[stallmanifold]

I would still do software engineering if I could do it all over. I came into SWE from the EE side. I studied both mathematics and computer (hardware) engineering, with a hefty CS minor in undergrad. I think EE/CE is a tremendously intellectually profitable (if somewhat unconventional) preparation for a career as a developer. You get an intimate understanding of how computer hardware and low-level stuff works that is hard to get in a CS program. I still find it gave me a toolkit for thinking about software problems that most of my colleagues don't have.

I echo the sentiment that programming doesn't really exist on its own. Most great software engineers really have two skillsets: the programming skills and domain knowledge. Rich Hickey remarks on this in one of his ClojureCon talks. One thing I think I would do differently is to find one or more domains to apply programming to sooner in my life. I'm about eight years out of school and only starting to figure out the answer to this question myself.