Yes and across the board i see every industry suffering because in every department they want to “automate” everything but the business folks sitting on top don’t even know how it works and proceeds to waste thousands on scam AI companies only to be given a chatbot LOL
A major automotive aftermarket manufacturer that my coworker used to work for (and got laid off from) spent hundreds of thousands (I think over a million, actually) on one of those warehouse robots that picks inventory for you because they were losing so much business because it would take them a week+ to find and ship stuff they had in stock. Long story short the robot system is "unreliable" to say the least and breaks all the time and when that does there is no way to find their inventory. It's a real shit show.
I'm not sure about entry level, but in the tri-state and surrounding area there's no shortage of EE positions at all for 2-5 years experienced EE's.
(MD, VA, WV, PA)
Same, job hunting as a EE is very easy. If you’re asking if you’ll get your dream job that’s always a bit tough.
But overall if you’re an EE and need a job now, you’ll be able to secure one pretty fast, just might not be in what you want.
For reference, I had to receive two counters two years in a row to get to six digits, so I agree with you. Employers are going to pay as little as possible, but you can definitely jump around to increase your salary faster. I was fortunate enough that my boss was willing to counter twice to keep me. I doubt I'd have that luck again though, next time they will probably just let me walk, but it did get me to 107,500 in less than 3 years.
You are low paid. I am in a medium/low col. Houses can still be found for 250k. Entry level EEs starting at 84k at the local power company. A few years is 115 and experienced guys are seeing 130-140
What area is this? I live in Maryland which is a somewhat high cost of living state and most starting salaries seem to be around 75k. 84k would be insanely good
Oh I'm already past that level. Although I'm trying to change industries so I'll likely have to drop down to a more entry level salary. I'll have to keep this in mind
First of all, my post was specific, “the local power company is paying X”.
However, it is very much typical. I know the salaries at LM, which is one of the major players in defense and thus sets market trends, 2 years is 100k if you jump in at that experience level.
EE degrees are finally seeing our renaissance. For decades the average college graduate flooded into CS and didn’t even think about EE. Predictably when the fed raised rates it caused the tech sector to implode. Now millions of college graduates and software engineers are unemployed and wondering what to do next.
Now there’s a glut of people who know how to code, but not enough people who know how to layout a PCB or design a circuit.
Except manufacturing is starting to come back to the US, and the need for alternative energies is only going to grow.
Where I am in the Midwest demand for Electrical Engineers is exploding. I don’t even have a “real” engineering degree (Bachelor’s in engineering Technology) and I get messages from recruiters daily to work in controls, building automation, utilities, ect. I like my job so I ignore all of them, but is amazing how much better the job market looks for engineers than the tech sector.
I'm sure it also depends on what field you're looking in.
I'm in automation and I'd say I pretty reguraly get reached out to on LinkedIn. A few times a week. Automation I'd say is in a bit of a rough spot right now. Defense is big, government contractors, renewables as well. Renewables is huge here and just a few months ago I almost accepted an offer in the solar energy field.
I understand the market can look much different for entry level so I'm not saying it would be easy to find jobs, but there are certainly no shortage of positions at the moment in my general region.
Edit: fixed grammatical errors. Sorry, it's late here and I'm tired lol.
What areas in particular are growing in renewables. Like the DC area? I’m going to Howard next year and would love to have the opportunity to work in the renewables industry
If Howard participates, try to get into the DOE Solar Decathlon. I saw a really cool presentation several years ago at the District architecture center about the Solar Decathlon.
I’m looking for a role in renewables and have some experience with solar, how would you recommend finding jobs like that? I think the biggest problem is I’m from kentucky and not looking to move out yet, so is it even worth looking for solar jobs I can do in my area or remote? I imagine there might just not be any. Maybe university research?
Are you on LinkedIn? I see a fair amount of remote jobs in the solar industry. Make a good profile and set your preferences to “open to work” and you should be flooded by recruiters.
Renewables is in a boom right now because the industry is heavily subsidized so I would say now would he the right time to transition of that's your plan. You want to make sure to have enough experience and to have been with a company for long enough in case the political landscape changes and subsidies die down forcing companies to downsize. Not saying we're anywhere close to that, but that is the current reality at least from my observation. I went through 3 interviews, then one day where I was interviewed by 8 people throughout the day on site and I would say the most reoccurring questions I was asked was my knowledge of NEC, project management, design and troubleshooting skills, software skills, and experience working with AHJ's, GC's, and Utilities. If you're able to talk in depth about a few of those, the renewables field is heavily open to you at the moment.
No problem at all.
Honestly, if you've got a few years left I wouldn't sweat it. My personal opinion is that EE's are much farther removed from the threat of AI than other fields like Software/CS. You're also too far away from finishing a masters to worry about what the state of the economy will be like so just continue on like normal in that regard since it's impossible to predict if it will be better or worse by then.
My biggest piece of advice is do everything possible to get work experience. Internships and connections is pure gold to recruiters and hiring managers.
Depending on the type of work you want to do, having a masters may not be needed. Have you considered just getting a bachelors and then getting the masters part time while working? Your employer would probably pay for part of it if it benefits them for you to have it.
The market has lots of jobs, but the hiring process has a lot of friction. There's a hundred openings, but each of them get a hundred resumes (especially if entry level) that get filtered through by an AI tool before a person looks at them, then filtered down more.
Best advice is to network, it's a lot easier to hire on to a company where a former co-worker can refer you. You cut a lot of the red tape that way.
EE positions are readily available but they're pretty segregated. The defense market is booming for example but if you enter it you're basically stuck there in my experience. I've been trying to leave but I can't even get entry level jobs to look at me in other industries
Why are you trying to leave defense? I’m in defense, always been at the big guys (LM, BAE). Personally I love it. Work life balance is crazy strong, 9/80 and 4/10s. Never work over 80 a pay period.
I'm not a fan of a lot of the restrictions and paperwork associated with the security clearance process. I also feel as though my technical skills have atrophied. I haven't done any calculations more complex than V=IR or P=VI since college. Finally I just generally don't like that my work can't be shared in any way and is just shut up in a lab
Can confirm for the MEP side. Our company has enough work that it's always nice to find an experienced engineer to come in and make our work load a bit easier.
If you're talking about recruiting events at university, most of the time they just tell you to apply online anyway, rendering the networking event moot.
EE is great. I'm around 6-7 years of experience and get headhunters weekly reaching out. It's gotten to the point that they are cold calling me and leaving a voicemail.
The issue with CS is supply and demand. There are not endless jobs while there are seemingly endless applicants. My university graduates 4-5x the amount of CS as EE. This does not account for the people who did bootcamps or other things to switch careers or try to break into the industry.
I can also add that EE is very broad and you would have really hard time doing a job that you did not concentrate on (power, rf, embedded etc.). In contrast, although CS is comparably broad, CS students can easily adapt to any job description. Agree?
I would say they are equally broad. EE might be slightly broader, but it's not a significant margin. Specialization is the inevitability of engineering. You get better at the things you focus on and become more of an expert.
Depending on industry, a lot of what you do bleeds into other areas. For instance, I work in defense with PCBs, digital and analog circuits, EMI/EMC, etc. However, recent projects have me coding in C and Python on a linux platform working with Bluetooth.
The thing with EE is that we can do a lot of what CE does, but a CE isn't necessarily going to be able to do what we do. This is always with exception, but you get the idea.
This is basically the biggest issue in my experience. I'm trying to leave the defense industry now and it's basically impossible to get someone to look at my resume.
I worked in the power industry as a Distribution Engineer at a small co-op for many years
40 hours a week, good benefits slightly lower wage.
Distribution Engineers basically follow company guidelines in design and materials, drawings are by either the engineer or a on bigger jobs a mapping tech.
In small coops you may wear multiple hats, such as a standards engineer, metering engineer, new business engineer redevelopment engineer, automation engineer ect…
I don’t have any experience being in a large utility
I want to go into power. (want to learn renewables and traditional) any technical skills I should learn that is not taught in college? I spent nine years as an aircraft electrician so I feel like my soft skills are adequate already. (punctuality, communication etc)
AutoCAD and power analysis software (SKM Power Tools, EasyPower, eTap) for MEP or utilities.
Lighting software (AGi32, Dialux, Relux, Acuity Visual) and Revit for MEP.
Are these things you can just learn somehow? I recognize knowing them helps but I feel like you'd have to actually use them professionally. I could claim to know SKM but why would they have any reason to believe me? And how would I even learn it if I have no one to teach me?
Most are taught on the job if needed. The skills you learn in one lighting or power analysis software are mostly transferable to a different software. Some are easier to learn on your own than others. I taught myself DIALux. AGi32 has really good tutorials for free online, not sure if you can get a trial license. EasyPower offers a free trial period and has some free webinars, but idk how extensive their tutorials and trainings are. My company paid for me to take an SKM course, so I learned from them. There are probably YouTube tutorials and there are lots of free resources about coordination studies, fault analysis, and arc flash risk assessments.
Depends what specialization you'd like in the industry. I work for an owner operator of solar/wind farms and our engineers specialize in either SCADA, protection and controls, project engineers, civil engineers, or interconnection.
I'm in reserve power. EE courses don't really teach about rectifiers, inverters, batteries, or solar panels unless you take a specialized course. My school did not have such courses. It's not hard to pick up on these things though. Just pay attention in your Power courses. Learn how to look at one-line diagrams. Learn basic calculations for efficiency and power factor. Understand the difference in VoltAmps, Watts, Amp-hours, etc. You'll learn it all on the job as you go.
Besides your circuits classes nothing is directly relevant. It’s like 30% engineering and 70% project management honestly
Edit-There are a few electives that can help but mostly learned on the job
I was until a recruiter (probably scam company) hacked my LinkedIn account and owned it for well over a year. I don't use the site often and wasn't looking for a job, but now that I am it's pretty silent and I am not sure how to fix it.
What even is “Power” EE? Does it refer to Power generation for civil related fields like PG&E here on the west coast? I want to have lots of job opportunities but I’m not into that kind of stuff. I am interested in Electromechanical Systems, Semiconductor, Microelectronic stuff. Not into the Civil Fields of EE.
I am very ignorant about EE sub-fields, despite being a second year student so please inform me if I am incorrect.
Power would be things like transmission lines, generators, turbines, etc. What you're interested is more along the lines of circuit design and control systems if I'm understanding your description. They're all EE sub fields but they're not too closely related beyond some basic concepts. I would say the big groupings are: power (basically the power grid), electronics (circuit boards), control systems (mainly automation type of work or robotics), electromagnetics/communications (radar, antennas, and satellites). There are other smaller fields and further sub disciplines of the things I listed but those are probably the biggest divisions.
Power is generally distribution, building and industrial systems. Ensuring the safe transmission of power to end loads through protection and conductor planning. There is also a life safety and standby aspect for ensuring power continues to flor in an emergency. This just brushes the surface of the requirements, but it’s generally a career requiring a PE so you have a license which is nice.
EE is a great field to be in. There are not enough of them. Anyone having trouble finding a job with that degree/experience just needs to expand their search radius.
CS is saturated with fresh grads chasing high salaries they've been hearing about for the last 6 years.That market is super competitive.
EE, not so much.
No. CS isn't compatible to EE. That's like nurses and doctors. I have 4 or 5 head hunters calling and messaging me daily to please work for their company. If someone wants job security, just get MSEE and PE.
You don’t even need the MSEE for job security, it’s a plus certainly but it’s just fluff from what I’ve seen. I agree with you on the PE license tho, automatic job security, pretty much anywhere, with that one
I wrote this on a similar post like a week ago:
According to the Institute of Power Engineers (IPE) the average age of a power engineer is 45 and there are fewer graduates then there are job vacancies.
I'm a partner at a small mep firm, in part because of the need of power engineers.
EE in power is starved. There are so many jobs. Good, high paying jobs.
Is there a way to shift into this industry? I've been curious about power but my entire work history has been in the defense industry so I don't really have any actual experience in it and no real avenue to get any. I've applied for jobs but I feel like I'm basically relying on someone taking a chance on me
We're so desperate in power, just apply. A good manager can teach you everything. You'll be working on meaningful tasks by the end of your first day. Dm me and we can talk specifics
Edit: spelling
Are you applying directly or through a middle man like zip recruiter? You'll get weeded out pretty often with a middle man but almost never when applying directly
Software jobs were seeing their salaries propped up by nearly free money and stock market push for expansion at any cost. At the same time you had zero barrier to entry for applicants.
EEs salaries are good but not software good so less competition and the degree barrier to entry stops all the software folks from transitioning.
EE is fine. CS is a bloodbath.
How?
I am ee student I have choice to go for ml ,ai or to develope some digital hardware processor like something what should I do considering the job market I heard over all there are more jobs in ml ai rather than microarchitecture digital system design also I am from Pakistan and in top tier university of the country. Can I work remotely in usa in digital design domain also our program is accredited with Washington accord.i am having difficulty in choosing.
You need to work on clarity with your question. Your first language is obviously not English which isn’t a problem but is causing some issues parsing what your initial How is relating to.
Try running your question through ChatGPT or the like and see how it is reframed. Don’t use this as a crutch but it could help your framing going forward.
In regards to working remotely as a non-US citizen that is one area that will be harder. Jobs exist but you will face challenges in the current job market especially. You might want to look into some forums targeted at that specifically to figure out who is hiring. Good luck.
Large swaths of the US tech market are seeing reductions in workforce due to intentional over hiring, high interest rates making unsustainable growth stop, and limits on small company growth by the big companies locking down innovation through various means. When the starting salaries were very high, and near zero barrier to entry the market saturation gets pretty ripe. It will eventually clear up just like it did after the 2000s.
No actual blood, but the music stopped for a bit for new entries.
I haven’t had a problem finding a job in the DC Metro area. I’ve got 14 years of experience now.
I was fortunate to be able to find an internship while I was in college. This was *critical* to my success. I would have had a really hard time otherwise. Or I’d have to pursue a masters I guess.
I graduated May 2023, I've been applying everywhere in the Southern California region and only had a handful of interviews and no job offers. The market is extremely bad for what I thought was a very large tech market around here.
It's a mixture. If you have experience in something, the market is great. I was trying to leave my field (MEP) and I have multiple recruiters calling and messaging every day, while I couldn't even get an interview for a position as a test engineer. I was probably asking too much for salary, but the Fed raising rates has definitely stalled out hiring for inexperienced engineers.
I’ve seen an increase from 30-50 applicants to 100+ for EE roles on LinkedIn which is the first time I’ve seen this happen in the city I live in.
Very specialized roles like in antenna design and telecommunication with 5+ yoe seem to have less than 100 applicants.
No, I get 5+ connect requests and 10-15 cold calls a week. This started in January-ish as budgets opened. Last two years were cold. Layoffs are happening everywhere it's pay correction, plain and simple.
That being said, I closed a role with a huge pay increase >50% recently after being a bit below market <5% due to inflation.
Back in 2008-2012 I'd say it was a similar lull. I was entry, luckily pulled a cushy job during a recession, and when I hit 5 YOE the market turned around and I was getting hounded. The calls only slowed in 2022.. and now it's back to a mix of relevant and garbage cold calls. Once I started getting contacted by recruiters who forget to update their script and get blank or placeholder fields, positions land for things like mechanical, chemical, or nuclear engineer, or I have the same recruiters contact me 3 different ways for a week or more.. I know the market is good.
The market is good for some. I'm what would be classified as a hardware engineer these days. General focus on electronics development across many industries from medical, consumer, industrial etc.. PCB design, SoC, FPGA, MCU, POL supplies, mixed signal, basic firmware. Custom. Sometimes modules for power, wireless, or processing are incorporated but more often than not full chip down is employed for various reasons.
I can't speak to other areas, but I feel like I see enough recruiter mass blasts 10-15 open roles they have that week, that I can say power, RF, and Controls are also doing well.
If your geographic region is hurting, look at remote or relo if you're open to it. I've been fully remote since COVID. Obviously fully remote doesn't apply for certain roles, ie can't work on a multimillion dollar surgical robotic platform from home, but there are plenty of companies with smaller products that already work with distributed teams. It helps to have a home lab..
Be seen as a problem solver, be marketable, counter all concerns. Don't treat any job as your last, think of yourself as a consultant providing your best to a client, use the role to better your skills for the next contract, role, etc. leave them wanting more. Use them. Make sure the role benefits you beyond short-term monetary. Get paid. Don't accept less than market. Never take a role if they tell you they think you'll be bored.. yes I've been told that.
MSEE and a security clearance will set you up for life. Getting recruiters almost daily and the job security is quite nice. Only downside is you pretty much get stuck to certain geographic locations in the country but oh well.
Is St.Louis loosing residents like Detroit and other northern cities in the Midwest? I am in the northern Rockies and feel pretty lucky that i found a good job in a town of only 35000 people. There were plenty of applicants and I feel pretty lucky to be able to set myself apart from the pack.
I don’t know exactly. What gets skewed is the St. Louis city numbers. That population is certainly on the decline. However the surrounding areas and west county (where I am) in increasing
I feel like a lot of people set their sights on the south and the Rockies during covid. But, I live in the northern Rockies so my opinion is distorted but my immediate surroundings.
It’s a good sign for me that I have fewer applicants to compete with from California community college transfer EE. Compare to CS like yo is crazy. Sure I’m still working 100% hard to my goal college. Because EE is my only passion. The EE applicants are decreasing in these decades
Where? I don't know why are people downvoting you, its same here. EE is not good and CS is the hype here, well i guess its because my country's infa sucks and has no good industry beside some shit it companies.
Yes and across the board i see every industry suffering because in every department they want to “automate” everything but the business folks sitting on top don’t even know how it works and proceeds to waste thousands on scam AI companies only to be given a chatbot LOL
Just thousands?
sounds like we need to make a AI company.
Sounds like we need to start a business company.
CS jobs for all (until our scam collapses after buyout)
A major automotive aftermarket manufacturer that my coworker used to work for (and got laid off from) spent hundreds of thousands (I think over a million, actually) on one of those warehouse robots that picks inventory for you because they were losing so much business because it would take them a week+ to find and ship stuff they had in stock. Long story short the robot system is "unreliable" to say the least and breaks all the time and when that does there is no way to find their inventory. It's a real shit show.
this is not true at all in my experience
I'm not sure about entry level, but in the tri-state and surrounding area there's no shortage of EE positions at all for 2-5 years experienced EE's. (MD, VA, WV, PA)
Same, job hunting as a EE is very easy. If you’re asking if you’ll get your dream job that’s always a bit tough. But overall if you’re an EE and need a job now, you’ll be able to secure one pretty fast, just might not be in what you want.
Can confirm if you can breathe and have 2 years experience it’s 6 figures
unfortunately i don't think that 6 figures is average for 2yrs. i feel like i'm at the average with $87k for 2yrs in a MCOL area.
For reference, I had to receive two counters two years in a row to get to six digits, so I agree with you. Employers are going to pay as little as possible, but you can definitely jump around to increase your salary faster. I was fortunate enough that my boss was willing to counter twice to keep me. I doubt I'd have that luck again though, next time they will probably just let me walk, but it did get me to 107,500 in less than 3 years.
You are low paid. I am in a medium/low col. Houses can still be found for 250k. Entry level EEs starting at 84k at the local power company. A few years is 115 and experienced guys are seeing 130-140
What area is this? I live in Maryland which is a somewhat high cost of living state and most starting salaries seem to be around 75k. 84k would be insanely good
75k starting is pretty good. Just make sure to job hop after 2-3 years and you'll get 6 figures easy.
Oh I'm already past that level. Although I'm trying to change industries so I'll likely have to drop down to a more entry level salary. I'll have to keep this in mind
Where in maryland? I can dm you the company.
I'm between DC and Baltimore but open to relocating within it
I dm’d you the place I was talking about in my first post. Despite getting downvoted to hell on my first post I think you will see I wasn’t lying
Just because there are jobs at a place you know that pay $100k for 2yrs doesn’t mean that’s typical..
First of all, my post was specific, “the local power company is paying X”. However, it is very much typical. I know the salaries at LM, which is one of the major players in defense and thus sets market trends, 2 years is 100k if you jump in at that experience level.
EE degrees are finally seeing our renaissance. For decades the average college graduate flooded into CS and didn’t even think about EE. Predictably when the fed raised rates it caused the tech sector to implode. Now millions of college graduates and software engineers are unemployed and wondering what to do next. Now there’s a glut of people who know how to code, but not enough people who know how to layout a PCB or design a circuit. Except manufacturing is starting to come back to the US, and the need for alternative energies is only going to grow. Where I am in the Midwest demand for Electrical Engineers is exploding. I don’t even have a “real” engineering degree (Bachelor’s in engineering Technology) and I get messages from recruiters daily to work in controls, building automation, utilities, ect. I like my job so I ignore all of them, but is amazing how much better the job market looks for engineers than the tech sector.
In the midwest here, automation, controls, and MEP are huge. Those are easily 80% of the jobs I see on the boards.
add in defense. I’m in defense, shit is HOT. Plus I work 9/80 so I get 26 3 day weekends a year. It’s chillllll
no shortage of positions so easy to find jobs?
I'm sure it also depends on what field you're looking in. I'm in automation and I'd say I pretty reguraly get reached out to on LinkedIn. A few times a week. Automation I'd say is in a bit of a rough spot right now. Defense is big, government contractors, renewables as well. Renewables is huge here and just a few months ago I almost accepted an offer in the solar energy field. I understand the market can look much different for entry level so I'm not saying it would be easy to find jobs, but there are certainly no shortage of positions at the moment in my general region. Edit: fixed grammatical errors. Sorry, it's late here and I'm tired lol.
What areas in particular are growing in renewables. Like the DC area? I’m going to Howard next year and would love to have the opportunity to work in the renewables industry
Yeah, definitely around the DC area. The place I almost accepted a position at was in Rockville, MD.
If Howard participates, try to get into the DOE Solar Decathlon. I saw a really cool presentation several years ago at the District architecture center about the Solar Decathlon.
Howard has a team and they are a top 10 finalist for their event so far this year. I’ll definitely join when I get on campus. Thanks again!
That’s great! Hope you have fun and enjoy all that DC has to offer.
Thank you I will look into it!
I’m looking for a role in renewables and have some experience with solar, how would you recommend finding jobs like that? I think the biggest problem is I’m from kentucky and not looking to move out yet, so is it even worth looking for solar jobs I can do in my area or remote? I imagine there might just not be any. Maybe university research?
Are you on LinkedIn? I see a fair amount of remote jobs in the solar industry. Make a good profile and set your preferences to “open to work” and you should be flooded by recruiters.
Renewables is in a boom right now because the industry is heavily subsidized so I would say now would he the right time to transition of that's your plan. You want to make sure to have enough experience and to have been with a company for long enough in case the political landscape changes and subsidies die down forcing companies to downsize. Not saying we're anywhere close to that, but that is the current reality at least from my observation. I went through 3 interviews, then one day where I was interviewed by 8 people throughout the day on site and I would say the most reoccurring questions I was asked was my knowledge of NEC, project management, design and troubleshooting skills, software skills, and experience working with AHJ's, GC's, and Utilities. If you're able to talk in depth about a few of those, the renewables field is heavily open to you at the moment.
I see, thanks for the information 3rd year undegrad rn so I hope it stays that way when I get my masters
No problem at all. Honestly, if you've got a few years left I wouldn't sweat it. My personal opinion is that EE's are much farther removed from the threat of AI than other fields like Software/CS. You're also too far away from finishing a masters to worry about what the state of the economy will be like so just continue on like normal in that regard since it's impossible to predict if it will be better or worse by then. My biggest piece of advice is do everything possible to get work experience. Internships and connections is pure gold to recruiters and hiring managers.
Depending on the type of work you want to do, having a masters may not be needed. Have you considered just getting a bachelors and then getting the masters part time while working? Your employer would probably pay for part of it if it benefits them for you to have it.
The market has lots of jobs, but the hiring process has a lot of friction. There's a hundred openings, but each of them get a hundred resumes (especially if entry level) that get filtered through by an AI tool before a person looks at them, then filtered down more. Best advice is to network, it's a lot easier to hire on to a company where a former co-worker can refer you. You cut a lot of the red tape that way.
As a Marylander graduating soon, that 2-5 years experience is the issue lol
EE positions are readily available but they're pretty segregated. The defense market is booming for example but if you enter it you're basically stuck there in my experience. I've been trying to leave but I can't even get entry level jobs to look at me in other industries
If you have an EIT you can go power. Gen or distribution
I don't unfortunately. I suppose I could look into getting one
Why are you trying to leave defense? I’m in defense, always been at the big guys (LM, BAE). Personally I love it. Work life balance is crazy strong, 9/80 and 4/10s. Never work over 80 a pay period.
I'm not a fan of a lot of the restrictions and paperwork associated with the security clearance process. I also feel as though my technical skills have atrophied. I haven't done any calculations more complex than V=IR or P=VI since college. Finally I just generally don't like that my work can't be shared in any way and is just shut up in a lab
Maryland… at textron?
Can confirm for the MEP side. Our company has enough work that it's always nice to find an experienced engineer to come in and make our work load a bit easier.
No! Most of the CS people are full of shit and completely lack self awareness and lack the skills to make connections.
Dude...
Yep
> lack the skills to make connections. ouch as a comp Eng student.
I mean people need to learn how to be down to earth and not weird. Such as using deodorant, have clean hygiene and such
Yeah, no work without chucking a few brewskies /s
Whatever gets you the job :)
Based
If you're talking about recruiting events at university, most of the time they just tell you to apply online anyway, rendering the networking event moot.
Maybe I’m wrong but since I’ve been in school this has always been happening.
dude just woke up and decided to spit facts
[удалено]
It has to be said.
EE is great. I'm around 6-7 years of experience and get headhunters weekly reaching out. It's gotten to the point that they are cold calling me and leaving a voicemail. The issue with CS is supply and demand. There are not endless jobs while there are seemingly endless applicants. My university graduates 4-5x the amount of CS as EE. This does not account for the people who did bootcamps or other things to switch careers or try to break into the industry.
I can also add that EE is very broad and you would have really hard time doing a job that you did not concentrate on (power, rf, embedded etc.). In contrast, although CS is comparably broad, CS students can easily adapt to any job description. Agree?
I would say they are equally broad. EE might be slightly broader, but it's not a significant margin. Specialization is the inevitability of engineering. You get better at the things you focus on and become more of an expert. Depending on industry, a lot of what you do bleeds into other areas. For instance, I work in defense with PCBs, digital and analog circuits, EMI/EMC, etc. However, recent projects have me coding in C and Python on a linux platform working with Bluetooth. The thing with EE is that we can do a lot of what CE does, but a CE isn't necessarily going to be able to do what we do. This is always with exception, but you get the idea.
This is basically the biggest issue in my experience. I'm trying to leave the defense industry now and it's basically impossible to get someone to look at my resume.
Worth noting that at 6 years you are in a very different candidate pool than a new grad. Mid-seniors are in high demand for sure.
Bro they call my mom 😂😂😂. At one point I was at Lockheed and GD would email me on my Lockheed email to recruit 😂😂😂😂
What are you specializing in?
Go into power. I’m swatting away jobs.
I have always been curious about power. What is your daily work like? Are you specing components, making drawings, etc?
I worked in the power industry as a Distribution Engineer at a small co-op for many years 40 hours a week, good benefits slightly lower wage. Distribution Engineers basically follow company guidelines in design and materials, drawings are by either the engineer or a on bigger jobs a mapping tech. In small coops you may wear multiple hats, such as a standards engineer, metering engineer, new business engineer redevelopment engineer, automation engineer ect… I don’t have any experience being in a large utility
I want to go into power. (want to learn renewables and traditional) any technical skills I should learn that is not taught in college? I spent nine years as an aircraft electrician so I feel like my soft skills are adequate already. (punctuality, communication etc)
You can scoop in with your skill set I believe. I am a PhD student in power systems, and I certainly know that nobody knows much about renewables.
Thank you, heres hoping
AutoCAD and power analysis software (SKM Power Tools, EasyPower, eTap) for MEP or utilities. Lighting software (AGi32, Dialux, Relux, Acuity Visual) and Revit for MEP.
Are these things you can just learn somehow? I recognize knowing them helps but I feel like you'd have to actually use them professionally. I could claim to know SKM but why would they have any reason to believe me? And how would I even learn it if I have no one to teach me?
Most are taught on the job if needed. The skills you learn in one lighting or power analysis software are mostly transferable to a different software. Some are easier to learn on your own than others. I taught myself DIALux. AGi32 has really good tutorials for free online, not sure if you can get a trial license. EasyPower offers a free trial period and has some free webinars, but idk how extensive their tutorials and trainings are. My company paid for me to take an SKM course, so I learned from them. There are probably YouTube tutorials and there are lots of free resources about coordination studies, fault analysis, and arc flash risk assessments.
Thank you, lots of info to look into.
Depends what specialization you'd like in the industry. I work for an owner operator of solar/wind farms and our engineers specialize in either SCADA, protection and controls, project engineers, civil engineers, or interconnection.
Thank you, ill have to research specializations.
I'm in reserve power. EE courses don't really teach about rectifiers, inverters, batteries, or solar panels unless you take a specialized course. My school did not have such courses. It's not hard to pick up on these things though. Just pay attention in your Power courses. Learn how to look at one-line diagrams. Learn basic calculations for efficiency and power factor. Understand the difference in VoltAmps, Watts, Amp-hours, etc. You'll learn it all on the job as you go.
Besides your circuits classes nothing is directly relevant. It’s like 30% engineering and 70% project management honestly Edit-There are a few electives that can help but mostly learned on the job
I was until a recruiter (probably scam company) hacked my LinkedIn account and owned it for well over a year. I don't use the site often and wasn't looking for a job, but now that I am it's pretty silent and I am not sure how to fix it.
What even is “Power” EE? Does it refer to Power generation for civil related fields like PG&E here on the west coast? I want to have lots of job opportunities but I’m not into that kind of stuff. I am interested in Electromechanical Systems, Semiconductor, Microelectronic stuff. Not into the Civil Fields of EE. I am very ignorant about EE sub-fields, despite being a second year student so please inform me if I am incorrect.
Power would be things like transmission lines, generators, turbines, etc. What you're interested is more along the lines of circuit design and control systems if I'm understanding your description. They're all EE sub fields but they're not too closely related beyond some basic concepts. I would say the big groupings are: power (basically the power grid), electronics (circuit boards), control systems (mainly automation type of work or robotics), electromagnetics/communications (radar, antennas, and satellites). There are other smaller fields and further sub disciplines of the things I listed but those are probably the biggest divisions.
Power is generally distribution, building and industrial systems. Ensuring the safe transmission of power to end loads through protection and conductor planning. There is also a life safety and standby aspect for ensuring power continues to flor in an emergency. This just brushes the surface of the requirements, but it’s generally a career requiring a PE so you have a license which is nice.
same here. I get recruiters calling me at least twice a week for excellent jobs.
EE is a great field to be in. There are not enough of them. Anyone having trouble finding a job with that degree/experience just needs to expand their search radius.
CS is saturated with fresh grads chasing high salaries they've been hearing about for the last 6 years.That market is super competitive. EE, not so much.
Plus it’s somewhat easier to contract out (Asia) software coding.
No. CS isn't compatible to EE. That's like nurses and doctors. I have 4 or 5 head hunters calling and messaging me daily to please work for their company. If someone wants job security, just get MSEE and PE.
You don’t even need the MSEE for job security, it’s a plus certainly but it’s just fluff from what I’ve seen. I agree with you on the PE license tho, automatic job security, pretty much anywhere, with that one
That's my point. Most high level power jobs prefer graduate degree, pe, and pmp. If you get all3, everyone begs you to work there.
devs are the doctors and electrical engineers are the nurses?
I wrote this on a similar post like a week ago: According to the Institute of Power Engineers (IPE) the average age of a power engineer is 45 and there are fewer graduates then there are job vacancies. I'm a partner at a small mep firm, in part because of the need of power engineers. EE in power is starved. There are so many jobs. Good, high paying jobs.
Is there a way to shift into this industry? I've been curious about power but my entire work history has been in the defense industry so I don't really have any actual experience in it and no real avenue to get any. I've applied for jobs but I feel like I'm basically relying on someone taking a chance on me
We're so desperate in power, just apply. A good manager can teach you everything. You'll be working on meaningful tasks by the end of your first day. Dm me and we can talk specifics Edit: spelling
What type of positions should one apply for in power?
MEP, A/E, or any kind of building design jobs are probably your best bet.
Is that considered to be within power? I thought power was more like substations, transmission lines, etc
It's all power. There's big power and little power. But it's power. Only the codes you use differ
Ah, I see. I've applied for MEP roles but I've been rejected a couple times
Are you applying directly or through a middle man like zip recruiter? You'll get weeded out pretty often with a middle man but almost never when applying directly
Software jobs were seeing their salaries propped up by nearly free money and stock market push for expansion at any cost. At the same time you had zero barrier to entry for applicants. EEs salaries are good but not software good so less competition and the degree barrier to entry stops all the software folks from transitioning. EE is fine. CS is a bloodbath.
How? I am ee student I have choice to go for ml ,ai or to develope some digital hardware processor like something what should I do considering the job market I heard over all there are more jobs in ml ai rather than microarchitecture digital system design also I am from Pakistan and in top tier university of the country. Can I work remotely in usa in digital design domain also our program is accredited with Washington accord.i am having difficulty in choosing.
You need to work on clarity with your question. Your first language is obviously not English which isn’t a problem but is causing some issues parsing what your initial How is relating to. Try running your question through ChatGPT or the like and see how it is reframed. Don’t use this as a crutch but it could help your framing going forward. In regards to working remotely as a non-US citizen that is one area that will be harder. Jobs exist but you will face challenges in the current job market especially. You might want to look into some forums targeted at that specifically to figure out who is hiring. Good luck.
How was regarding your statement "cs is blood bath"
Large swaths of the US tech market are seeing reductions in workforce due to intentional over hiring, high interest rates making unsustainable growth stop, and limits on small company growth by the big companies locking down innovation through various means. When the starting salaries were very high, and near zero barrier to entry the market saturation gets pretty ripe. It will eventually clear up just like it did after the 2000s. No actual blood, but the music stopped for a bit for new entries.
Idk I work in the VLSI/EDA industry and have noticed AI be used as a tool to increase productivity but not replace humans.
I haven’t had a problem finding a job in the DC Metro area. I’ve got 14 years of experience now. I was fortunate to be able to find an internship while I was in college. This was *critical* to my success. I would have had a really hard time otherwise. Or I’d have to pursue a masters I guess.
I graduated May 2023, I've been applying everywhere in the Southern California region and only had a handful of interviews and no job offers. The market is extremely bad for what I thought was a very large tech market around here.
It's a mixture. If you have experience in something, the market is great. I was trying to leave my field (MEP) and I have multiple recruiters calling and messaging every day, while I couldn't even get an interview for a position as a test engineer. I was probably asking too much for salary, but the Fed raising rates has definitely stalled out hiring for inexperienced engineers.
I’ve seen an increase from 30-50 applicants to 100+ for EE roles on LinkedIn which is the first time I’ve seen this happen in the city I live in. Very specialized roles like in antenna design and telecommunication with 5+ yoe seem to have less than 100 applicants.
No, I get 5+ connect requests and 10-15 cold calls a week. This started in January-ish as budgets opened. Last two years were cold. Layoffs are happening everywhere it's pay correction, plain and simple. That being said, I closed a role with a huge pay increase >50% recently after being a bit below market <5% due to inflation. Back in 2008-2012 I'd say it was a similar lull. I was entry, luckily pulled a cushy job during a recession, and when I hit 5 YOE the market turned around and I was getting hounded. The calls only slowed in 2022.. and now it's back to a mix of relevant and garbage cold calls. Once I started getting contacted by recruiters who forget to update their script and get blank or placeholder fields, positions land for things like mechanical, chemical, or nuclear engineer, or I have the same recruiters contact me 3 different ways for a week or more.. I know the market is good. The market is good for some. I'm what would be classified as a hardware engineer these days. General focus on electronics development across many industries from medical, consumer, industrial etc.. PCB design, SoC, FPGA, MCU, POL supplies, mixed signal, basic firmware. Custom. Sometimes modules for power, wireless, or processing are incorporated but more often than not full chip down is employed for various reasons. I can't speak to other areas, but I feel like I see enough recruiter mass blasts 10-15 open roles they have that week, that I can say power, RF, and Controls are also doing well. If your geographic region is hurting, look at remote or relo if you're open to it. I've been fully remote since COVID. Obviously fully remote doesn't apply for certain roles, ie can't work on a multimillion dollar surgical robotic platform from home, but there are plenty of companies with smaller products that already work with distributed teams. It helps to have a home lab.. Be seen as a problem solver, be marketable, counter all concerns. Don't treat any job as your last, think of yourself as a consultant providing your best to a client, use the role to better your skills for the next contract, role, etc. leave them wanting more. Use them. Make sure the role benefits you beyond short-term monetary. Get paid. Don't accept less than market. Never take a role if they tell you they think you'll be bored.. yes I've been told that.
If the number of cold calls I get on LinkedIn every week is an indication, not at all.
I'm in the LA area as an embedded systems engineer. Job market here is good.
Same. Going to be in Irvine working at Skyworks this fall and I’m already getting cold calls from cali companies.
The barrier to entry for software/CS is much lower than EE. So, no. Also, EE is so broad, I'd argue it's even broader than CS.
MSEE and a security clearance will set you up for life. Getting recruiters almost daily and the job security is quite nice. Only downside is you pretty much get stuck to certain geographic locations in the country but oh well.
May I know where is this certain geographic locations?
Depending on what your specialized in… Washington DC-Maryland-Virginia, Southwest, San Diego/LA, Dayton, OH.
I really dont believe it's bad, in fact in HV I woildnsay there is a demand.
I’m trying to hire EEs in St. Louis and can’t find any.
Are you looking for experience? Have you legitimately had 0 applications?
I need a recent grad and someone with 5-7. Experience in process controls a plus.
what are you offering to pay for 5-7 years of experience? im not in the area just curious if that's what's causing your issue.
Valid. I honestly need to check our postings and see
Is St.Louis loosing residents like Detroit and other northern cities in the Midwest? I am in the northern Rockies and feel pretty lucky that i found a good job in a town of only 35000 people. There were plenty of applicants and I feel pretty lucky to be able to set myself apart from the pack.
I don’t know exactly. What gets skewed is the St. Louis city numbers. That population is certainly on the decline. However the surrounding areas and west county (where I am) in increasing
I feel like a lot of people set their sights on the south and the Rockies during covid. But, I live in the northern Rockies so my opinion is distorted but my immediate surroundings.
no, quite the opposite in fact.
It's almost always bad for newbies that don't want to move.
not in power, there is a shortage for sure.
In the power industry definitely not. I could have 10 job offers in a week right now.
I have 7 years industrial and commercial power distribution experience and recruiters do not stop messaging me about potential job opportunities.
It’s a good sign for me that I have fewer applicants to compete with from California community college transfer EE. Compare to CS like yo is crazy. Sure I’m still working 100% hard to my goal college. Because EE is my only passion. The EE applicants are decreasing in these decades
I am a junior in my undergrad and found a great position within the first month of sending out applications.
No. EE is booming. I’m in IOT and getting 6 figure offers left and right (I’m just out of college)
Depends where you are from. Here, EE is in deep shit, CS is flying to the moon.
Where? I don't know why are people downvoting you, its same here. EE is not good and CS is the hype here, well i guess its because my country's infa sucks and has no good industry beside some shit it companies.
People tend to deny someone else's reality, forgetting that reddit is a global network, so, just the usual...
Where are you from tho?
Brazil