Welcome to Ask an Engineer where we are going
to talk about jobs, this time. Careers, electrical
engineering jobs and careers, things like
that. And so in this, basically, we have a
bunch of questions that have been compiled,
asking what I think about different things
about jobs. Let's get into this and start
with the first question.
Let's talk cold, hard cash. How much do electrical
engineers make? Excellent question. I don't
know. Next question. Just kidding! No, it
really truly does depend. I mean, electrical
engineers, it depends on what you're doing.
On your experience. It depends on what your
education is, what you're making as a bachelor's
degree versus a PhD, things like that. If
you've been doing it for two years, if you've
been doing it for 20 years, it really, really
depends. Now, these statistics are out there
and they can show you exactly what the average
is. I think, as of now, it's probably in the
upper 60s of thousands. 68K-70K, that might
be straight out of college. I don't know.
When I got straight out of college I made
more than I make currently and that doesn't
mean that I made a lot right then. But it
means that I don't make very much now. And
that was a purposeful career choice. And I
decided I would much rather do fun things
like CircuitBread, rather than make a ton
of money. Eventually, I'd love to make a ton
of money, we'll see what happens! But some
people, they get straight out of college and
they're making 80 to 100 thousand dollars.
I have had job offers for different jobs that
have been over $100,000. But that, that usually
means you're going to be working somewhere
where it's not as pleasant, like California.
Sorry. If you want to live somewhere up here
in Idaho where our cost of living is lower,
you don't need to make as much money to have
a nice life. One thing that I can say is that
as an electrical engineer, you typically make
more money than non-electrical engineers,
you're not going to make as much as a lawyer
or a doctor or something like that. But unless
you do something really dumb, you should at
least have a comfortable life. Moving on.
What are some example responsibilities and
electrical engineer has? Again, this goes
back to where you are in your career. When
you first come in, and you're straight out
of college? They're probably going to say,
"Okay, sit here. Review some stuff and don't
do anything that isn't first approved by somebody
else that looks at it and double checks your
work." And then once you develop some more
skills, and you get better at what you do,
they're going to give you more responsibilities.
And they're going to make it so you can design
this project and do more overarching strategic
planning versus "Hey, let's design this one
RLC circuit and figure out R & L & C so that
we can have the right resonant frequency without
burning too much power." And then it'll later
be, "Hey, we want you to design the power
section of the circuit," or "We want you to
design this entire product," but it really
does depend. And some people, they will go
one route where they are getting more and
more technical, and they're just getting more
just deeper into what they know. And they
lose their ability to take showers and to
communicate with normal human beings but they're
just amazing at what they do. And then other
people, they go more the managerial route
where they'll get decent at what they do,
but they have more social skills more the
ability to plan and make strategies, and they'll
go that direction. And so there are those
two different career paths. And I'm sorry
if I offended anybody by saying that you forget
to take showers if you become more of an electrical
engineer, but we do have a stereotype. Let's
be honest with ourselves. Moving on.
What does a day in the life of an electrical
engineer look like? Wow, these questions and
they're so variable on what you do. Some people,
they probably wake up on a boat somewhere.
And they're bobbing along in the Atlantic
or the Pacific Ocean, and they are getting
out their laptops and they're making sure
that their underwater submersibles are working
properly, and they're getting doused with
salt water and it's cold and they're getting
seasick. Whereas other people, they wake up,
they drive five minutes, they sit in a cubicle
all day and are looking at some sort of CAD
program and they click click, click, answer
email, click... it could be anything. It's
all over the place. I remember before I decided
to become an electrical engineer, I was talking
to my brother, who is a system administrator,
so he's on the computer side of things. And
I basically said, I want to be an electrical
engineer because I don't want to just sit
at a computer all the time, I want to be at
a lab or I want to be moving around and be
out in the real world. And he looked at me
and he said, all of the electrical engineers
I know, they just sit at a computer and type
reports and run simulations and do things
like that. Now, he worked for a large memory
manufacturer, and he being a network system
administrator type person, he probably only
worked with people that he saw that were doing
that sort of stuff. Other people, they're
going to be on their feet all day in the fab
doing, who knows whatever the heck they're
doing. And it goes back to what interests
you. What are you passionate about? Where
do you want to live? That's why people love
Silicon Valley, you go to Silicon Valley down
there and you can do whatever you want. There
are so many different job opportunities over
there. But then it also costs literally 10
times as much to live there as it does here
in Boise in terms of buying a house. So, tradeoffs.
Moving on.
How prepared were you for an electrical engineering
job when you got out of school? This is an
interesting and challenging question. Because
for me, I think I was different than most
people. As soon as I graduated, I went directly
into OCS and became a naval officer is as
a CEC, or Civil Engineer Corps officer. Now,
Civil Engineer Corps. Why would I do that
as an electrical engineer? Well, they take
other people, non-civil engineers, but it
has a lot to do with building infrastructure.
And so my very first job when I did that,
I was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, and I
did facilities management and I did construction
management engineer. I was the project management
engineering branch head for a little while.
And all of that had to do with construction,
facilities management, all of those sorts
of things. And it was a lot of civil and mechanical
work, pouring concrete, working on HVAC systems,
working on dry docks, just all sorts of random
weird things. And frankly, I used almost nothing
of my electrical engineering degree, specifically.
However, a lot of the things I learned in
terms of troubleshooting in terms of math
in terms of thinking critically about problems
that my construction management engineers
had or that the ET's had, and being able to
provide them feedback in something that was
more than just... uhhh... uhh, I don't know.
Do whatever you think is great. Overall, engineering
helped me. But I feel like I'm an exception.
A lot of people when they graduate with their
electrical engineering degree, they're going
to do something that's more specifically electrical
engineering. And even then it's going to depend
because... for example, here at Boise State
University because of Micron, we are very
semiconductors focused in that education.
And while there are other classes available,
there's a lot more on that circui and semiconductor
design side, then there is, let's say, embedded
systems or robotics. And so if your first
job is robotics, and then you've been going
to a school where the majority of your classes
were about microelectronics, You're probably
not going to be as well suited as you would
like to be. So find your passion. Take whatever
your classes that you can that fit that passion
and then go find a job that you're passionate
about. And then you're going to love your
career. Moving on.
As an electrical engineer, what annoying thing
to friends and family asked you to help them
with? I think the biggest thing is - fix my
computer. As an electrical engineer theoretically,
even though I couldn't do it, I could tell
you the theory and the general processes of
how to build a computer better than I can
resolve why Windows is not able to find your
printer. That kind of drives me crazy. And
another thing is an electrical engineer and
an electrician are similar in that they both
deal with electricity. But that's about it.
Electricians are actually surprisingly awesome
in the rules that they know. So whenever I'm
doing electrical work on my house, there are
times I just, I think, Well, I'm not getting
power here. I'm getting power there. What,
what is going on here? This doesn't make sense,
but then working with my father-in-law who
has been doing construction and just has been
in that field for decades, he can come in
and say, Oh, yeah, well, you have to have
two circuits in here, because that's the code.
And so that's why you're getting power there,
but not there. And this is probably... you
should find the problem over there. And things
I would have never thought of, because as
an electrical engineer, I don't know the code.
I don't know why they make the decisions they
make. But at the same time, as an electrician,
they don't know the underlying mechanics and
the physics behind it. So I think those are
the two biggest things that bug me is thinking
that I'm an electrician, and thinking that
I, for some reason, wouldn't know how to fix
a computer better than your random other person.
Okay, next question.
What are some of the most important skills
to have as an electrical engineer? You know,
the first thing you're going to expect me
to say is math. And that's true. Math is hugely
important as an electrical engineer. What
I think I'm going to surprise you with my
second highest thing and that is the ability
to interact with other human beings. You need
to talk to people in your career, whether
that's via email, face to face, meetings,
notes, writing technical documents, communication
is critical in electrical engineering. And
the ability to interact and be able to actually
have an exchange where somebody doesn't think
you're crazy or mean or a jerk or whatever
afterwards is hugely important. Because you
could need resources, and due to the internal
politics of basically any semi-decently large
organization, you may miss out on opportunities
because people just flat out don't like you.
Now, I wish we were all professional enough
that that weren't the case. But there are
some times it's like, I don't want to work
with that person. He's obnoxious. Even if
he is right, he's annoying, and I just don't
want to deal with him. So it is so important
to not overlook the social aspect, the ability
to communicate with other human beings as
an electrical engineer, the math, the ability
to solve circuits and to come up with innovative
ideas. That is all fantastic and also extremely
important. But I think that we frequently
forget how important it is to be able to interact
with others, because we're so focused on those
two things. I hope I caught you by surprise.
And I hope you trust me on this one. I'm serious.
It's important. Moving on.
What should you focus on when creating your
resume? I think you should focus on asking
somebody who is an expert at creating resumes.
That is not my focus. I am not very good at
creating resumes. If I were to go look for
another job, I would probably go find either
a local or an online resource to help me put
together my resume, where these people who've
been doing it, it's been their focus, they're
experts at it. Just as we're going to be experts
at electrical engineering, they're going to
be experts at creating resumes. That would
be my focus is finding somebody who knows
what they're talking about. Moving on.
How do you prepare for an electrical engineering
interview? I think the best way to prepare
for an electrical engineering interview is
to actually learn what you're supposed to
in college. I would love to give you a quick
glib answer of, "Oh, yes, study this one thing
or get a good night's rest." Something like
that. The best way to prepare for an electrical
engineering interview is to do well and to
be passionate about what you want to do. And
if you're going to go in for a job interview
designing digital systems, make sure that
you actually learned digital systems in college.
And if you didn't, then why are you looking
for a job doing that? What was your focus
in college? What did you actually find interesting
and passionate and that you totally learned,
because that's what you should be doing. For
me, I am never going to go out and find a
an antenna design job. I did poorly in that
in school, it was a huge struggle for me.
And I did not like it. And so I'm not going
to go out because the first time they say,
"Hey, so what do you think about this half
dipole antenna?" I would say, "Excuse me,
I'm leaving." And that I would just completely
embarrass myself. So figure out what you like,
get good at what you like, get a job and what
you like.
Okay, we've got too many questions again.
We're going to cut this off right now for
the Ask an Engineer - Job series will come
back in a little bit to finish up the rest
of the questions. If you've liked this video
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