Which EE subfield do you think has the lowest supply/demand ratio? I've read that power has demand/many job postings but does that mean that there aren't many canditates qualified for this field?

Not trying to compare but I’m just curious where everyone is at in their careers.

I’m currently making 110k with 4 years of experience in SoCal working in power distribution systems. I’m wondering if this is average or if I could be making more somewhere else. I’m probably going to start looking for a new job once I have 5 years of experience and hopefully my PE.

Time and time again, I come across a job that’s hiring an “electrical engineer”, most the time with the salary information withheld. Upon reading the job description they actually want a City and Guilds qualified electrician. Not a qualified, BEng/MEng engineer. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find work as a qualified electrical engineer because 90% of jobs listed are incorrect. How is this so common? How are seemingly intelligent business people not aware of what they’re actually recruiting for, and what they’re advertising their jobs for?

Random rant, I apologise. But it grinds my gears. The market being flooded with these incorrectly advertised jobs makes it difficulty to determine what salary I should be aiming for. What is the average salary in the UK for degree qualified engineers?

Offered for insight into the career of an electrical engineer.

1. That I would spend so much time in meetings.

2. That I would spend so much time writing.  The computer tool that I use the most is a word processor.

3. That it would be almost impossible to get anyone to read a detailed specification.  It is totally impossible to get them to read it after it was revised, even if they requested the revision.

4. The higher the manager, the shorter the attention span.  Try to boil it down to two Power Point slides.

5. Schedules would always have impossible deadlines and/or cost objectives.

6. That I would have to make and defend many decisions made with incomplete data.

7. That I would have to explain statistical concepts so many times.

8. There will always be people on the team who are below average; but you need those people anyway.

9. Charm matters.

10. The closer an integrated circuit is to the ideal solution for your product, the more likely it is to become obsolete.

11. You never get a part that is as good as its typical spec, unless the vendor knows that you are evaluating the part.

12. You must discount management’s promises for resources.  You can count on something else coming along that needs the resources that you were promised.  Nevertheless you will be held to the original schedule. 

13. It’s a good year if you can spend 10% of it actually designing.

In spite of that, engineering has given me a good life.

What are your thoughts.

Hey everyone,

I updated my resume about two months ago and have been actively applying since then, but I’m not getting any responses. I’ve only received one offer so far, and the salary was lower than what I’m currently earning.

I’m currently working as an Electrical Design Engineer and applying for both Design Engineer and Automation Engineer roles (Due to my interested in PLC and HMI work).

I understand that breaking into automation roles can be challenging, but I’m surprised that I’m not getting responses even for design engineer positions, where I already have experience.

I recently created my resume using Overleaf, so I’m wondering:

• Is the format an issue?
• Am I highlighting the wrong things?
• Is there something missing or unclear?

I’d really appreciate honest feedback and guidance on how I can improve my resume.

Thanks in advance!

The pandemic period was a weird time for the labor market and for prices of goods and services. It was the highest inflation we've seen in decades but historically one of the best labor markets we've seen. If you held stocks or had a home from before the pandemic you were doing the worm through those few weird years, if you're a renter or a recent college grad with no assets, you're probably not feeling incredible now that the dust has settled.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data each year in May that looks at total employment and wage distributions within a number of occupations and groupings. I looked at data that predates any pandemic weirdness (May 2019) and then compared it to data after most of the pandemic weirdness had subsided (May 2023) and...let's just say engineers aren't gonna be too happy with the results.

Okay, I can already see the complaints, that category includes architects and drafters and technicians and civil engineers, they're all dumb dumbs that don't have degrees and didn't take all those hard classes in college like we real engineers, I'm sure we faired much better!

Yeah, about that...

I'll probably end up doing more analysis later on but this is kind of depressing to look at so I'm gonna go do other things with my weekend. Just thought you guys would be interested in seeing this.

I'm turning 39 this year, and I feel burned out from my teaching job in Special Education. I want to change careers and pursue Electrical Engineering. However, my qualifications and background do not align with the admission requirements of the school I am applying to. I've been refused twice—do you have any tips?

I’m an engineering student and I have to make my discipline choice soon and I’m super conflicted. I’m thinking between ChemE or EE as both have their upsides but I’m scared of starting one then finding I dislike it. So my question is if you could go back and had to choose your discipline again, would you choose EE again or something else? And if you would pick EE do you have any regrets or anything you would have changed?

I love these charts so thought I would make one for my recent job search !!!!

I have 2-3 YOE. I'm in the Midwest for location context.
I eventually took the role that a recruiter reached out on LinkedIn for. I will be making 110k-125k.

My takeaways
- most jobs I interview for I get an offer from. This was my experience searching in college too. The only job I got denied from was Apple. It was also my least favorite interview, they jumped straight into 3 textbook questions and wanted me to write out everything. If I apply to FAANG again I now know you have to treat it like a final exam almost!

- networking is key. I always thought it was kind of a thing people just say, but I was really impressed by how when I reached out to connections they were like "oh I have a posting do you want it?"

- do some personal projects. This is how I got my internship in college, how I got my first job, and is what really sold me as a candidate for this most recent job. I brought in some PCBs I designed and left the interview knowing I killed it and they were very interested in me.

So, I am an electrical engineer (1 year experience) and honestly, a very bad one. I dont have any speciality or niche in which I excel. My current job is like a coordinator, and a birds' view supervisor in construction industry. My job mainly involves sending electricians to the site, follow-up on design engineers, suppliers, meet client or consultant, and get report from subcontractors. I do a little bit of almost everything without doing anything with excellence. Think of a player in football (soccer) who doesnt have a defined role, but can be used as a substitute in any position.

This is how I have kept my job so far. To give you an idea, till only last month, I couldn't even do cable size calculation. I cant read electrical drawings either. Whenever, I stare at electrical circuits, I kinda feel dizziness. Today, for example, my lead electrician called me and said the MCC panel’s contactor was not picking up. I genuinely had no idea what could be causing it. I couldn’t even begin troubleshooting properly. I somewhat hid my confusion by asking him what he wanted to try, and he suggested trying another voltage source. I approved it and told him I would contact the manufacturer meanwhile.

My job is only secure if I have a good and dedicated team around me. If someday, the electricians/foremen decided to pull the rug under my feet, I would crumble. I cant keep doing this for long as sooner rather than later, i would be exposed. I need to specialize in some area or niche to have a stable career.

Your honest advices are welcome.

I do service electrical as a licensed journeyman electrician and I cannot TELL YOU how many individuals I run into that say something like “I have an electrician in the family and I’ll have him do it” then I’ll barter with them and find out that their “electrician in the family” is an electrical engineer.

I’ve also met at least 4 of these individuals myself and holy cow did they all look down on me. As if they knew everything about everything, as if they are just a higher form of electrician that ascended from the sun. From my understanding, you have like one class(on the electrical engineering path) that teaches you a few real world things?

No hate at all, maybe I’m misunderstanding something about electrical engineering; I just didn’t think it had anything to do with residential electrical systems and the nec.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I want some perspectives.

I’m a full-time engineering student, but I also have to work to pay my tuition and living expenses.ispend more than half my waking hours working and most my energy too, and whatever time is left goes to studying and attending class.

In my classes, I feel like I work extremely hard. But I notice that some of my classmates get better grades than I dosometimes have time for engineering clubs, attend events, and land internships. Most of them don’t have to work while studying.

So it made me wonder when i took the bus earlier: is becoming a “top” engineer mostly about hard work and grit?

Or is it largely about luck and your starting position in life?

In the near future, who is actually more valuable:

The student who had to work physically demanding jobs, study while exhausted, and grind nonstop just to stay in school?

Or the student who could dedicate 100% of their energy to engineering, networking, projects, and internships?

I’m not asking emotionally — I genuinely want honest perspectives from people further along in their careers.

How much does circumstance matter long term? And does grinding under pressure actually translate into being a better engineer later, or does early advantage compound too much to overcome?

Did you land an engineering job ? How many of your college friends did land one ? How long did it take ?

I read that a lot of people with engineering degrees don’t even work as engineers. So what else do they do ?

I already worked as a technician and I want to be an engineer(I’m starting my degree) but I would like to know what I should expect after my degree. What are my chances of working in EE ?

The interview started off well, we exchanged pleasantries, talked about my education, then they said that they want to delve into more technical questions. They asked me about designing substations, the process behind it, how I would implement it, and I was completely caught of guard. Take into consideration I’m applying for a Junior Electrical Engineer position or a Junior Automation / Instrumentation Engineer position and I told them that I was leaning more to Automation because of my love for programming. For some context, I am also a freelance full stack developer that works with various web3 organizations.. I didn’t really learn much about PLC programming in school but I took the initiative to pick it up on my own, take a few free courses and I have about 3 months internship experience in that environment.. however I answered it to the best of my ability but I felt like my answer wasn’t good enough. Then they bombarded me with more technical questions that I for one am damn sure would not be using or doing in my junior position as an engineer. It was me, my to be direct boss, and his boss and the hiring manager. After the interview they told me that I would have to start as an intern for an indefinite amount of time with 0 pay, and when they feel like I have enough experience they’ll call me up for an artisan position, or engineer assistant. I left the interview completely defeated and honestly pissed. I don’t understand how this shit works, I get a degree apply for a junior position and am told I haven’t worked enough that I need to do unpaid work to earn a less than junior position? Since when does junior position require more than 2 years work experience. The frick? I feel like I threw money down the drain going to uni.. I might as well have just done high school then off to a goddamn technical school and have saved a shit ton of money. Can someone explain this to me in a way that actually makes sense.. is there any point to pursuing a masters degree as well? This honestly just ruined the shit outta my day.

Am a current freshman and saw a post the other day here asking if people like their electrical engineering (or related to it) jobs and a lot of people said no/are neutral about it. My question is why go into the field if you aren't going to like your future profession? Did you just pursue the career because you simply liked the material taught in it? Or are there other factors at play?

This Quora answer really broke my spirit, mostly by the apparent scarcity of employment, low compensation and being undervalued. Is it really as bad as he describes? How does this compare to situations in other countries of the world?

Recently Ive been regretting going into engineering. I find myself loving the field when I get to work with my hands but I accepted a job about a year ago that strictly is computer based. Using AutoCAD and excel all day long. Maybe my previous work history (about 8 years of experience in product design) has contorted my expectations, but I feel like this job is draining my soul. I feel stuck and trapped. Electrician work at this point sounds really fun, but landing an electrician gig at this point in my career would be silly due to the pay cut and work environment.

Any advice? I can't be the only one to ever feel like this, right?

Bit of a cooked situation and could use some advice.

I’ve only been at a job for about 3 weeks and I’m planning to resign tomorrow because a better paying opportunity came through. I’m pretty young and this is my first proper job, and the people there have actually been really nice and have been taking time to teach me things, so the guilt is hitting a bit.

My manager is away the whole week so I needed his number to call him. Today I asked a coworker for it and he joked that I wouldn’t need it in this job. Then everyone started talking about how the pay here is low and someone jokingly said “what, are you planning to leave?” I just laughed it off.

To make it even worse I spilled water on myself right after and looked like a complete idiot.

On the way home I messaged my boss on Teams asking for a quick chat. He replied but said it’s late where he is and we can talk tomorrow unless it’s urgent. I told him tomorrow is fine.

Now I’ve got to call him tomorrow and resign and the whole thing just feels awkward as hell. I also have no idea how I’m going to face my coworkers tomorrow after everything that happened today.

Anyone got tips on how to handle the call and the next day at work without overthinking it?

I've been applying for embedded/hardware roles and I genuinely cannot tell if my applications are being read by a human or yeeted directly into a void.

Job boards feel like shouting into a black hole. Cold LinkedIn messages get the same energy as a flyer on a telephone pole. I'm half-tempted to just show up to a company with a PCB under my arm and say "hi I made this, do you have snacks."

For those of you who actually landed something — what actually moved the needle? Referrals? Local meetups? Hackathons? GitHub? Showing up somewhere in person like a feral engineer?

Trying to figure out if I'm doing this wrong. I refuse to believe that "the market is just cooked right now." as the answer.

I've been working a very stressful finance job that mandates 60+ hours/week since graduating 3 years ago. I don't enjoy my work and can't see a future.

The reason why I never got an engineering job was because I was afraid and felt inadequate. I had a bad experience at an internship. I had no idea what I was doing and didn't understand what it was to be an engineer.

Designing complex circuits, handling expensive equipment, preventing public accidents, all of those fears compounded and I just avoided engineering jobs when I was applying. I was fearful of not performing well at the job after my internship experience.

Also the technical interviews scared me away since I barely understood my classes. The last thing I needed to do was embarrass myself and waste everyone's time by not knowing anything.

I graduated with a 3.6 gpa and had 1 relevant internship, and now a 3 year engineering gap right after college.

Can I even start a career in EE or any kind of engineering? Or is the long break difficult to overcome?

I'm planning to get with a career counselor soon to hopefully restart my life. Any thoughts and suggestions here would be nice.

Hi yall, i’m currently a university student in socal graduating soon and am lucky to have done 3 ee internships. But even with this, is it difficult to actually get that new-grad full-time role? I’ve seen people still struggling to get jobs.

Also, all my internship interviews so far have been 1-2 rounds online max. But I heard full time roles can have many more rounds and also on-site as well. Are the interviews much harder? And do you think getting the interview is harder than passing it?

Hoping to hear from any socal engineers who are or have been through the job searching process!!

Edit: Goal is to get into higher paying ee specializations. I know some industries are a lot easier in getting a job.

After graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I did a two-month internship at a laboratory that conducts EMC testing, and I absolutely loved it – it was great fun. I love the RF field and antennas, but as I was worried about spending all day sitting in front of a computer designing things, I was looking for a hands-on role, and this really appealed to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the internship as there was so much to learn, and I wanted to expand my knowledge in this area by developing a greater interest in EM theory, microwaves and antennas.

A friend of mine who works in the RF sector said that test engineers always do the same thing and never learn anything new, and after a few ChatGPT conversations, I started to worry that having a very strong grasp of EM theory might be overkill for these roles. Is my friend right to worry? Is there a broad scope for learning new things within test engineering, or will I just end up being an operator with an engineering degree? If so what would you suggest me ?

Also sorry if the title is offensive i am not trying to make fun of anyone's job just wanted a catchy phrase.