I see engineers in finance and economics not be very successful all the time.

Engineers are very linear and logical, because engineering has rules and equations that are rigid, and don't/can't change.
FInance and economics are human behaviors and human concepts, not bounded by rules and equations, but estimate by historical observations which have very wide standards of deviation as compared to engineering, and large outliers occur, though infrequently

It's the exception for an engineer who can transition from the fixed physical systems to the human system of the behavior of handling money. . the human system is very non linea, very counter intuitive, and has lots of outliers and failures. .

My experience is the exact opposite. I worked with engineers my entire career and most were excellent investors because they were smart enough to do the required analysis yet able to remain unemotional during market crashes. Most engineers I worked with retired in their mid 50s with ample retirement savings. That’s partially because they were well paid, but mostly because they managed their investments well.

I worked with lots of actuaries. They sure could pass complicated exams and crunch numbers with the best of them. On the other hand, they tended to wear loafers because they couldn’t figure out how to tie the shoelaces on traditional shoes.