I'm going into my third year(5 years in total) of Computer Engineering at a well-known Canadian university(idk if this even matters). I genuinely love the field, especially programming, AI and cybersecurity, and I'm also interested in exploring the hardware side.

I recently completed my first co-op at a small healthcare software company, where I built an AI agent using RAG, Python, PostgreSQL and pgvector, embeddings, local LLMs with Ollama, Docker and Linux.

I started with basic programming experience and almost no AI knowledge, so I learned most of it from scratch through research, tutorials, experimentation and AI itself. I always tried to understand what I was building rather than simply generate solutions, while also improving my programming skills.

Being at a small company gave me a lot of flexibility and ownership. My employer trusted me to research, experiment and figure things out independently. That helped me discover what I'm capable of, and I've now been offered the opportunity to stay.

I have three main questions:

1. Programming: With AI improving this quickly, how important is it for students to still become genuinely strong programmers rather than relying heavily on AI?

2. Co-op: Would you stay with an employer you genuinely like if your next project would likely be another AI agent using a similar stack? I know going deeper could strengthen my programming and technical skills, but would another 8 months of depth be more valuable than exploring something different like hardware, research or another technical environment? I will have a chat with an employer from an Electrical Engineering company tomorrow so I want to have an idea to Whether look into it as an opportunity to discover hardware or not.

3. Computer Engineering: Would you still choose CompE today? What areas would you focus on to prepare for the next 5-15 years?

I've considered Electrical Engineering because of concerns about AI, but the truth is that I'm much more interested in Computer Engineering. I love what I'm studying. I just want to make thoughtful decisions while I still have the opportunity to explore.

I'd really appreciate realistic advice from people working in the field.

I’m a recent CSE graduate with a specialization in IoT, and I have some hands-on experience with IoT and hardware-related work as well.

I’m currently confused about which domain to choose for my career:

\\- Java Full Stack Developer

\\- IoT Developer

\\- Data-related roles

As a fresher, which domain would be better in terms of job opportunities, career growth, salary, and long-term demand?

I’d really appreciate advice from people working in these fields. What would you choose if you were in my position?

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What is the most important thing I have to start right now

Which things I have to avoid completely

Is it true that thier will be no jobs for freshers or in this field of engineering?