The main issue with working as an EE is that you can’t get useful experience without working in the industry and picking up all sorts of tacit knowledge that one can grab only by working. This creates a huge gate keeping effect. Contrast that with SW where so much of the sausage making is accessible in the form of open source projects.

Another difficulty is that with the offshoring of so much EE work to Taiwan etc, many US companies only want to hire senior EEs who can direct projects overseas. This unfortunately kills of paths of growth for junior EEs in the US.