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After graduation when is it too late to change career direction as an EE

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matrixofdynamism:
After graduation when is it too late to change career direction as an electronic engineer?

After graduation there are a multitude of paths that a person can take, digital, analogue design, embedded systems, communications, applications, or even non-engineering or non-electronics related career path.

Assuming that a person starts within electronics when does it become too late to make a career transition to another electronics related field? e.g a person starts with FPGAs writing HDL and testbenches but than decides to move into Embedded Systems in a new separate job writing C language or software related to RTOS and DSP which can also be categorized as two other different type of fields that people can specialize in? Or maybe a person just wants to become purely software in a new job since he/she has skills in C or maybe even C++ and decides this is for them, or maybe even wants to move in analogue. You get the idea.

If a person starts in one direction but than is firmly convinced of making a transition, when is it too late? What should a person do under such circumstances, when is it too late? Employers usually want "fresh graduates", but what if a person has been in the field for 2, 3 or even 4 years already with a degree? The idea is that things can happen in lives of people that may make them make a certain choice at a given time which is not ideal in their perception but they must do so, which they may feel wanting to change later when things are better. Or sometimes people may end up making the wrong choice to begin with (assuming it has happened only once). What should such a person do?

>>> In summary, if a person graduated 2-4 years ago and now wants to move into a different type of job within electronic engineering at the same place as a new graduate would, what should does one need to do and what hurdles exist in such circumstances?

AndyC_772:
Graduates with a few years' experience are quite sought-after, so don't worry about that.

Just bear in mind that you'll need to either have experience in the field you're aiming to enter, or to apply for jobs which don't require any. The latter will be junior positions, so expect to take a step back down the career ladder - but it'll be worth it in the long run.

IanB:
Firstly, it's never too late to change. Two important rules are:

1. Learn everything.  Digital, analogue design, embedded systems, communications, applications, ...  Why narrow it down? Be like a sponge, learn everything you can about everything and anything that may be relevant to your job. Seek out training courses, in-house and external. Apply to go on them. Read books. Hit Google. Study in your own time. It's called Continuing Professional Development. The more you know, the more useful you are.

2. Take small steps. In one job move, you can't leap from one specialist field to another just like that. You need to be looking out for ways to adjust your role or your job moves so you get a little more of what you want to do and a little bit less of what doesn't interest you in every move.

Always keep in mind that you are not "a digital systems designer" or "an analog systems designer" or "an embedded systems designer". You are an Electrical Engineer. Don't get pigeonholed by others. Don't limit yourself.

matrixofdynamism:
All this is well and good, but won't the potential employer wonder like, hmm why do you want to make this transition, why did you not do this early? How does one deal with that?

Besides this, is it wise to do some courses before we apply job that will give us some more advanced skills e.g learn RTOS and Linux before we go for embedded systems job or learn more about PCIe, STA, other MGBT and their protocols e.t.c before we apply for ASIC or FPGA position? I mean we know what we really want to do, I think it will benefit if we learn some of it before hand. Besides, universities do not teach some things.

Bored@Work:
What kind of answer do you seek? Something like "It is too late 5.134 years after graduation"? Sorry, won't happen.

The process is not predictable, not the least because it partly involves luck. Luck to be at the right time and place with the right skills, when the right demand comes up, meeting the right HR person, happening to have the right buzzwords in your CV.

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