Quesitions concerning the field of electrical engineering.

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Q. I am a high school student. Recently, i am doing a project about the career of electrical engineering. i need some information from people working in this career. Can anybody please help me with the following questions? 1. What does an electrical engineer do? 2. What are the most interesting aspects of this career? 3. What kinds of problems or challenges do electrical engineers usuallly find in their job? 4. Besides dealing with electrical engineers, what other fields of people do you usually work with? 5. What specific skills are important in order to be superior than other job seekers? 6. Has the demand of electrical engineers increased or decreased in recent years? Do you think the demand is going to change in the next decade? 7. What is the starting salary of an electrical engieer? ( in Canadian dolloars) 8. As an electrical engineer, i am sure you have some knowledge of other branches of electrical engineering, such as the developments of telecommunications, electronics, and computers? Can you briefly explian what do engineers do in these fields? 9. Among these three branches (telecommunications, electronics and computer engineering), which specialization has the greatest potential? 10. How does electrical engineering relate to computer engineering? 11. How do you update your knowledge continously? Do you take any courses? 12. How do engineers with master degrees superior than engineers with just bachelor? 13. How important is electrical engineering to the world? 14. Finally, can you give me some general advice?

A. -1. The question it rather broad. Generally, he or she designs electrical or electronic equipment. 2. The same as any job you like doing; the answer is that one gets to work with a subject that one has a deep interest in. 3. Fighting brain dead management that has no technical competence READ DILBERT!! 4. Totally depends on the specific job. Queation is far too broad. The usual answer is dealing with the above mentioned management, and with marketing people with no technical competence. 5. This is an important question. The answer is that you must have a REAL interest, and a NATURAL SKILL at the subject. It further helps if you have spent a good part of your childhood tinkering with electrical or electronic stuff. You MUST also have an extensive, PRACTICAL background, and be good with your hands. After all, who do you think will be building the prototypes you design? Being a computer CAD Jockey is not much of a help. There are FAR too many "engineers" who just sit all day creating cost-ineffective designs at a computer, and have little practical understanding of their job. Computers are useful, but not the be-all and end-all they are just another tool to do the job with. You cannot use a computer to substitute for lack of basic skill. 6. All I can say is that there are more electrical engineers out of work now than at any time in the past. 7. In Vancouver, the starting salary for a green engineer with no previous experience is around $40K. 8. Not briefly. The answer is obvious to anyone with some basic understanding of the subject, and would take far too much time to explain fully to someone who does not. 9. You misunderstand. Telecommunications IS electronics. What is "computer engineering"? 10. If you mean "software engineering", the answer is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with electrical engineering. 11. Yes, sometimes, but mostly learning through on-the-job innovation and experience. What you learn in university is just a primer. Once you get a job, then the REAL learning starts. 12. They are more impractical and are able to design more unmanufacturable equipment More seriously, the answer should be patently obvious. Someone with more theoretical background is capable of doing more theoretical-level work. 13. Surely you jest! What are you typing this on? A mechanical typewriter? 14. If you are interested in this field, then start getting your hands "dirty". I have NEVER worked with ANY decent engineer that did not live and breathe electronics. Every single electrical engineer that I have ever worked with that did not have "electronics" as a hobby was a hopeless case, professionally. Build up hobbyist-level circuits. Begin to get a gut-level understanding of electronics. TAKE THINGS APART AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND HOW THEY WORK, AND HOW THEY ARE ASSEMBLED COST EFFECTIVELY! Get up to your armpits in the subject! - 1. Whatever his/her managers wishes, including many tasks not usually associated with "engineering". 2. Doing research which is not relevant to my employers needs/fetishes. 3. Building products that nobody wants, with tools that don't function for markets that don't exist. 4. Marketing "specialists" , sales people, software engineers and assorted street people (who deal with reality more than the marketing specialists). 5.Other than the fact that this question makes no sense in English I think that the most important job skill for a E.E. is the ability to handle stress. Also, it helps if one does not mind having a life. In order to get a job one must learn to use words like "paradime", "synergy", "pro-active" and speak as if your knowledge spans "all technology platforms". 6. Let me put it this way. An electronics engineer needs a lot of equipment and experience to practice his/her profession. One needs: Oscilloscopes, Spectrum analyzers, logic analyzers, signal generators and whole hosts of parts both analog and digital. On the other hand, a software engineer can make $100K (U.S.) per year with no more hardware than a 12 year old has in their bedroom (a PC) and a phone line. 7. Around $40K perhaps. But usually to make that you must work in an area where the cost of living will require you to spend that on your annual rent. 8. Seriously, the physics of electronics does not change with different applications. Only hiring managers think that it does. 9. Look, every 10 years or so the field of EE changes. The field that it becomes usually does not resemble the field that it was. If you started engineering school today, by the time you got out, the "in demand" specialties would be different. 10. It depends upon your definition of a computer engineer. Is it one that designs computer systems or one that designs software (programs). 11. Courses are pretty much a waste of time unless you are striving for an advanced degree. Experience and your own initiative and research (on your own time) are your best tools for keeping up. 12. Hiring managers think that engineers with an MS are worth more. After about a year or two of experience this difference erodes. 13. To be honest it is not as important as it used to be. More tasks are done in software than in hardware. Of course, software must run on hardware, but the means of creating that hardware is now under the control of relatively few as compared to 20 -30 years ago. 14. Be a stock broker instead and retire at age 32.

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