So of all the EE's here...how many of you didn't end up doing work related to EE?

[50]

Hello,

So here's my rant, I am a senior EE at Georgia Tech. I've never really truly enjoyed the stuff I've done in EE. I thought once I got to choosing my specialization I would've found something I truly enjoy. That did not pan out as well as I thought it would. I'm currently working an internship as an EE and find the job very mundane and don't see much potential to climb the corporate ladder. I had my heart set on going into consulting straight out of college only because I've spoken to a few other EE grads from my school and they went straight to consulting.

This weekend, however, I spoke with my uncle who used to work as a senior consultant for IBM (earned well into six figure income). He told me that entry level consulting is a very difficult business to get into and most of the positions are getting outsourced to India. His advice was to start out in EE for 3 years then work towards the management side of it. Does anyone have any comments to the veracity of his statements? I'm really dreading school and want to graduate as soon as possible, but I don't want to end up being in a dead end miserable EE career. Also, anyone who studied EE and didn't do consulting, what other options are there? Thanks

 

[DanTMWTMP]

heh, i don't really have an EE job. I'm more of a back-end coder man + IT dude + science data specialist dude person than EE; although the programming and the engineering background does help immensely with my job. There are 2 other EE's in my entire dept. I guess our dept love their EE's, despite the fact that the job description really has nothing to do with EE (except for the maintenance and design of our data sets, networks, and scientific equipment).

Good luck.
You'll be fine. I'm am absolutely certain you will eventually find a job you'll be satisfied with. Having an EE degree awesome. I have YET to know any of my engineering peers from college out of a job. They all went to a wide variety of fields (lol, i know a few who went into real estate and insurance , some of them went into upper management IT straight out of college, some are programmers...etc).

 

[jtvang125]

A friend of mine is selling car insurance after he got his EE. Heard he's making good money though.

 

[polarmystery]

I was in the same boat. I don't really enjoy EE but I do have a B.S. in EE. Currently I'm a logistics systems engineer working for the DoD, but my job requirements and skills are mediocre compared to what you learned in school. Most people that I've met in the EE field are either really good at it and do circuit type work (board layout, design, etc) or some other kind of engineering that requires EE knowledge. My previous job I designed 3-phase power systems inside of switchboards and that was actual engineering as I was designing something, but now I just play in excel all day. And yes, most of the EE's I've met usually end up going the management route.

 

[bignateyk]

I did my undergrad in EE. Started grad school and realized i hated most of it.

I have been working full time for 3 years doing defense contracting at a small company, so I get to be involved with lots of stuff instead of mundane things. I am realizing that I want to get into the "systems" aspect of engineering more than the technical side of EE. And I want to move into management.

I am going to get a masters in systems engineering, and a certification in project management. That should be what I need to really make a big jump career-wise.

 

[polarmystery]

Originally posted by: bignateyk
I did my undergrad in EE. Started grad school and realized i hated most of it.

I have been working full time for 3 years doing defense contracting at a small company, so I get to be involved with lots of stuff instead of mundane things. I am realizing that I want to get into the "systems" aspect of engineering more than the technical side of EE. And I want to move into management.

I am going to get a masters in systems engineering, and a certification in project management. That should be what I need to really make a big jump career-wise.

I'm pretty much on the same boat but I don't want to do management. I start my systems-engineering masters in 2010 hopefully.

 

[RKS]

1. Finish your EE undergrad
2. Go to law school
3. Take Patent Bar
4. Six-Figure income right out of school in IP law
5. Stay single
6. Profit? See step 4.

 

[jteef]

sounds like you need some vision. saying you want to "do consulting" doesn't mean anything.

I graduated from GT with an EE in 2001. I don't do anything related to my specialty and the only reason i've needed so much as a calculator in my 6 yrs of work so far was to build a 6 person boat made of cardboard to race for an extra curricular activity. that hasn't been my choice, but rather my employer wasting potential. However, they pay me well enough and I'm on the verge of increasing that by an order of magnitude based on what I've learned. of my 5 closest friends in the EE dept, one is now a venture capitalist, one is a urologist, one is a project manager at a defense contractor, one is a molecular biologist, and one is a project manager at a semiconductor mfgr.

assuming you don't have a history of mental illness, consider working for a defense contractor. Basically they can't hire foreign nationals for a lot of the work they do, so you're unlikely to get outsourced, although your job stability lies somewhat with the whims of Congress and some idiots in the General Schedule system of the federal government.

If you're in good standing with your company, consider applying for one of their leadership programs. They are incredibly valuable for the kind of experience you'll get early in your career and marketability should you ever part ways. What RKS says is also true. I know several patent lawyers who make great money. I consider quitting my job and going to school to do just that quite often, primarily to better know how to leverage the law for my own business rather than dispute intellectual properties for other people, but it is a really good fail-safe. downside is law degree = 150k & 3 more years of not making great money, not to mention convincing myself that spending the rest of my life interpreting the tedious nonsense other lawyers and politicians write will not lead to suicide.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: RKS
1. Finish your EE undergrad
2. Go to law school
3. Take Patent Bar
4. Six-Figure income right out of school in IP law
5. Stay single
6. Profit? See step 4.

Shouldn't step two read "go to top-10 law school (and amass $100k+ of debt)" to make the other steps more accurate?

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: RKS
1. Finish your EE undergrad
2. Go to law school
3. Take Patent Bar
4. Six-Figure income right out of school in IP law
5. Stay single
6. Profit? See step 4.

Shouldn't step two read "go to top-10 law school (and amass $100k+ of debt)" to make the other steps more accurate?

debt yes, but you don't "need" a Top-10 for IP law. I know a couple chem. and mech. engineers that worked for P&G while completing their JD in the evening (not at a top-ten). They doubled their pay once they passed the bar.

 

[Gibson486]

I ended up in consulting right out of school and I am an EE.

1. It sucks being a consultant out of school.
2. If you do chose that path, do not go for the big companies (CDM...c2HM...Accenture...IBM). After all, you wanted to move up, right? It will take you half the time to do it in a smaller company.
3. Pay sucks with the "enviromental engineering" ones. It will suck in any of them for entry level.
4. The consulting work method of "how many hours do I have?" gets REALLY OLD REALLY FAST.

You must also realize that consultant can means different things in different industries. Either way, a senior consultant will make six figures in any of them....