r/ECE

I want to know if any electronics graduate who started their career in the software industry and then pivoted to hardware successfully. How did you manage both? Is it feasible or should I just focus on getting into VLSI?

I am asking this because I have an offer as a software trainee I need to join immediately. But I am not at all interested in it and only considering it due to the job market and how tough it is to enter VLSI as a fresher.

hey i want some ideas on easy ece projects

if possible including matlab not too easy but which i can complete in 10 days

I’m an RTL design engineer for a large semiconductor company, with about 5 yoe. From my observation RTL designers either choose to be architects or managers. Some may progress to become principal engineers. Personally I don’t really enjoy managerial work (assiging tasks, scheduling, meetings etc). Architecture work may sound interesting but I noticed it involved a lot of writing specs/documentation which is not as fun as actual implementation/debugging problems. The principal engineer route sounds good but I’m not sure if the salary is comparable to the other roles. Any senior engineer with experience in these roles can advise and maybe share how different is the job and pay between these 3 roles?

• Imperial College London
• Seoul National University
• Institute of Science Tokyo
• University of Manchester
• Technical University of Munich

Any insight will be greatly appreciated

I am ECE student heading for second year, want to have some DIY project with electornic tool kit, ideally with robot kits, any recommendation?

Hello all!

I'm stuck in quite a dilemma and I need opinion from people who are either studying or working in the chip design industry in US. I have admits from NCSU and TAMU for MS in Computer Engineering for fall 2026 and I have gone through their courses and curriculum but each passing day I'm getting more confused. For starters, my primary aim is to bag a DV / comp arch / digital VLSI job role in the chip design industry. I'm also open to pursuing research and a PhD if the field interests me during my studies.

Points where I'm having conflicting thoughts-

1. Does TAMU serve as a pipeline into the Austin and Texas semiconductor industry? Or will companies not discriminate based on location? I see that Raleigh has more EDA and computer networks concentration.

2. TAMU and NCSU both have dedicated comp arch, verification and gpu arch courses. So I wanted to know if anyone of them is more industry aligned and has a more rigourous coursework and practical projects.

Also, I'm well aware of the difficult job situation and my long term goal is to return to my country. I acknowledge that the job hunting scenario has become quite tedious for an int'l student and am ready to put the efforts needed. Funding isn't an issue too so even though NCSU is more costly, if its better then I dont have any problem choosing it.

A little bit of my background -:

I have 2 YOE at a leading German semiconductor MNC as a verification engineer for software architecture of automotive mircrocontrollers. I quickly found out that embedded sys isn't for me and hence i want to switch domains. I completed my UG in Electronics and Communication Engineering

Hello everyone, I want to refresh what I learn in my masters of RF/Microwave and Antenna courses as its been quite some time since I passed out. Are there any online resources or youtube channels/playlists that can help?

Thanks

Im currently deciding between a few colleges for ECE. I have gotten into these schools for EE/ECE. I want to get into VLSI and chip design.

UW - Seattle (Full Ride + Instate)

Vanderbilt (Full Ride, really love the atmosphere and overall vibe)

UCLA (~40k/yr)

UCSD (~45k/yr)

Boston Uni. (Full Ride)

UIUC (~65k/yr)

Purdue (~55k/yr)

UVA (~15k/yr)

I have a 3.88 GPA in EE from an average state flagship, 2 years of post graduate industry experience, 10 months total of internship experience, no research, and haven’t taken the GRE, but historically have done well on standardized testing (32 ACT in hs) so I feel fairly confident there.

This would be for a non thesis masters. I am also wondering other schools I would likely get into for other non thesis ECE masters. I fear that CMU may be a reach due to a lack of research and its surprisingly low acceptance rate (20%).

I am an incoming first-year student to the California CC system and was wondering how I can get started in research or gain internship experience early. Any information would help, thanks.

Hi! I am a junior in high school who is interested in possibly pursuing a career in neural engineering or something relating to neurotech. I am particularly interested in making and implementing technology for movement disorders. My question is what schooling should I take to pursue that career. Right now I am planning to major in electrical engineering and minor in either neurobiology, neuroscience (depending on what the school offers). Should I major in electrical or computer engineering, or both if the school has ece. I know they are pretty similar but I am wondering which is better for this path. I am majoring in this because I am not sure completely if I want to go down the neural path so I want to keep my options open. Also, would a minor in biomedical engineering, if the school doesn’t have anything neuro related, be okay for this career path?

What are the job prospects for this career, other than research? I do not really see myself in straight academia or teaching. Also, what schools are good for both neuroscience and engineering, or an intersection of both.

Last thing, is there any way to get involved in this field as a high schooler, and possibly work with any research labs?

I know this is a lot of questions but I am grateful for any guidance or general adviceon this. Thank you!

I’m a senior studying computer engineering (focusing on comp arch) and trying to decide on a grad school.

My options:

• CMU ECE MS: 1.5 year but I have to start spring 27
• UCB EECS MEng: 1 year starting fall 26
• Cornell ECE MEng: 1 year starting fall 26

I got an architecture internship lined up this summer, and my plan is to go into the industry after I graduate.

I like Berkeley EECS for its short program length / brand name / lower cost, but I am worried that MEng will not be as perceived as a real master degree, so I am leaning towards CMU. Curious what people think in the industry for computer architects? Or is there a difference in the long term

Hi,

So I am a veteran student who basically worked in IT in the military, I'd say for at least 3 meaningful years, and then for 2 years in corporate hardware labs in the Bay Area. Then I went to school part time and worked full time as a Technical Project Manager at the same company for an additional year, then decided to go to school full time and quit my job.

That was about 4-5 years ago, and now I am looking for a job... honestly any job... The problem I think I am having now is really how to frame my resume. I think I could be a valuable embedded systems engineer, PCB designer, FPGA engineer. While these skills are definitely new college grad level, I don't think my previous experience is entirely worthless either, and I would honestly rather find a profession that makes use of both my degree and previous experience.

Additionally, when I was in my previous roles, I was pretty inexperienced and young, so I didn't really get any metrics on my contributions, I kind of just did what seemed most effective at the time, documented the process for the team, but couldn't say accurately in my resume that I made things "20% more efficient", etc.

The problem is I am not sure how to put all this in a one page resume, and honestly not really sure entirely what career path I can/should take from here since the job market has changed dramatically from when I left my career the first time until now.

I have kind of looked at Systems Engineering as a profession, but I am also concerned that the time I've taken to be a student since my last contact with larger data centers may be a bad look!

I could share my resume, but honestly it's a little all over the place right now and I could use some direction before trying to tailor it to anything.

Thanks for your help Reddit

As the title says, I need some help deciding between two offers. I'm graduating (EE) this may and I have two options right now. One is LG Energy Solution in Michigan at $76k base with $3k relocation, which honestly feels kinda low considering I’d be moving from Georgia. The other is a small semiconductor company in Georgia at $75k, and it’s literally like 6 minutes from my house. The second one feels perfect for my lifestyle. It’s basically the same pay, no need to move, and just way more comfortable overall. But at the same time, LG is really tempting because of the name, and I feel like it might be better long term. I guess what I’m stuck on is how much the company name actually matters early in your career versus just taking the easier and more comfortable option. Also wondering if starting at a smaller semiconductor company would hurt my chances of moving into bigger companies later like ASML or Intel. I don’t really care about location that much, I just want to make the smarter long term move.

I’m a 19 year old EE student at De Anza in the South Bay. I have some hands on background in automotive electrical and sensor systems and built an EV in high school. I’m working toward transfer and trying to get real world experience while I’m still in school. If anyone has advice on breaking in or knows of entry level opportunities in the area I’d love to hear it. Thanks

Hey,

I put together electrocalc.dev, a collection of free electronics calculators: Ohm's law, SMPS, RC/LC filters, BJT bias, LM317, op-amp gain, 555 timer, thermistor, antenna... about 35 in total. No login, no paywall, no ads.

I started it because back when I was an engineering student I could never find calculators I actually trusted, most were outdated, cluttered, or just wrong. Built this in my spare time to fix that.

What's missing? What would make you actually use it day to day? Thanks for your time I appreciate it :)

Dear r/ECE Community,

I'm contemplating using a 10P3T switch for an RF application. I'm trying to DIY such a switch because RF matrices are really expensive, especially ones you can control via software.

It's an antenna switcher with 3 positions that switches 3×5 antennas (5 coaxial outputs and 3×5 coaxial inputs).

I'm trying to build this switch so I can switch between different antenna lengths without manually changing them.
Example: 50-108 MHz, 108-232 MHz, 232-500 MHz

I might be able to bridge the coax shield around the switch, but I'm not sure if that would introduce errors, so I think it's best to switch both the center conductor and the shield. However, I'm not confident it can maintain 50 Ω impedance through such a DIY 10P3T.

Does anyone have any ideas? Can I even pull this off?

10P3T

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for someone experienced in RTL/Verilog who can help me build:

1.UART Controller

2.RISC-V Core (single-cycle or pipelined)

I’m already comfortable with Verilog and the prerequisites, and I can do this myself — but lately I’ve been feeling a bit drowned and low on motivation.

I learn best through interaction and discussion, so I’m looking for someone who can:

Guide me through the design

Help me think through things when I get stuck,

Collaborate rather than just give solutions

I’m on a **tight timeline**, so this is a bit urgent.

This is **paid**, happy to discuss based on your experience.

If you’ve worked on UART/RISC-V or similar RTL projects, please DM or comment. I’d really appreciate the help.

Thanks!