Electronics > Beginners
Uni Degree for someone interested in Arduino, programming, and electronics?
skillz21:
I will be going to university in a few years and wanted to have a think about exactly what I want to do. I know I want something like Electrical Engineering, but I just want to make sure I pick the right one.
My interests are Arduino programming, and tinkering with other electronic boards and components in general. I think I should be picking Electronics engineering, but I was told that there weren't really many job opportunities for Electronics Engineering in Australia (is this true?).
Barring Electronics Engineering, how much of Arduino and stuff will I generally be getting if I were to pick an Electrical Engineering course at uni? Would this be a good choice? I know of subjects like Computer Science, but don't know too much about the content of these courses.
Any suggestions/more info would be appreciated.
capt bullshot:
If you're interested in that stuff, that's a good sign.
Speaking from my experience (which is from 30 years ago):
Courses etc. will be hard for many tinkerers. Most of it was math, physics and electrical theory for the first two years. Beeing interested and having a good understanding of nature's laws of physics really helps here, since basic electric/electronic engineering is applied physics in a special range of interest.
Beeing able to think systematic and logically, and break down a problem into smaller ones while still having an eye on the whole thing helps with (applied) computer science, though there's a lot of very abstract stuff and strange math in computer science.
For some courses you just have to learn and excercise hard, others may be easy to pass for you, while for others it might be the other way round.
What you learn in the end, is not beeing better in arduino and tinkering stuff, but how to cope systematically and effective with all kinds of (technical or scientific or whatever) issues that you'll encounter in your life as an EE.
Of course, this helps with arduino and tinkering.
This is my condensed experience for aquiring my diploma (comparable to todays master degree) back then. I've heard from a friend (who aquired the todays comparable bachelor degree back then at some other uni) his classes were more practice oriented but very hard work.
Todays system is different in some ways, there's more commercial and less scientific influence into the class contents, so you might learn more specialized and less general applicable stuff.
For today, I'm rather disappointed from my career as EE, basically companies get larger and jobs more and more specialized and it's really hard to get access to challenging projects once you're somewhat longer term established in a job and don't want to change your employer for whatever reason. Most of the job is boring routine work now.
skillz21:
--- Quote from: capt bullshot on October 24, 2019, 10:54:10 am ---For today, I'm rather disappointed from my career as EE, basically companies get larger and jobs more and more specialized and it's really hard to get access to challenging projects once you're somewhat longer term established in a job and don't want to change your employer for whatever reason. Most of the job is boring routine work now.
--- End quote ---
When you say EE, do you mean Electrical or Electronics Engineering?
capt bullshot:
That's a language thing.
In German, everything uni related electronics is (or was back then) called electric, so by literal translation I'm an Electrical Engineer. But beeing an Electrical Engineer most often means your job is about developing hardware, but not limited to that. Someone who plans electric distribution networks or large building installations (electrical kind of) would be also called Electrical Engineer here.
There's a bit more of differentiation in the degree titles today, but the most universal (and highestly regarded) title would still be Electrical Engineer. Doktor Ing. (PhD of Engineering I believe) would still be higher, but is uncommon. Doesn't really matter once you're established in a job, but with the "better" title you could get more payment and more streamlined access to manager jobs if you like that.
Most of the industries would prefer the lesser title for a new hire, since they're cheaper, and often they just want mindless work drones beeing a small cog wheel in a large gearset - of course they won't tell you that when they hire you.
But as I said, most EEs here are working on system design, electronics, software, sometimes manager, so do I (working on electronics hardware in my job).
Don't know how this nomenclature is handled in your country, here the Electronical Engineer would be the more specialized and less regarded (maybe not even an uni degree) variant of Electrical Engineer (which is always an uni degree).
So, if you're wlling to learn hard theory and want to achieve a quite universal starting point into your career, I'd recommend the equivalent to our rather universal E(lectric) Engineer (Master) degree, this gives you a wider range of general fields to work, maybe somewhat better payment at your first employment
Otherwise the more specialized and less theoretical but also less general Electronics Engineer might give you easier access to more specialized jobs.
I've been an avid tinkerer before and while uni, and still am, and looking back, the more general Electric Engineer was the better choice for me as I think a more general education helps a lot to specialize later on, the other way (if your education is specialized from the beginning on) is harder. This is for sure not a general truth applicable to everyone interested in electronics.
capt bullshot:
Another hint:
Read your daily dilbert comic. This is a quite near-to-reality ironic picture of the engineers life in a company ranging from mid-size to large and huge.
As always in life, there are exceptions, but hard to find.
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