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PasswordisP4ssword t1_j5zg6t8 wrote

Believe it or not, there's a shortage of electrical engineers. Lots of people who can program, not enough know how to actually build and test circuits. With the increased demand for electrification and the infrastructure investments needed to bring that about, EEs will be in high demand.

There's also a growing demand for civil engineers.

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ReapersOfTheShallow8 t1_j610bxg wrote

I came here to say this. But electrical engineering is more than just circuitry. Cryptography and signal processing are fairly large sub fields as well.

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Fist_of_Stalin t1_j62d0u9 wrote

Can one get an internship to start learning?

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ReapersOfTheShallow8 t1_j62fe96 wrote

Your question is somewhat unclear. If you mean get an internship and not be in college, then go on to work as engineer, ive never heard of that. I know in the US pretty much every employer requires at least a bachelor's, usually in engineering, but sometimes math and physics and maybe CS are okay. You need to know vector calculus and differential equations at a minimum, and if you do cryptography, at least asymmetric-key cryptography, you need to have a good foundation in group theory. You also need probability theory for cryptography in general, if not for developing encryption schemes, then for proof of different notions of security.

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Fist_of_Stalin t1_j63wcil wrote

Thanks for getting to my post, my question was about EE.

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ReapersOfTheShallow8 t1_j64j7qh wrote

The baseline is a usually bachelor's degree, depending on what you want to do requirements may vary slightly. You can get an internship without a degree but usually you need to at least be a currently enrolled sophomore in college. I forgot to mention, though, it is possible to get into the field as an engineering technician but even that requires a 2-year degree still. Thats a much more hands-on position usually, so if you want to do engineering and work with yojr hands thats probably the best route.

Someone mentioned a high-school internship. Ive never really heard of that, but i cant imagine what that would entail exactly as most (almost all?) high-school students lack any sort of training in the necessary software to be successful in engineering.

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Ralphinader t1_j65enya wrote

You cannot officially approve engineered systems in the united states without a professional license. Many industries will reserve the title of engineer for only PEs

Requirements vary by state but generally include:

An education component. a 4 year degree in accredited engineering program.

Then pass two competency exams which are very difficult

then acquire 4 years of work experience.

Apply for PE license.

Continued education after receiving the license to keep it current.

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StrumGently t1_j65rana wrote

That’s not true. You don’t need a license. Source: I’m a PhD in mechanical engineering.

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ReapersOfTheShallow8 t1_j664w0g wrote

Thats not true. My Dad approves stuff and has worked as an engineer and his degree is in Physics. He's a pretty high up guy at Nasa now. I also have interned as civil engineer and my bachelors is Math.

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Chroderos t1_j62lj2w wrote

At my company, anyway, there are high school interns, so it definitely exists.

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porcelainvacation t1_j61ny3n wrote

Right. I’m an IC design engineering manager, I’m having trouble finding qualified people. Lots of people are retiring and the demand keeps increasing.

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doctorcalavera t1_j61rgv7 wrote

Where could one find training for this? Would be interested in learning more about the trade coming from an IT/ecommerce field.

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porcelainvacation t1_j61ye6k wrote

Go to graduate school in electronics engineering. I went into management after 20 year’s experience as an individual contributor

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00raiser01 t1_j62kk3m wrote

The fact that you need graduate school now due to credential inflation to get into IC design is really big road block. The tuition cost and time in school are high.

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porcelainvacation t1_j62lnrp wrote

Right now I’ll hire someone with a bachelor’s and pay their grad school tuition if they do well at an internship. A good IC designer takes a couple of years to grow no matter what degree or school they come from. I don’t want a simulation jockey, I need people who know the how’s and why’s of both the semiconductor devices and the end applications. I’m not going to spend $1M+ and 9 months of team time on a tapeout because someone didn’t question a result that looked to good to be true and didn’t know any better than to trust a buggy PDK. Semiconductor design is all about combining statistics, physics, communication theory, circuit design, system design, and pedantry. You practically have to be a lawyer to interpret a SiGe design guide.

Analog design as taught in undergraduate school is extremely incomplete. Most of it is aimed at embedded design or gluing together a series of opamps and making filters. Commercial discrete parts are really good nowadays, so most board level design doesn’t have to worry much about linearity, distortion, phase margin, transistor ft, resistor mismatch, or time delay. PCB design generally uses a few components with really good tolerances to build a circuit function. IC design uses a large quantity of crappy devices to build a stable circuit function. It’s an extra layer of methodology that isn’t there in undergrad, and it’s hard to learn on the job because the stakes are too high.

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00raiser01 t1_j62o9ky wrote

So it looks like to get into ic design, you need to be lucky to get an internship as a bachelor's to get a ic design job or get a master/PhD for it.

Really there aren't any good other options to get the resources and knowledge to get into that field without breaking your wallet somehow.

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00raiser01 t1_j62ja7q wrote

Pays is shit compared to software, and all EE know programming so they make the change for better pay.

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Maysign t1_j630h7p wrote

When people ask about demand for job titles, they actually mean both quantities needed and earning potential.

Are electrical engineers or civil engineers earning $200,000+ five years into their careers?

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PasswordisP4ssword t1_j64njqm wrote

OP asked about job security, not salary. I wouldn't recommend going to college to pursue a salary.

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Maysign t1_j659wp1 wrote

Point me to where exactly he asked about security in his original message.

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PasswordisP4ssword t1_j65cced wrote

> with the advancements in artificial intelligence, it may not be as necessary in the future.

Usually when things are not necessary, they are reduced or eliminated.

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ovirt001 t1_j6fn3hb wrote

Trouble is that EE is one of the hardest engineering degrees and pay isn't great compared to other fields. Hopefully the latter will change as time goes on.

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hickaustin t1_j621gml wrote

Civil engineers all the way. As long as you’re not in land development and have a good work ethic, you have really good job security.

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Mike2220 t1_j62r8rz wrote

Computer Engineering has a lot of overlap with electrical

Goes heavy into the circuit stuff as well as coding

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Fun_Introduction5384 t1_j664syb wrote

If you become a civil engineer please read or listen to the book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer.

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msm0167 t1_j6bm35p wrote

But the money is crap outside of software engineering... Can't make enough margin if the work being done doesn't scale. Even building a chip requires multiple contacts and factors all over the world to line up but with software the costs to deploy for additional users is marginal and potential revenues compared to initial investments are like nothing I could have imagined in electrical engineering.

I'm an electrical engineer that slowly moved into exclusively software roles, though the signal processing background has helped in multiple roles as well.

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