[shiroiushi]

I got my degree in EE many years ago, and quickly came to the same conclusion, and moved from hardware to software and never went back. Hardware has long been a terrible career field in the US, and anyone smart moved into some kind of software-related job.

Also, your "crap city" bit is an important factor too. WhoTF wants to live in Phoenix AZ? The fabs are usually located in rather lousy places, whereas software jobs usually give you far more choices for places to live. There's software jobs virtually everywhere these days.