Electronics > Beginners
Electrical Engineering vs Electronics Engineering vs Computer Engineering
0culus:
In defense of CS (I have degrees in CS and mathematics), a LOT of undergrad CS programs just plain suck. Fortunately, my school has one of the better CS programs out there. Freshmen coming in are required to take a 101 level course where they start early with basics that everyone should know. like converting integer bases. They work through the excellent "From NAND to Tetris" as well. The very next classes are very rigorous but well designed courses in C, basic data structures and algorithms, computer system organization, and basic system programming. Students who survive that sequence are generally very well prepared not only for demanding upper division courses but also real world programming. The best part is, there's a very good support structure for those classes with lots of more experienced undergrad TAs who grade homework and provide office hours during the week and on weekends.
However, a lot of CS programs don't provide anything like that. And it shows in the abilities of the students they produce. :palm: Many I've met can recite the best big-O algorithm and all the CS theory you want, but at the end of the day, they can't program their way out of a wet paper bag.
EEVblog:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on April 05, 2019, 05:41:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: Brumby on April 05, 2019, 12:52:40 am ---A degree is only one part of that and it is not impossible that 5 or 10 years down the track, you could be working in an area for which your degree holds little relevance.
--- End quote ---
Very true. Two of the most senior people in a software company we did business with years ago had degrees in Biology and Astronomy. I asked the Astronomy guy WTF, and he replied "I love astronomy but I found out there aren't that many paying jobs in the field." Hence the danger for folks who "follow their bliss" or whatever and get doctorates in topics for which there is near-zero demand. They end up with massive student debt and mostly saying phrases like "Would you like fries with that?"
--- End quote ---
Phil who you've seen on the blog a bit has a PhD is laser physics. Apparently that was a hot thing at the time but turns out there are no jobs in the field, not here anyway. At one point he ended up selling TV's at David Jones (that's a retail store here, seriously). Realised the only options were go back and teach or research at a uni, or spend several more years on top of his already very long PhD to become a Patent attorney. Albeit one that specialises in optics and other stuff for which his PhD has been useful. Now earns very good money in a fairly stable market segment, but the job is a chore (imagine charging and accounting for every 6 minutes of your time every day).
EEVblog:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on April 05, 2019, 05:41:54 pm ---EDIT: I'll risk offending a few people and add that I haven't been overly impressed with folks who have only Computer Science (CS) degrees. I fired one such person years ago when it became evident they didn't understand binary, hex, ASCII, and how to relate one to another. I mean SERIOUSLY. :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: Yet this person had a great sounding resume and had passed through interviews with multiple senior Engineers to get the job. I paid a lot more personal attention to hiring decisions after that.
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I interviewed someone who's resume said they were a microcontroller expert, top uni etc, but couldn't name two brands of microcontrollers :palm:
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: EEVblog on April 06, 2019, 01:38:30 am ---
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on April 05, 2019, 05:41:54 pm ---EDIT: I'll risk offending a few people and add that I haven't been overly impressed with folks who have only Computer Science (CS) degrees. I fired one such person years ago when it became evident they didn't understand binary, hex, ASCII, and how to relate one to another. I mean SERIOUSLY. :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: Yet this person had a great sounding resume and had passed through interviews with multiple senior Engineers to get the job. I paid a lot more personal attention to hiring decisions after that.
--- End quote ---
I interviewed someone who's resume said they were a microcontroller expert, top uni etc, but couldn't name two brands of microcontrollers :palm:
--- End quote ---
Well, yes. There are bovine excrement artistes everywhere. We've all interviewed people where we had to lead them to some answers to basic questions.
But that doesn't say anything useful about one type of course over another. It does indicate something about the specific candidate and, if you see sufficient people from the same course then it may indicate something about that course.
I remember having a vacation student working for me. He had left the same course I had done a few years earlier, and gone to another university and a course with more or less the same syllabus. He was dreadful, and his eventually getting a degree from the second university lead me to distrust that institution thereafter. Over the years afterwards it became clear that distrust was shared with many people.
Overall, for the kind of position's I've needed to fill, I had decent success by choosing candidates that:
* had a reasonable degree from a course/institution where they would have had to learn the theory
* been able to demonstrate personal projects where they had put that theory into practice and learned from their mistakes
Theory without practice is mental masturbation; practice without theory is blind fumbling. We need both.
IDEngineer:
--- Quote from: EEVblog on April 06, 2019, 01:36:52 am ---...become a Patent attorney. Now earns very good money in a fairly stable market segment
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Interesting. I do a LOT of side work on patents and have developed a pretty good skill set at it. I also charge a lot less per hour than Patent Attorneys! 8)
My son, who is headed to university this fall for EE, is seriously considering getting his law degree afterwards specifically to go into Patent practice. You're absolutely correct, having a technical degree/background makes you very powerful in the Patent world.
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