While this is a student, it appears that he (or she) has come to Eng-Tips because most of the rest of us are real engineers and thus we're the audience that he (or she) is looking for. I'll try to respond in that manner.
1) For one thing you tend to better understand how the world around you and stuff that's in it works. This is no small thing either since many people are ignorant of what it really takes to produce even something as simple as a loaf of bread, something that I'm very familiar with having spent 14+ years designing commercial bakery equipement.
2) See number 1. There's a bit of a loss-of-innocence as it were since you DO tend to know how stuff works and so some of the mystery is lost. And then there's this problem with getting on an airplane since you know better than the people around you exactly what could go wrong at any moment ;-) And lets not forget that some will look at you as a nerd, and if and when you get married, your spouse may tend to get upset if it turns out that you CAN'T actually fix everything that breaks around the house.
3) The greatest is seeing something built and working that did NOT exist before you conceived it or helped to bring to fruition. That is a very satisfying experience. And besides, engineering tends to pay well. Now you're not necessarily going to get rich, unless you manage to invent the next iPad or some other thing that changes the world, but it reliably puts food on the table and provides support for a family.
4) The biggest threat is obsolescence, not necessarily of what you've learned or are capable of doing, but that the rest of the world moves in a different direction so you must be prepared to move with it when it makes sense. I had to do tht myself 33+ years ago when I left a traditional mechanical engineering role and moved into computer software. It may be hard for a young person to conceive of time before there was a computer in every home and on every desk or for that matter, in your pocket, but there was. I risked a lot, giving up a good job, moving my family from one side of the country to the other and starting over at 33 years old with 3 kids and a wife,, but in the end it was the best thing that I could have done, but it was still a big risk. While the fundamentals of engineering don't change the application does and so you have to be able to either keep up or know when it's time to steer another course altogether.
And one last thing, don't become so obsessed with technology that you miss what else is out there in the world, like art, books, music and just being with people and seeing new places.
I'm sure that you have seen this already but this new Apple advert says alot of things that you should listen to very carefully as this if absolutely what life is all about:
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
