Hello I've got a few questions to members here. First some background.

Background

I'm a college student going for a engineering technician degree since we do not have a university nearby with an engineering department.
I'm not sure what I want to specialize in since I do not know much about the engineering field. This is a second career for me and I'm coming from the medical field. My degree choice is Applied Engineering to give me as broad as possible skill set.

Questions

Which skillsets do you all find to be the must essential for engineers? I tried doing a google search and I found that having experience in Solidworks and various CAD skills are essential, but when looking for skillsets among the specialities I couldnt find much.

Which engineering specialties are in demand at the moment? Or are specialties irrelevant if I take the appropriate classes to gain a skill?

My advisor is saying that computer engineering or robotic engineering are strong choices coupled with extra CAD and CNC machine classes would make me a strong candidate to a company.

Are engineering technicians even used anymore? I've never met anyone who has been an engineering technician.


Thanks for your time sorry if the questions are weird, but engineering is new to me. The only experience I have with machines is working on my cars whenever they break.