Aspiring Structural,
I have some thoughts on the topic that I wanted to share. Without writing an autobiography - I graduated from an Architectural Engineering program with an MEng - Structural Emphasis 6 years ago. I spent the next 2 years working for a structural consultant. I spent the next 2 years working for a utility at a nuclear power plant. I have spent the last 2 years working for a large railroad as a bridge engineer. I'm leaving that job this week to go to work doing structural design for a heavy equipment manufacturer.
In my experience, consultants will work you hard - certainly some harder than others. Generally, they will try to get as much out of you as they can. In many cases, you end up sacrificing yourself and you may or may not be compensated accordingly. Depending on your management and co-workers, they may pressure you to cut corners. On the other hand, you may work with some really upstanding, excellent engineers that will mentor you and teach you a lot about the profession. You may to work on exciting projects, you may not. Some of these things you may be able to discern ahead of time.
On the other hand, there are options other than consulting. Specifically, owners hire engineers. This work is usually more on the managerial side than the technical side. The pay on the owner's side is usually less than the consulting side. However, the benefits may be better and owners usually work 40 hour weeks year-round. The other difference on the owner's side (especially at the railroad) is that you seldom coordinate with architects and sometimes don't coordinate with any other design professionals.
In a nutshell, if you want to pursue a managerial career and work 40 hour weeks, look for a job on the owner's side. If you want to do design work, you don't mind working overtime, and you are OK coordinating work with other interests, look for a job in consulting.
There are other options out there. In my case, as I mentioned, I'm moving to structural design for a manufacturer which combines traits of the consulting side and the owner's side. I'll do design work nearly full-time, but as long as I can keep up with fabrication schedules, I'll work 40 hour weeks. I've been fortunate to get exposure to several different environments and I'm lucky that there is an opportunity that seems like it will suit my relatively unique interests. Several colleagues have told me that they would absolutely hate doing that much design. I respect that, but I love design. Furthermore, I'll be in a situation where I'm not coordinating much, if anything, with other designers. That's another great thing for me, I don't necessarily thrive in a team environment.
In the modern employment paradigm, you will likely only find out what a given job is really like after you've worked there for awhile. For me, as you can see, it's taken about 2 years to learn a job and culture, decide it's not the right fit, and find something that seems better. In any case, any degree in engineering will adequately prepare you for several careers outside of engineering if you choose. And, that is a valid choice for many people. I know an ex-civil engineer who ended up leaving the profession to become a loan officer. Engineers commonly rise to management and even executive levels in corporate America. Many engineers start-up new businesses outside of their discipline. Some engineers become successful politicians. An engineering education demonstrates that you can learn and at least rudimentally apply abstract concepts and mathematics. These are fundamentally useful skills in almost any human endeavor.
Final paragraph (I promise). Some people look at my career and see someone with problems. A different job every 2 years in different areas and so forth. I understand that. However, I consider myself lucky to have had these opportunities and I've spent a considerable amount of time extracting lessons from these experiences. I think I can speak intelligently about my experiences including what I've learned and what circumstances in my life were like each time I made the decision to move on. I believe success in life is fundamentally tied to three skills: reading, thinking, and communicating. If you focus on developing those skills, you will have a lot of freedom to choose the kind of career and lifestyle you wish to live. Moreso today than ever before, your career and lifestyle may change dramatically more than your parents and grandparents. Whether you remain in engineering or not is partially your choice and partially up to chance, but it is an excellent foundation upon which to build your life and success in engineering or any other field will be based on how well you develop those three skills. In other words, no, I think you'll be free to do a lot more than structural engineering or any discipline engineering in the future. It's really up to you to decide what you want to be.