I'm a mechanical engineer and I can give a similar perspective. I'm now in software engineering and I'm doing well. My other classmates who moved into consulting or finance are doing even better. Those who stayed in engineering have struggled. I live in a developing country: too poor to manufacture anything high-tech, too rich with strong labour laws to manufacture anything low-tech. My friends who stayed in engineering are "installation engineers" or "sales engineers" or "stand-by engineers" since the products they use/sell/watch over are designed elsewhere. Those who are in design firms have suffered layoffs and company bankruptcies.

My friends in engineering are passionate about what they do which is why they stick with it. I like the intellectual challenge I get from software engineering and the people I work with. I'm glad I get paid well for it too. I don't think I would get the same level of stimulation in an "engineering" firm here and certainly not the same salary.