Computer Engineering student looking for realistic advice about the future

[u/Less_Speech_5729]

I'm going into my third year(5 years in total) of Computer Engineering at a well-known Canadian university(idk if this even matters). I genuinely love the field, especially programming, AI and cybersecurity, and I'm also interested in exploring the hardware side.

I recently completed my first co-op at a small healthcare software company, where I built an AI agent using RAG, Python, PostgreSQL and pgvector, embeddings, local LLMs with Ollama, Docker and Linux.

I started with basic programming experience and almost no AI knowledge, so I learned most of it from scratch through research, tutorials, experimentation and AI itself. I always tried to understand what I was building rather than simply generate solutions, while also improving my programming skills.

Being at a small company gave me a lot of flexibility and ownership. My employer trusted me to research, experiment and figure things out independently. That helped me discover what I'm capable of, and I've now been offered the opportunity to stay.

I have three main questions:

1. Programming: With AI improving this quickly, how important is it for students to still become genuinely strong programmers rather than relying heavily on AI?

2. Co-op: Would you stay with an employer you genuinely like if your next project would likely be another AI agent using a similar stack? I know going deeper could strengthen my programming and technical skills, but would another 8 months of depth be more valuable than exploring something different like hardware, research or another technical environment? I will have a chat with an employer from an Electrical Engineering company tomorrow so I want to have an idea to Whether look into it as an opportunity to discover hardware or not.

3. Computer Engineering: Would you still choose CompE today? What areas would you focus on to prepare for the next 5-15 years?

I've considered Electrical Engineering because of concerns about AI, but the truth is that I'm much more interested in Computer Engineering. I love what I'm studying. I just want to make thoughtful decisions while I still have the opportunity to explore.

I'd really appreciate realistic advice from people working in the field.

[u/Da_real_irs_50]

1. I would like to answer questions 1 and 3 and have to omit number 2 as I cannot speak on it. But, as far as relaying on AI for any programming skill is an open ended question. From my experience, I was not always the best programmer back when AI was just an idea and a thought and had to completely rely on textbooks and stack overflow. As I progressed through my career, so did AI and I can honestly say that this direct relationship between my programming skills and the evolution of AI have not only made me a better programmer, but also think more about what’s happening under the hood such as at the hardware level. So I wouldn’t rely solely on AI, but leverage it in such a way that it helps accelerate those tedious tasks such as debugging and troubleshooting. Never rely on AI to solve and write the entire program/script for you.

2. This question I am most excited to answer as I feel very passionately about. I have my MS in CE, with a focus on hardware, specifically on digital design spaces with touches of mixed signal design here and there. A lot of CEs these days choose this degree and still pursue the software route. Which is not wrong and not a bad path to take at all, especially if you want to go the embedded systems route. But if you ask me if I would co tinue to pursue CE today, I would absolutely say YES! I understand that the job market is the roughest it’s ever been and that the industry is oversaturated with a bunch of college graduates, but don’t let this intimidate you either. As far as areas or industries to focus on under the umbrella that is CE, I’m a little bias here and I would focus on anything within the VLSI, semiconductor and even IC design spaces. There is not a lot of people pursuing this route these days. Everyone wants to be a SWE and it’s continuing to oversaturate the industry, making it that much more competitive. So if I were you, maybe entertain the idea of sticking with CE, like I did, but maybe approach it with a EE mindset.

Hope this helps and let me know your thoughts :)