automotive engineer! try to get a job in motorsports way more fun than working on Joe's car , but you gonna have to go out of Quebec
If you are doing your DEC, might as well get something out of it. Go to university, in Quebec, they have ETS, Polytechnique, Mcgill, Concordia.... get a degree in engineering. If you want try to get into a university in the US or in Europe where they have a automotive engineering program and from there try to get a intership with a motorsports team.... you will work on race cars instead of changing oil on a grampa's car. That's how most of the F1 engineers starts...and you'll make way more money i mean wayyyyyyy more!
Getting a job in racing is VERY hard because you need the degree AND the experience.For factory-based roles, like composites engineer, desgin engineer, etc. you can get in more easily with experience from other industries such as space / aerospace / general automotive.
Generally speaking, trackside jobs require a degree as well as experience in lower series, the experience from lower series will only really help you know what's going on and the basic principle behind running the car, you can't just jump in and become a race-engineer.
That's what I do, I work in professionnal racing as a race-engineer. I'm in charge of suspension, aero, gearing, tire strategies, fuel strategies for a GT car. It's hard work, the hours are very long: 14+ hours at the track on weekends and 50+ hour work week, but then again when I'm at the track everything is paid for by my employer and I get to travel the world's best race tracks. This year I'll be engineering a car at the 24 Heures du Mans (amongst other cool racetracks).
As for the pay you're completely wrong, F1 pays very little. An experienced design engineer (factory based job) in F1 is around 35-40000£ (British pounds) which is equivalent to 35-40000$ in Canada since the costs of living are so high in England. The high paying jobs in F1 are the trackside engineers which are often indispensible to the team.
My past room mate (I live in England) works as a race engineer for a leading F1 team here in the UK, he gets around 80 000£/year + race bonuses. He recently moved in with his girlfriend but still rarely sees her since he's at tests and races 250+ days a year, so you have to factor that in as well. To give you an idea, I rented a 4 room house with 2 other engineers that work travelling roles in professionnal racing (2 in F1 + me in GT/ Endurance) and sometimes I'd not see them for 3-4 weeks because our schedules didn't match.
NASCAR pays a lot of money for good engineers, much more on par with industry standards. I recently got an offer for a NASCAR team based in North Carolina, they pay around 55 000$ + race bonuses for an engineer with 1-2 years experience in professionnal racing.
NASCAR mechanics get around 45 000$ + race bonuses, they work long hours but work on clean, well maintained race cars with no corners cut when it comes to maintenance...
The experience gained in racing is invaluable, if you can get into racing for a few years as a mechanic, I'm 100% sure you can get a job at an exotic car dealership with that experience, racing will teach you principles and attention to detail that they don't show you in general mechanic's school and THAT's what differentiates race mechanics from other mechanics.
Ouvre toi un garage spécialisé en voitures électriques. Les voitures à essence vont être dépassées.
C'est une bonne façon de te différencier selon moi, avec une technique en génie électrique tu pourrais avoir un avantage sur ce qui est montré dans les DEP.