Moving to a new career within electronics

It will soon be 3 years since I graduated. I am an electronic engineer in UK. While I am working in a "good" job I am not satisfied because of lack of creative work. I am thinking of moving into a "hardware design engineer" role which in my understanding will involve designing a lot of circuits and possibly PCBs as well. In it I shall design things with microcontrollers and also with FPGAs thus use C/C++/VHDL and may even do some analog design.

I can see that most jobs that electronic engineers do are not directly related to writing C/HDL programs and doing simulations for a living.

Now I have an MEeng in EE (integrated masters) with good acamedic track record already and just want to know, how do you think I can maneuver my career into: becoming a Digital circuit desinger working with latest FPGAs, DDR interfaces, MGBT, SoC (the latest development in FPGA world), writing HDL and SystemVerilog/SystemC testbenches and doing PCB design OR embedded systems engineer and learn about various microcontrollers/microprocessors and their architectures and write C/C++ code, real time applications possibly using RTOS or even do Ethernet/USB design among other possibilities and potentially PCB design with it. In either case I shall be able to get what I want. I know that the type of role that I want though does exist on this planet, it is real.

My question is, how do I go about changing tracks? It does not make sense to go back to university.

Things have happened in my life in the last few years at university that led to severe depression and have led me to where I am but life is stable now, I can make choices relatively freely now. I am thankful for what I have but 10 years into the future I will seriously seriously regret not getting what I wanted in life. I do have the basic understanding of the fields I wish to move into, otherwise I would not dream of going there.

For those that say I should try to look for creative work where I am, well I have thought about this but it is not actually possible.

I think a good start would be to get a hold of some of the inexpensive development boards that microprocessor and FPGA vendors have. Then, you can educate yourself about those devices. Most vendors have free development software and there's also lots of free stuff on the web. You're not going to get the performance of a $6000 (whatever that is in Euros) simulator in a free one, but it will get you started.

Since you're young enough, I would look for a company that would hire you for your potential, and be willing to train you. They're not going to expect you to have the expertise of someone who's been doing it for years, but they would look at you as an investment. Besides, 90% of what you learn is on the job anyway. College just teaches you how to THINK like an engineer, but not how to BE an engineer.

Signed,
A Hardware Design Engineer

Now, I must get back to laying out my 8-layer PCB with a 484-ball FPGA on it. Then, I have to write the VHDL for it. (Not kidding).