Learn from these mistakes and how to get around them.  That's how you become an expert.

ideas move into and out of favor depending on the technology of the time.  An old technology may come back in a different form, so if you know about it that gives you an advantage over the whipper-snappers.

That's very true, I've seen that several times.

The Chinese proverb says:

“He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever”

However, if you ask the same question 10 times in the first week you are going to get on people's bad books.

Equally, be careful as to how you ask your question as you might offend.

For example: "You told me I had to write unit tests for all my code but this old code you wrote 10 years go has none."

The main thing is to be diverse and versatile.  Being a great engineer alone wont get you very far unless you work for a small company or something you own.

You may have to work as a programmer or a data analyst at times.  Learn programming and modern frameworks.

The #1 key to success in big companies is politics.  I've seen people do nothing and move to the top, and truly brilliant people get left behind.  You can do both but you have to understand that people have to like you and you need to be able to communicate.  If there is a business person who you talk tech babble to you may not last too long. If you try to act like they are stupid, get ready to find a job.  Putting things in terms lay people can understand without making them feel like lay people is very important and a skill once mastered will make you very valuable.  You can be a mediocre engineer but with these skills you can go very far.

I've seen people do nothing and move to the top, and truly brilliant people get left behind.

A lot of people get into Engineering because the technical aspect is enjoyable. But often, to be able to keep doing what you enjoy you will need to be good at communicating and working with other people.

Agree.  but keep in mind you also have to be able to produce.  You may not have to be the TOP producer, but still have to produce.

Though I will admit I've seen people produce nothing before and be valued.  Then again, we all have seen companies go down due to incompetent leadership and/or workers.

I am just being realistic and cynical as it may sound.

>being realistic and cynical

I was guessing that a new Engineer would already have those skills