New to the forum and Career Direction question

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and still in process of getting my Electrical Engineering degree, I had been a manufacturing technician for more than 15 years and finally deciding to finish my degree. I hope to contribute in the near future.

My question is, since I had been a Technician of semiconductor tool (1 in specific) for so long, After obtaining my degree I would want to perform a job related to my degree and in my department engineers are no precisely do that ( They are more like process engineers) so I am asking what kind of fields or branches of the electrical field are out there that what they do.. I know is like a very broad question and i have an idea of the field and branches but I would like to here from the experts. on more specifics on what they do.. Dont want to rely on what universities advertise because i know is not true..

sorry for the long story

thanks in advnaced

Gera

Hi Gerardo,

If you want to be in a more technical field, then you should be in a development side of electrical engineering, So its more likely you are part of project building where you need developed the design provided to make it more efficient.

And in my experience, I had been to field engineering of Auxiliary System for LEED Building. It is more likely a technician that handles Access Control, CCTV, CATV, Fire Alarm, Data Cables, IPPA, Lighting and Electronic Appliance Automation basically it is more on smart technology and you will build IT Servers, but the only thing is that you will not pull cables and wires.

You will be there to build the diagram/plan, quality check, test and troubleshoot (here's tricky and most challenging part) , evaluate for some improvements, retouch, final test for turnover with all of the engineers of the structure like mechanical for air-conditioning, civil for the structure durability, architect for the internal and external design, electrical for the powering, chemical for the material used, and lastly you will maintain all of the equipments and devices for a certain period of time let say two years while handling another project.

I have also experience in instrumentation and control for Industrial Plant specifically coal fired power plant. It is also more likely a technician that maintain instruments and analyzers used in the plant. It is a highly automated plant that it has a lot of PLCs used in different system with multiple instruments at its I/Os. The Distributed Control System(DCS) that handle multiple PLCs you learn a lot of it, especially on how these things work and seeing those multiple panels and supercomputers. With that experience in I&C, I can say that I've access to different engineering field from software to hardware or from IT to Mechanical.

I am not an expert yet but that's my personal experience.

Hope it helps.

God Bless.

Best,
Neil

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the information, Both options sound interesting to me and I believe there are departments in my company that handle at least the first option. I assume maintaining the equipment would be the entry level and work your way up to design new building, upgrade an existing one, etc.

I will be always looking and visiting the forum to learn from you guys and hoping start contributing more.

Another question that I have is - Are there any skills (software/hardware) that I should learn very well. for example:

Mathlab,
Design Circuits Software
Analyze Circuits Software
NEC- Code

Thanks again Neil for responding..


Gera

Hi Gerardo,

Well, from my own point of view. You just focus on what you think you are good with, the other stuffs like NEC is helpful just stay knowledgeable about it. It is not so useful to study something you will not practice in the future because it is expected that you just forget about it. It is enough to know 1 language for software and hardware development(basics on C or C++ programming is fine). I can assumed that with that great experience of you is enough to say that you are good in technical stuffs. The Matlab, CADs, and other related software are not that necessary, it is already enough that you know where you can apply that stuffs. If you find a good opportunity that relates to it then that is the time you study thoroughly and be good at it.

God Bless.

Best,
Neil

Neil,

You point, thanks for the advice