Electrical Engineers

[Gerbil333]

I'm a couple weeks into my second year at the best engineering university in Missouri (UMR). My story is long and drawn out, so to get to the point: I'm thinking about changing majors, drastically. Academically, I'm doing fine. I just don't think I want to be an electrical engineer. I've already given it a lot of thought, especially over the past summer; I went back to give the degree one last chance.

Before I make a huge change, I'd like to hear what it's really like from you guys. I've read, I've heard from professors, and I'm doing basic EE courses now...but what's it really like?

 

[Special K]

I would imagine it would vary quite a bit from one profession to the next. EE is a broad field. I'm currently an EE grad student.

 

[misle]

I'm an EE. I graduated from University of Missouri - Columbia last December. I work as a Design / Distrubuition Engineer for a Power company in the Kansas City area. Getting an EE degree is much more difficult than working as an EE.

My typical work week is 40 hours (I will be on call one week every two months once I'm up to speed). I use a couple programs designed just for this job. One is a management app and one is a design app. I receive a phone call from a customer, say a contractor wanting to build a sub-division. He gives me plans, I drive out and take a look at the area (usually meeting the customer and discussing what he needs/wants and what we require). I design the power system for that area in the design app, then send it to the management software for estimation of cost. Bill the customer, line crew does the work, all done.

Of course, this is very specific to my job. Every job will be very different. I work as a "field" engineer, which means that I can get up and leave the office pretty much anytime I want. It's very nice to not be stuck in an office 40 hours a week.

What areas are you interested in? Power / Telecom / Semiconductors / Construction (there are a lot of large construction companies that hire EE's as Project Engineers) / DSP / etc.
The job market is WIDE open for EE"s. Power isn't the most innovative area, but it is stable, reliable, and every city in the country has a power company.

Good luck.

 

[flyboy84]

I graduated in June from Union College with an EE degree. Like Special K said, what you do will vary greatly upon where you work.

I am doing systems engineering on the Navy MH-60R/S helicopter for Lockheed Martin. In particular, I am working on the navigation subsystem, so I am learning alot on the job about how GPS and inertial navigation systems work.

I started my job a month and a half ago, and I'd say my job break down consists as the following: 70% office work, 20% lab work, and 10% actually out on the helipad doing ground tests on the helos.

The office work pretty much consists of reading/reviewing/editing/creating documents for test procedures or tracking down and correcting problems with the system/software. Meetings, etc. also apply. I was also recently assigned a research project. There is an emerging standard for zero-visibility approach and landing that will need to be applied to military aircraft, and I've been tasked with researching what would need to be modified on our helo to comply with the standard. I'll need to write a paper and do a presentation for senior engineering, etc.

The lab work is like being in a giant flight sim for the helo: I have the entire cockpit simulated in front of me, and I have to follow procedures to make sure the cockpit functions the way it should (with respect to navigation). The ground testing is awsome. I get to go out with a ground crew and take measurements on various things on the helo, like carrier-to-noise ratio of the incoming GPS signal.

You said that you are only in the beginning of your second year. If your degree program is anything like mine, you are only just now starting EE, as the first year for me was all math/physics/general engineering. I'd say give it another term or two and if you still don't like it, drop it. EE isn't for everyone, but it's a great degree, and there's a lot you can get into.

 

[CountZero]

I am in grad school for EE now and has been stated what your work is like will vary greatly job to job.

When I graduated undergrad I worked in embedded systems. So I worked at a small company (I was the 20th employee ever) and I did alot of different stuff. Wrote C and assembly code, dealt with the build system, debugged hardware issues. A typical day was a morning meeting to catch up with what everyond was working on, get back to your desk and code. Occasionally I would have to meet up with another engineer or call outside the company for assistance. Once in a great great while (like maybe 2-3 times in the 1.5 years I worked there) I'd find myself with an oscilloscope or logic analyzer trying to figure out what isn't working and why.

I have since gone back to school and spent the summer working in a very big company (I believe one of the ten biggest) working on ASICs. I can tell you in general what the job seems like. Alot of documentation for everyone, anything you do or find out or any problem you solve they want you to document so there isn't wasted effort solving the problem again. Since it is customer driven there is a great deal of attention and time paid to working with the customer ensuring specs are being met and helping them choose the proper course of action. Most people have a couple things they are good at and serve as references for when these issues come up (noise, high speed, etc). It is entirely software based at the level I'm at, you work with HSpice, Synopsys and Cadence tools doing cad work and simulation. You might spend a few days solving a problem for one chip or solving several small problems on several chips. You might spend a day or two writing documentation for a chip that was just finished. In any case there is little to no lab work to speak of (sometimes people do deal with testing the physical chip if there is an issue) and alot of working with software and simulation.

Hope that helps.

 

[Omegachi]

i am an EE grad, but i am doing nuclear engineering stuff. it really depends on where you get hired and what you do. i love what i do, i don't think i would want to do anything else.