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First thoroughly research what you want out of "physical engineering". It may sound great in your head, but chances are you will end up in a cubicle in front of a computer all day doing CAD, modeling, simulations and even writing basic code. That describes 99% of jobs in areas you have mentioned.
First thoroughly research what you want out of "physical engineering". It may sound great in your head, but chances are you will end up in a cubicle in front of a computer all day doing CAD, modeling, simulations and even writing basic code. That describes 99% of jobs in areas you have mentioned.
For less money and flexibility than software;
People way smarter and doing way more complicated things making HALF as much as i do now....
1) Always change companies, change industries, and/or change locations multiple times before trying a career change. Unfortunately, if you are the type of person who gets burned out in software then you’re almost certainly going to get burned out in other engineering disciplines unless you learn how to manage your stress and self. Better to learn stress management and burnout prevention before investing in a career change.
2) Always get hands-on experience in an industry before investing in education to switch to it. Spending 2-4 years getting another degree is insanely expensive when you include the cost of lost wages and starting over as a junior. This alone could burn you out even more. You need to be 100% sure that the other career is the correct choice for you before you invest in education.
I was a mechanical engineer before this. Keep in mind that mech engineering that requires a 4-year degree is different from being on the fabrication side that does machining/building. The latter is the hands-on, blue collar work where you're on your feet all day. The engineering is a desk job 90% of the time. Sell your back vs. sell your brain.
I got an interest what I'll call "human scale" electronics after getting and learning how to restore a 1985 VW van. That led to getting into the dash electronics, with through-hole LEDs, resistors, and the like, and me remembering playing with these things in childhood electronics kits.
From there, I started getting into microcontroller learning kits from Sparkfun, then something clicked about Raspberry Pi computers when I realized the GPIO pin bank could control lights, sensors, and sound, while building in software in the Linux environment I knew.
Once I started building custom electronics, I got an interest in enclosures for custom builds and then into 3D printing.
From 3D printing, I wanted to learn more about CAD (FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, Fusion 360, Shapr3D), mesh design & 3D modeling in Blender.
Today I'm doing a combination of microcontroller project consulting (where a solid C/C++ background helps tremendously), 3D modeling and prototyping, and working on a personal physical product for which I am writing the whole software stack.
Personally I feel that coming to hardware with a strong software background helps in code/firmware organization, thinking about flexibility, and fast prototyping.
I have, starting about four years ago after 20 years in pure software. More it was realizing new interests than feeling burned out, but looking back, I felt stagnated by where I was in pure programming. I got an interest what I'll call "human scale" electronics after getting and learning how to restore a 1985 VW van. That led to getting into the dash electronics, with through-hole LEDs, resistors, and the like, and m…
I started out as an EE doing mostly hardware work, continued to do more HW/SW integration and now do essentially 100% software work but with the ability to read and interpret schematics, datasheets, figure out HW/SW integration bugs etc. I have done a ton of physical system integration: i.e., getting my software to make things move, move properly, and work around mechanical or electrical bugs. Yes, there are also bugs in mechanical and electronic systems, and it's usually cheaper to "just fix it in software!"
You may just be switching one kind of burnout for another...
One of the most telling remarks I remember was from a friend who had done mainly software and was now coding for the electromechanical system that I worked on: "I'd really just rather work with the Simulator because when I put my code on hardware then I have to deal with a whole other set of problems that have nothing to do with software."
He eventually got past that but that's why I think you need to be really clear about what you want to get out of doing this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For less money and flexibility than software;
This is why im hesitating. People way smarter and doing way more complicated things making HALF as much as i do now....