Engineering in a university enviroment...

[Gibson486]

How different is it from industry? I got a 2nd interview for a position at a university to Electrical Engineering "research scientist". I love the idea of working for a university and doing research, but I just worry that in terms what industry wants, I may not marketable when I decide to move on because college research is more for figuring out stuff as opposed to making a product. Any one have any thoughts?

 

[bignateyk]

How different is it from industry? I got a 2nd interview for a position at a university to Electrical Engineering "research scientist". I love the idea of working for a university and doing research, but I just worry that in terms what industry wants, I may not marketable when I decide to move on because college research is more for figuring out stuff as opposed to making a product. Any one have any thoughts?

I'm a research engineer (Electrical Engineer) working for a University, but I do mostly defense contracting type work. You can't beat university benefits though. We get 7 weeks vacation among other great benefits.

You'll probably find the pace of work much slower than industry. I wouldn't worry about being marketable. "Researching stuff" usually means making a prototype, which is similar to making a product. Just less to worry about. At least it does where I work.

 

[IronWing]

Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*.

From what I've seen, university research positions are what you make of them. I've seen go getter types move seamlessly between university and industry positions as these folks always stayed engaged and on top of their fields. I've also seen slackers who slowly became part of the furniture. One thing about universities though is that there is fanatical attention to credentials. An otherwise excellent research scientist w/o a PhD or or PE would be treated somewhat like a well behaved golden retriever.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

How different is it from industry? I got a 2nd interview for a position at a university to Electrical Engineering "research scientist". I love the idea of working for a university and doing research, but I just worry that in terms what industry wants, I may not marketable when I decide to move on because college research is more for figuring out stuff as opposed to making a product. Any one have any thoughts?

It may not be quite the same thing, but I was a EE research associate in grad school over 15 years ago. It really depends on the responsibilities assigned to you. I was primarily responsible for hardware design; at the time, we were an audio lab doing research with head-related transfer functions and digital equalization, so I'd design and build the DSP-based test equipment we'd use. I'd think that kind of experience would translate directly to industry.

 

[bignateyk]

..

Pretty much this. There are not nearly as many expectations working at a university in terms of productivity/results.

 

[Gibson486]

I'm a research engineer (Electrical Engineer) working for a University, but I do mostly defense contracting type work. You can't beat university benefits though. We get 7 weeks vacation among other great benefits.

You'll probably find the pace of work much slower than industry.

Well, to be clear...yeah, I really want this job, but i also have another 2nd interview with a company in industry (that one does defense stuff). I like that is is slower because I am the type of person who hates doing stuff without understanding. And yeah, my fiancee works for an ivy league and the amount of time off she gets is astounding.

 

[bignateyk]

Another good benefit is the resources. We have millions of dollars worth of bench equipment (scopes, spectrum analysers, signal generators, vector signal analysers, simulators, etc...).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Yeah, in retrospect, I think I should've stayed working in a university environment. What I am in now is close, but still not the same and obviously, it is a bit different since I changed careers and moved into IT.

 

[Gibson486]

Yeah, in retrospect, I think I should've stayed working in a university environment. What I am in now is close, but still not the same and obviously, it is a bit different since I changed careers and moved into IT.

LOL...at my previous job, i sat next to the IT person. I never want to be in IT.

 

[bignateyk]

What university is it?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

LOL...at my previous job, i sat next to the IT person. I never want to be in IT.

Depends what you do in IT and who you work for. I've never worked and never would work help desk, for example, but other jobs aren't so bad especially if you work for a non-profit. IT jobs also seem to be more plentiful in most places.

 

[Gibson486]

What university is it?

It's for a college in Boston. Call me superstitious, but i do not want to jinx it. if I get it (or get my rejection), then i will spill the beans on who it is...

 

[IronWing]

It's for a college in Boston. Call me superstitious, but i do not want to jinx it. if I get it (or get my rejection), then i will spill the beans on who it is...

Okay. We respect your privacy.







Do the deans where black robes?

 

[bignateyk]

It's for a college in Boston. Call me superstitious, but i do not want to jinx it. if I get it (or get my rejection), then i will spill the beans on who it is...

Well if it's for MIT you can probably forget everything I said about low expectations

 

[Triumph]

The biggest discrepancy between working in industry and working at school, that I've always heard from numerous people, is, "I hardly ever use what I learned in school." I don't really know what an engineering research scientist is, but in industry, it seems that you are either managing projects, or you are using one specific set of knowledge that you learned in school. As an ME, I seem to deal more with materials than anything else that I learned. Maybe it's because all of the stress/strain stuff has become innate, but choosing materials for a design, and deciding how something is going to be made, is used much, much more than calculating the stress in member A. I don't know much about EE but I'd imagine experience is somewhat similar.

I didn't know universities hired engineers that weren't professors or teachers. Sounds like a good gig.