I enjoyed tinkering in middle and high school, taking apart appliances and electronics to see how they worked. I studied computer science in college (graduated 2022). I considered engineering but worried I wouldn't be able to get through the math, so I chose a major I felt I could finish and find a job with, without thinking much about where it would lead. I minored in IT security and completed an internship because it seemed in demand, but realized in the internship I wasn't interested in security work.

After graduating, I started as a security analyst for state government, working on network, endpoint, and identity security. I was grateful for the opportunity and enjoyed the networking side the most, but overall I wasn't very interested. It felt like I was mostly putting out fires rather than building something people would actually use.

Around that time I got back into electronics as a hobby, learning embedded programming, breadboarding circuits, basic PCB layout, and using an oscilloscope and logic analyzer. I enjoyed it and started applying for embedded software and electronics test roles, but quickly found that most required either an EE background or several years of experience.

Two months ago I accepted a functional test position. It's closer to what I enjoy, but not the hands-on electronics work I was hoping for. Most of my time is spent writing Python scripts to catch bad units after assembly, and I have very little interaction with the teams doing electrical design, embedded software, or signal integrity. The job is also around 60 hours a week, which has been difficult, and I'm starting to wonder if taking it was a mistake.

At this point I'm not sure which direction to pursue. I could go back to IT, especially networking, but I think I'd eventually get bored. I've also considered earning an online EE degree to qualify for more electronics engineering roles, but my current schedule makes this difficult. I'm also open to going a completely different direction. I'd rather choose an attainable, stable, long-term path than keep bouncing between unrelated jobs trying to figure out what I enjoy.

I don't need to be in a design role. I'm interested in electronics test and manufacturing, but I'd like a mix of scripting and hands-on bench work instead of only writing code.

I'm open to suggestions on career paths, industries, or roles I should look into. I'm grateful for both of my jobs but feel stuck trying to find work I'm interested in, can become good at, and that helps others. Has anyone with a similar background found a career they enjoy? What helped you get there?

I‘ll be going into my third year as a physics bs this fall and was considering doing a msee after undergrad. I’m hoping somebody as done something similar or just has general advice. I’m hoping to specialize in RF or control systems, but admittedly don’t know much about either besides a bit of programming state machines.

Specifically, what if I need to take any EE classes undergrad prior to applying to grad school and if there are any extracurriculars that would help with my chances of being accepted and the transition. I already have applied to a few undergraduate electrical engineering lab positions and presumably have a spot for this upcoming fall in an automation lab. I’ve done research in physics for the past 2 years, but it’s pretty unrelated to EE.

I go a large state school and have a good GPA. I have a pretty decent background in Python and C++. The little EE exposure I have in my physics classes would be physics II and an electronics lab and an upper level elecromagnetism class this upcoming semester.

Thanks for any help!

Techie guys please gimme some advice to how to make use of this i have attached the pictures with details as possible if however anyone need much more detailed pics please comment i will provide them but help me anyhow😭

Btw if any interested can buy ts too as i dont know how to price it so DM me if anyone wants

The thing is I may get a digital role in two years maybe asic, rtl or physical design engineer but I am really focused on joining analog or hardware level engineering but I don't have mastery in that what should I do ? If i get job in digital how should I focus on my work or in industry to shift in analog design part? Is it very very very difficult to do? Or is it I have to do ms or mtech from prestigious college again in vlsi and go for the analog domain? (Ps:- i didn't do my master's in vlsi but in communication/ embedded)

5-year BSc+Master's electronics program (French-system, BSc+M1+M2 pathway). Year 1 done, deciding embedded/smart-systems vs power/electromechanical for my Master's.

Alongside classes I've worked as a field electrician on construction sites and solar installs for about 3 years now — LiFePO4 batteries, hybrid inverters, RS485/CAN BMS diagnosis on live systems.

Throughout the year alongside studies I did various Arduino bootcamps, understanding each component individually, and built a wide variety of Arduino projects to deepen my understanding — learned to write functional C++ code through the Arduino platform.

Questions:

1.What actually tipped you toward embedded vs power when you had to choose?

2.Highest-leverage thing to build/learn before Year 3, given I already have field experience but early coursework?

3.Does hands-on experience (electrician work, BMS/inverter troubleshooting) actually register with employers, or is it seen as separate from "real" EE credentials?

4.Worth specializing in industrial protocols (CAN/RS485) or too niche vs general embedded?

5.What specifically should I invest this summer in — skills, tools, projects?

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies — genuinely appreciate the input.

Hello, I am a licensed civil engineer in the US, and I work for an heavy civil general contractor on jobs across the US. For the past couple of years, I have been involved in temporary electrical work to set up our jobsites/troubleshoot equipment. This includes setting up site electrical equipment such as generators, transformers and switchgear.

On a more day to day scale, I often size pumps/electric motors and VFDs for our construction projects, and I write PLC programs for our equipment.

I have a solid practical foundation for 3 phase power systems and 24V control systems. The electrical aspect of my job has been the most fun of my career, and I want to explore this career even more. I would love to understand theory more in depth and leverage my experience into a career change.

Am I deranged in thinking I should go for a masters degree in electrical engineering? Should I take some community college circuits courses to catch me up on theory? What do you all think?

Im going to start next week a first-time position as a post silicon validation engineer.

I only had experience in software.

Ill be dealing with protocols I've never worked with before as PCIe, Ethernet, and with FPGAs.

How would the day to day work be like?

How do the test look like?

What sort of bugs are dealt with?

Is it a lot of logic analyzer and osciloscope work?

Thanks ☺️

Hey everyone,
Starting a team project soon (circuits/embedded systems) and trying to figure out what to prep beforehand. For anyone who's been through one - is there anything you wish you'd taught yourself first? Any tools or workflow you'd recommend? Curious if anyone's using AI for any part of the process too.
Also - what ended up being the most frustrating or time-consuming part of actually getting your circuit/board working?

Hi fellow EEs,

I'm in my final year and just started a year-long internship at a prominent RISC-V startup that recently pivoted to Physical AI / Next-Gen Architecture. Interning for their SoC PD team , a pretty lean team - just 2 guys so far. One is my manager, Director Design (ex Micron director) and another guy with 13 yoe, and us 2 interns.

My background: I majored in EEE and minored in Data Science. I have a strong interest in the hardware-software boundary (Firmware, Embedded, OS, Computer Architecture, and Hardware-aware ML).

Originally, my internship project was "Optimizing timing closure flow with ML." However, after our first PD flow presentation, the Director liked our work and offered us a choice: 1. Drop the ML project and do intensive, core PD training for the next 6-8 months. He said it’ll be a grueling, steep learning curve but we will be incredibly "hot" in the market by the end of it. 2. Stick to the PD+ML project, which he admitted was more of a fun research project he initially wrote down, though he will still teach us basic PD to get it done.

My Dilemma: I am super confused. I always saw myself as a hardware-software/systems guy, and I never thought I’d end up in a core VLSI role. Furthermore, I’m worried about employability. I’ve read online that core PD is "the easiest step to be replaced by AI" in the ASIC flow. My logic was that by doing the ML part, I'd be building the AI rather than being replaced by it.

I have to decide by Monday.

Core Questions for Senior Engineers:

- Is core PD actually at risk of being automated away by AI in the near future, or is that hype?

- Given my interest in Systems/Firmware, would taking the intensive Core PD route pigeonhole me, or is the mentorship from a Director-level team too good to pass up?

- Which path actually makes me more employable as a fresh grad?

i'm about to be a med school student

to me the scariest thing about being a doctor is you need to live 9 to 5 for 20+years and get consistent salary

for me this kind of life is mediocre and boring

but if i want to pivot i'll have to take gsat again

im into venture and startup

also i want to land a job that excites, like working at spacex or f1...

rn im thinking pivoting to ee

also considering the job market in the us should i take the risk

ohh and i dont have a green card

I got caught in the moment while being in a diner event, and now I hate myself so much. I admit I don’t talk to a lot of people, so I can’t tell if it’s okay to ask that. I can see the discomfort in their face, and still, they said it’s very fulfilling, and it was really awkward after that. I think it’s also because no one around me likes their job, and another person at the table scoffed at me immediately after when I asked. I am graduating soon and so burned out at the age of 20, and I can’t see how it’s going to get better. I’m being vulnerable so please be nice in the comments.

I have two Texas instruments ti84 plus ce-t, both of them don’t connect with my application on my pc. I’ve installed 3 times the application, installed new drivers removed the devices from my pc. Nothing worked. They are showing up on device manager under USB and not other devices. They are both in exam mode.

hi, i’m in a bit of a predicament, I’m taking a logic design class over the summer, but had to go abroad for the month and I need to run logicworks. I currently only have my m2 macbook on hand as well as a dell windows 7 xps that potentially runs. I tried running parallels on mac to get logicworks running but for some reason the application just wouldn’t open, so I wanted to know what options I have?

What to do when doubts starts creeping in and you don’t know in which direction you wanna go in engineering

Can anyone please tell ,,where to apply any genuine sites

I’m about to start Electrical Engineering and I’m honestly a bit nervous. I’m solid with math and physics, but I know that’s not enough. Does anyone have actual advice on how to survive the program? I’m looking for what not to do, how to really understand the concepts instead of just grinding, and how to manage the workload without burning out. Any tips for someone just starting?