I took a different career path to most.
I was an MoD aircraft engineering apprentice, then did well enough to be sent to do a degree (and somehow ended up with a PhD a few years later). The formative moment for me was a placement with an aircraft manufacturer in the flight test department, which showed me that what I was really interested in was the overlap between engineering and flying, so I learned to fly as well.
A few highlights.
Seeing fitted the first modification I ever designed (nothing special, the anti-collision light under the nose of the Lynx 8, but hell, I was 19.)
Using a periscope at the back of a VC10 in flight to try and identify the reason the beaver tail between the adjacent podded Conways was fluttering, as Tornado pilots were refusing to fly behind it.
Making the first flight (as test pilot) on a homebuilt aeroplane that I had also overseen the full build on as an aircraft inspector.
Flying as a pilot, the first aeroplane design that I oversaw and approved as an engineer (tiny little low performance 2-seater, but it still counts).
Working with military test pilots and Rolls Royce airworthiness engineers to design and run the flight testing of a modified Dart turboprop on the HS780 Andover, and running the flight tests from the jumpseat.
Getting to the bottom of why a carbon fibre propeller had decided to spontaneously combust in flight, including scrounging a non-flight airframe, instrumenting it up, and running tests to determine the reason, then getting that circulated around the airworthiness community.
Finding a way to adapt military performance scheduling to civilian research aeroplanes, allowing them to fly more and better instrumentation, for longer, than ever before.
Visiting eastern European light aircraft factories not long after the end of the cold war to determine what types were, and which weren't, suitable for certification in the UK.
Identifying a fundamental design problem across a fleet that had caused fatal accidents, and getting it eliminated - coming back 5 years later and seeing the end point in the history of related fatalities.
Right now I'm leading a team who are designing, building, and will be testing two prototype all-electric aircraft, I expect to be creating the inspection schedule and training syllabus for one of the first electric powertrains, and likely training the first techs and inspectors on it as well. Yes, that is as hard work, and as exciting, as it sounds.
Yep, I'd be very happy to recommend aeronautical engineering, at least my oddball flavour of it, to anybody looking for an exciting career that can take you around the world doing stuff that for most people is pure fantasy.
G