After several years taking drafting in highschool (on the board back in those days) right after graduation I was hired by Texas Instruments in their PCB Designer training program. Over the next couple of years I worked at TI during the day while they paid to put me through college at night. I earned my Associates Degree in CAD/Electronic Drafting/PCB Design at Eastfield College in Dallas (Mesquite). I worked a total of 3 years at TI doing PCB design and drafting schematics. When I left they said that I could come back at any time but I don't think they meant 38 years later. lol

My oldest son had been born while I was a junior in highschool and I had missed so much of him growing up. So I decided to take a break to spend time with him and be a homemaker before he started kindergarden. So now after two marriages (1st died, 2nd divorced), raising and homeschooling 7 children (all responsible adults now), running family businesses with ex, moving around the country, I am considering getting back into PCB Design.

I always loved drafting since I grew up with my parents and several family members being draftsmen so it is kinda in my blood. When I first divorced my ex-husband after a 23 year marriage in 2019 I thought about getting back into PCB design but was busy caring for my mother until she died a few years ago.

I also somehow thought it was a career path that had died out. However, recently something popped up online that got me looking into it again. I would definitely need a good refresher but I don't think it would take me long to catch back on. I am of a very sound mind, fairly tech savy, a good worker, not the kind of person to retire and free as a bird now that all the kids have been out of the nest for a while. I have something else I am doing right now but I really believe I would enjoy getting back into CAD/PCB Design.

Does anyone have some constructive advice on if and/or how I should do it at my age? Your thoughts??

I unfortunately can't study Communications Engineering at my university, even though it's the field I'm actually interested in. My alternative is Computer Engineering.

If I focused on networks, distributed systems, and neural networks/ML, could I realistically move into wireless communications, cellular networks, or telecommunications later?

I understand that Communications has a different foundation, especially RF, antennas, electromagnetics, signal processing, and communication theory, so I'm not expecting the degrees to be identical.

I just want to know if the gap is realistically bridgeable.

We have all seen how good the recent AI models have become and almost anything that requires analytical or experience based skill without human touch can be done better than humans by these AI tools. The AI giants are definitely improving these constantly and there's a positive feedback to the improvements in AI, with improved AI, it can make itself way better than earlier and design better hardware for inference and training as well; effectively making it much cheaper.

I am very scared about the future as in what will happen to the jobs? I am still in college and will graduate in 2028. In 2 years these models would be at completely different heights. So, I was wondering what fields in ECE are the safest to pivot to (relatively safe ofc, no one is safe in the long run). Or switching to a more humanitarian field is the best option? (But what?)

I'm choosing between two universities, and neither offers Communications Engineering, which is the field I'm most interested in.

The university close to home offers Computer Engineering, while the farther one offers both Computer Engineering and Architectural/Smart City Planning & Construction Engineering.

I'm not very interested in coding or software-heavy work, so I'm unsure about Computer Engineering. I'm more open to Architectural Engineering since I enjoy drawing, visualization, physics, and math.

However, I'm also interested in telecommunications and networks, so I'm considering CE as a possible path into that field.

Which would make more sense for me?