A quality engineer is a job title. I wasn't asking whether you are a good engineer

i do not have any formal education in engineering in terms of a degree. my main work is mechanical drafting and consulting, and we rarely "reinvent the wheel" so to say, so my actual engineering follows close references. But in my field specifically engineers have it incredibly easy, automated programs to test for strength and weight, etc. But i am not qualified as an engineer to be recognized as one, and i'm not tasked with R&D from a design perspective. most of the R&D i do is to refine our standards and i also tool around with automated excel calculators for a variety of tasks. I recently finished up my mechanical drafting certificate however so i'm qualified officially to draft in either 2d or 3d.

but in major degrees i have a BS in criminal justice, i just realized too late i didn't want to be a cop/corrections officer and took a temp job at my company. then when a job opened up upstairs i learned autocad from a textbook and applied and got it. in my industry all companies have a few engineers for big new stuff and all the rest are just peons. i'm still considering going back to school to move up a rank as my company will pay for it but i'll likely go down the project management path. more money for less work.

What kind of 3d software do you use? I'm a big fan of SolidWorks.

And yes project management is the big bucks. I'm not gonna be a drone when I finish my studies, that's for sure. R&D can be really cool but you really have to be lucky with the position for the job to be both interesting and worthwhile (startup pays are dreadful).

And I'm going to miss all the free to use tools of my uni so much. Matlab, Siemens NX, Multisim, Visual Studio, entire Adobe studio...

Of the 3 programs i've used solidworks was best, inventor was ok, solidedge sucks. and wouldn't ya know it, i only have a key for solidedge at my desk. But i do have a full seat of Autocad2016 mechanics, so i can't complain too much. an about 99% of my job is still done in 2d. unless i'm making some sort of complex chute or something. we have 3d assemblies but it's really all just converting our existing 2d assemblies over.

are you a full time student?

Currently yes, doing some part time work on the side.

Maybe I was just poor growing up but I could never imagine being able to survive without a full time job at 23+

I'm fine with my current situation. I've worked for 1-2 years between my two studies to make some money to fund it, but there are also very affordable loans for students here (currently 0% interest and if you in the future are unable to pay back, you don't have to. Monthly payment is based on percentage of income.).

And studying right now still keeps me young. It's also been a factor in finding my current gf, I'm pretty sure that if I kept working where I was, I'd be pretty miserable right now.

I'm still young and likely won't get a pension till 70 or maybe even older. So I'll just make good use of my 20's while I can. Gotta enjoy life too you know. Work to live, not live to work.