Thank you for sharing this. A couple of questions:
1. Curious as to which sub-field you're currently working in
2. What was the impetus for you to make the decision to quit work full time and study again full-time?
3. When you say that you've not met anyone in your subfield that doesn't have a degree, how sure are you? I'd like to imagine that there are at least one or two that started school but didn't finish
2. Prior to going to school I was a full stack web dev. I was tired of the framework of the week treadmill and didn't think it was something I could find fulfilling for the next 20-30 years until retirement.
3. I'm very sure. Hardware is a different beast than software. In order to excel as a modern hardware designer you need all of the fundamental EE knowledge and a lot of the fundamental CS/programming knowledge.
Hardware(PCB) EE here. Worked with non- degreed PCB level systems integrators at a not so glamorous FAANG. Perhaps the entry requirement at the Mother of all FAANGs might be a BSEE min and MSEE maximum.
1. Curious as to which sub-field you're currently working in 2. What was the impetus for you to make the decision to quit work full time and study again full-time? 3. When you say that you've not met anyone in your subfield that doesn't have a degree, how sure are you? I'd like to imagine that there are at least one or two that started school but didn't finish