Can an electrical engineer be a software engineer and vice versa?

[Minhtran1092]

Or are differences in how one engineer is trained such that you either become one or the other but not both?

 

[SteamKing]

It's probably easier for an EE to become a SE rather than the other way around. In any event, additional special training will be required. In general, just because the professional title includes the word 'engineer' does not mean that the various jobs are interchangeable.

 

[carlgrace]

I know personally a good number of people who transitioned from EE to software. I don't know of a single person who did the opposite.

A good middle ground if you're a student is to study EE and focus on software within the degree. You won't get as many advanced CS courses but you'll be a competent programmer with perhaps a better feel for how the hardware works.

One other thing, firmware (low-level 'software' typically running on an FPGA or the like) is almost always written by EEs in my experience. That's interesting stuff, I've had to do a bit of it myself (I'm an EE).