[analog31]

I majored in math, and then did a PhD in physics. My first job out of grad school involved programming the controls for factory machines. These machines involved a technology that couldn't be bought off-the-shelf, and thus required custom controls. Today, I'm an "architect" at a business that makes measurement equipment.

My perception is that it was easier to cross disciplines when I got out of school, more than a couple decades ago. Things like "embedded systems" weren't well enough defined to have an established training-to-job career path, so it was easier to break into those fields. Rejecting candidates who didn't match a template was only beginning to be automated. Today, bigger employers are looking for training that is more specific to the task at hand.

So if you're in a rapidly emerging area where workers tend to be younger, you might see fewer cross-disciplinary people. At my workplace, the people with "generalist" background who are now working in specialized areas of engineering, tend to be over 50, myself included.