I'm kind of surprised anyone would actively pursue a degree in physics without the ultimate goal of staying in academia. Outside of universities and national labs, there is very little demand for physics majors. And in order to be competitive in either of those arenas, you pretty much need to go all the way to the PhD + 1 or 2 post-docs. I know there are other places for physics majors to find employment, but I'd be hard pressed to find any of them.
My engineering course work, on the other hand, is something I've had to fall back on multiple times during my work experience. I have my design work with seals, pressure containment, and material selection that I deal with on a routine basis. And yes, most of it was stuff that is so specific to my particular job that I had to learn the tools of the trade after I started working, but not everything. I have also regularly run into problems outside my normal routine, so I've had to dig through my old notes and texts to find where I'd messed with that kind of scenario before.