r/ElectricalEngineering

Hi all, I’m a mechanical engineer and design RF hardware and vacuum electronics for aerospace applications for my job. Been doing this for a couple of years now and have been interested in electrical engineering and learning more about it. I've been thinking of pursuing a masters in EE as I've been pretty interested in DSP and RF/microwave topics. I'm curious if any other engineers went this route from ME. I have my whole GI bill left so I was thinking of taking a break from work and pursuing school full time to get this.

I haven't taken any major EE classes really except circuits and signals and systems (more ME focused). But I went to a T20 school and had a 3.8 GPA with a research paper I co-authored. Main reason for the switch is I don't really find CAD, GD&T, and FEA all that interesting and have been more interested in the EE topics at work. I'm wondering if those who switched had to take prerequisites or if you were able to take them after getting admitted. I like research, but not sure if I would be admitted into a thesis based masters with no real EE classes. What are my chances of getting admitted into a course based masters, or even a thesis based masters?

Anyways, just wanted to see what other ME's faced with transitioning and specifically jumping into DSP or RF? And also, kinda worried about the job market after graduation and what someone's job prospects would look like for a mechanical engineer who transitioned after 2 years of work. Hoping to stay in aerospace or medical.

Thanks for your guys inputs!

Background:
International student in the US. Just graduated from a MS in Communications systems and fortunately landed a firmware engineering summer internship at a big tech and a PhD at a decent school that starts spring 2027. I studied CE and then AI for undergrad, but decided to transfer to wireless as it’s more interesting to me and has less meaningless competition.

Thought:
I feel the wireless industry is quite dead now. Most of the ongoing research for 6G at either PHY or MAC layer won’t provide tremendous cost reduction to the existing cellular infrastructure, and there is no killer use case that pushes for better performance (lower latency/higher throughput). Like the whole 6G is not something really needed for now. This feeling is exacerbated by witnessing how AI has really revolutionized many digital industries. I start to worry about my job prospect since I can’t imagine why wireless industry would continue to hire more engineers.

Questions:

1. My own interests aside, what do you think I should study for a PhD in the broad topic of wireless? Can you suggest some concrete directions in that’s worth going in terms of industry/academic prospect?
2. How difficult do you think it is to find an industry job in Wireless (either UE or RAN side)? Is it getting harder or easier?
3. If I want to work on cellular, which layer (PHY or MAC) do you think will see more REAL growth/innovation e.g. Open/AI RAN, digital twin, neural network receiver etc

I have been involved in electrical maintenance work for about 8 years, and we have been working with the same thermal camera for some time now. beginning to think that the resolution is limiting us, especially when we are trying to look at substations and distribution panels from a safe distance

Is there anything other electricians and maintenance techs are actually running in the field right now. do you think the resolution makes a real difference in catching early faults or is it more the software and reporting side of things

Also wondering about the lens situation, sometimes we need to inspect tight switchgear and then pivot to scanning transmission lines from a distance, and swapping lenses in the field is seriously annoying. Is there a better way people deal with that?

Designing a very simple I2C bus with one master and one slave. The slave datasheet states a pull up of 1.5k or greater whereas the master datasheet specifies a 33k. I am concerned about using a 33k, I wanted something closer to 2. I understand that really this is just an RC constant. As R increases the time constant will increase, therefore the rise time will increase, therefore the bus speed will decrease. As a designer how would you approach this problem?

For more context, the master is a BT/Audio chip that is driving a class D amplifier for driving a speaker. The i2c bus in this case sets the register settings on the amp and these settings are adjusted in response to the voltage and current sense feedback coming from the class D.

I’m currently an apprentice electrician working toward my license, and I’ve started studying for the Electrical FE. I’ve already gone through a lot of the base math (calculus, diff eq, linear algebra) and am getting into topics like electromagnetism and the more electrical-specific material.

I’m wondering whether passing the FE could realistically open doors into electrical engineering or engineering-adjacent jobs?

Do employers care about FE outside PE track roles?

Edit, for context I live in the Chicago greater area

After 5 months of applying and 910 applications I finally got my first job out of undergrad as a test technician. It is bittersweet and I am worried that it being a "technician" role and not an engineer role might slow me down or be bad if I want to get those big engineering jobs down the line. Will this effect my early career trajectory? Does anyone have any insight, please and thanks.

I recently graduated in computer engineering and been applying to job for a couple weeks and I applied to engineer and technical roles. I haven’t heard back from any engineer position, but I got offer a job at a defense company as a Electrical Test Technician. If I take this, will it kill my engineering career if I stay here for a year or two while trying to pursue a master in electrical engineering?

Should I keep applying to get an engineer position or do I just take this to not risk unemployment/career gap? I guess I am most afraid of putting a technician brand on myself.

Edit: I just saw that another person posted 13 hours worrying about the same thing lol

Recently just got an interview for an apple internship listed in the title. My round 1 out of 4 will be happening soon. Anyone have any tips or have gone through this process and know what they typically like to do/ask? I assume first round is behavioral but I have no idea. And if I do pass the first round, what do you think I should expect in the next ones?

Hi all! :) Im a 20yr old 2nd year EE major in California, I picked EE because it’s the most interesting to me out of the engineering fields.

But something really important to me is being able to secure/find a job after graduation. How is the entry job market for EE?

A Big thing for me is work life balance, I put my mental health over most things . So i would like to know your guy’s experience. If there are jobs in EE that give less stress and a better work life balance (standard 40hour work week, clock in clock out vibe)?
I dont mind lower pay for better work life balance.

Thanks guys! Any advice or experience shared is deeply appreciated

I’m curious what each pin actually does on these connectors. And, theoretically, if it can still work if one of the pins snapped

I've had a rocky career path. First job was for an MEP contractor and boss would routinely scream at people and belittle them. I left after a year, and now landed at a new place which seemed alright, but after a matter of months I've realized everyone is completely negative, tired, there's zero communication and no support whatsoever. TONS of safety issues too. Things are so bleak that I'm considering quitting after 3 months and just going back home without notice.

What's the best way to recognize warning signs? Is this just what entry-level is like, where the only jobs willing to hire you are awful?

Hi everyone, I recently passed the entrance test and I’m considering studying Electrical Engineering at Kun Shan University. I heard that Taiwan allows international students to work part-time while studying, so I wanted to ask people who have actual experience there. I have a few questions: What are the pros and cons of studying at Kun Shan University specifically? How difficult is the workload while also working part-time? How much can students realistically earn per month? Can you survive mostly using your own earnings (rent, food, transport, etc.)? After graduation, are there decent job opportunities in Taiwan for EE graduates? Would you recommend Taiwan over staying in the Philippines for engineering? I’d also appreciate honest experiences (good or bad) especially from Filipino students or other Southeast Asian students currently studying in Taiwan.

For context I'm an American but I just finished my first year at the University of Limerick. It's an internationally recognized university, it's well funded and I really like it so far. My course (Electrical Engineering) is new as of 2 years ago, so nobody has graduated from it yet, but it's an offshoot of a very good and accredited Electronics program. I want to move back to the US after I'm done here, and work in the power industry or maybe in some industrial HVDC stuff, I'm not too sure yet. Here at UL pretty much every other engineering degree is accredited, but Electrical Engineering isn't yet. I still have time to switch to electronics, with an optional 5th year masters degree in power. Should I do that, or is it fine to assume that the degree will be accredited by the time I graduate? How important is accreditation actually?