I don't know if I like electrical engineering
I’m currently a second-year Electrical Engineering student at the University of Auckland. When choosing my specialisation last year, my top two choices were Civil and Electrical Engineering, and I ultimately chose Electrical.
I was drawn to Civil because I enjoyed the statics content in ENGGEN 121, and the idea of working on large-scale infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, and dams appealed to me. I’d also heard a lot about major engineering firms such as Aurecon and WSP, and working at companies like those sounded exciting.
At the same time, I genuinely enjoyed aspects of Electrical Engineering. Even though ELECTENG 101 ended up being my weakest course grade-wise, I liked the circuit analysis side of it, and I also enjoyed the coding paper in Semester 2. I’ve always liked calculus, and one thing that appealed to me about the Part III maths papers in Electrical was that it has no stats— especially since I took ENGSCI 211 in first year and really disliked the stats component.
Now that I’m in second year, I’m a bit unsure about whether I made the right choice. COMPSYS 201 has been quite boring for me so far, although I do enjoy the lecture content in ELECTENG 291, and SOFTENG 281 has been decent as well. The 291 labs have been challenging, mainly because I’ve never used most of the equipment before.
A big concern for me is the career side of Electrical Engineering in New Zealand. From the research I’ve done, it seems like many of the strongest opportunities are in power systems. I looked through some past papers for power courses, and honestly, they seemed quite uninteresting to me. Of course, I haven’t actually studied power systems yet, so I know I can’t really judge it properly yet, but right now I struggle to picture myself doing that long-term.
I also feel quite overwhelmed by the electronics side of Electrical Engineering. I still feel like I barely understand what things such as microprocessors or many electronic components actually are. I know that’s probably normal since we haven't learnt any of that yet, but it still makes the field feel intimidating at times.
Another factor is that I’d probably prefer to stay in New Zealand long-term, although travelling for work would definitely be something I’d enjoy.
Lately, I keep having this thought in the back of my mind: “What if I had chosen Civil instead?” A lot of my friends are in Civil Engineering, and I have looked at the course material for some of their Part III courses, and it seems interesting. Strangely, though, I actually enjoy the current Electrical Engineering coursework more than my friend's Civil coursework right now, but I believe that's because I enjoy calculus maths. My uncertainty is more about the future — whether I’ll enjoy working in the electrical industry compared to working on physical infrastructure projects that you can actually see and interact with in real life.
At the moment, I’m thinking of finishing this year, as we have a hands-on course in Sem 2 and get to learn more about electronics and then deciding whether switching to Civil would be a better option for me. If anyone has been in a similar situation, felt uncertain about their degree path, or has any advice for me, I’d really appreciate hearing it.