Electrical engineering vs mechanical engineering??

Both have an opportunity to 'build things'. Some of this depends on how much you like working at the computer. First - both are difficult degrees to obtain, and you rarely get to do 'both'. Most of the mechanical engineers that I have met actually work on the computer much more often than they get to build things. Many Mechanical engineers are 'designers', so you get to take a concept and create 2D and 3D drawings in CAD (computer aided design software). There are times you can "get in the lab", but that depends on the types of products being designed. Electrical engineer is no 'less' challenging than mechanical engineer - its just different. Mechanical engineers need good spacial aptitude (being able to visualize an object, how to make it, and design it). With a mechanical engineer degree, you can also go into 'facilities engineering' (getting gases and liquids to big machines), Process Engineering (How do we assemble this widget?), or Industrial Engineering (how can we optimize our manufacturing process to make more sludge?).

Electrical engineering has wider variety of focus. My electrical & computer engineering degree has had me work in manufacturing, process engineering, robotics, radio frequency, optics, lasers, semiconductors, printed circuit board design, failure analysis, software engineering, and most recently - quality engineering. I also love taking things apart - as does my younger brother. We are both electrical engineers (possibly because neither of us liked some of the classes the mechanical engineers had to take in college). Strangely, the one thing that I have NOT gotten to do is sit inside and design circuits all day. I have never been a pure 'designer' of electronics - but I have had some small opportunities to do it. Electrical engineering can be as much generic 'problem solving' as you want it to be. What is nice about electrical engineering is that the degree is generic enough that you have many opportunities to find your 'niche' of interest. This might be personal bias - but I have found its easier to find an electrical engineer who has good knowledge of mechanical design (building stuff) than you can find a mechanical engineer moving into electronics.

One thing to note - I have ADD - so I need to have a wide variety of projects to work on at once, in a fast-paced environment. If you like that - go into the manufacturing industry. It tends to pay a bit less than 'design', but for someone like me who has to have wide variety in what I do - its perfect. This week, I helped diagnose a computer problem on an automatic inspection tool, I performed an 'audit' - confirming that procedures were being followed appropriately in one area of our manufacturing fab - I am reading a manual to bring up an automated label printer - and I wrote a web application to talk to a database. Needless to say - I am never 'bored' at work.

OK, unlike the guy from Honeywell, where I was the Acting Site Quality Manager in San Jose for 7 months until "furloughed", never could get anyone in EE or computer software (firmware or software ) to sign off on what they had had done to produce a , reliable, part to their own design and/or sequence of operations. Supplier did OK, internal Honeywell people did not. The computer folks are not as sure , mostly about how their software/firmware will process on each and every application for their own product, don't believe their own hype. Toyota with the accelerator problem (computer controlled and VW fiddling the computer controlled readings for emissions come to mind, VW taking a beating, TMC wary of any future tech applications. If YOU are responsible then make sure, "actual; part, actual place" and take data yourself or a reliable source, as lives and money and your job will be on the line. Do the mechanical.