Electrical Engineers: What is it that you DO exactly?

[Thunderscreech]

I'm looking at career paths, and, day-to-day, what is it like being an Electrical Engineer?

I know there are different fields &c., and that the general Day-To-Day probably varies with those fields. The web is worthless as a resource, because it gives me stuff like this.Informative, yes, but not what I'm looking for.

I'm at that awkward age where I wont get a second chance to have a free [sic] education. I'm already on that second chance as it is.

[fdeck]

Everybody knows electrical engineers drive electric trains.

Okay, I am not an EE, but I work with quite a few of them, and I have done this kind of work in past jobs. I work for a company that manufactures scientific instruments which contain, among other things, electronic circuits. The EE's design those circuits. More to the point, this involves things like:

Finding out the requirements for a design, ranging from functionality to compatibility with various government regulations.

Researching components and suppliers.

Designing the thing, and working with vendors to get it made. Design is done using CAD software.

Testing and debugging -- oscilloscope and soldering iron.

Working with engineers in other disciplines (mechanical, optical, software, etc.) to get the circuit working with the rest of the system.

Documenting the design so that it can be manufactured and maintained over the duration of the product lifetime.

Working with manufacturing plant to deal with production and quality issues as they arise.

EE's often pursue some related sidelines such as the embedded systems, which are circuits controlled by microprocessors, and digital signal processing.

[rcarraher]

My info probably isn't relevant anymore, as now I design networks, but back in the day I would design circuits, sometimes as part of team, to do various things. We'd work from a concept like if the operator does so and so, this comes out (a bit more complicated than that, but lets save space) started off on power supplies to provide various voltages for computer circuits. I also designed tape storage devices usually as part of a electro-mechanical team), hard drive controllers , frequency synthesizers (PLL) for accurately tuning anything from a TV set to communicating with rockets. We usually worked with a concept, roughed out a block diagram, then circuits to fulfill the purpose on each "block". Back then we worked from catalogs of parts, transistors, capacitors, voltage regulators and then TTL logic chips, and gates, or gates, flip-flops etc...

Now a days, the guys pretty much design these circuits that used to have a footprint of say a PC and put them in an IC the size of a postage stamp; ASIC's or application specific IC's. Same principles same math, just way smaller. Back in my day, we'd build our own circuit prototypes or you had a couple engineering techs to help you build them. Then they'd go into test, get redesigned, finally brought together into the larger machine. Now a days, they probably send them to an assembly team, then to testing so the engineer isn't as hands on, soldering his own circuits etc...

[LSquared]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

I'm looking at career paths, and, day-to-day, what is it like being an Electrical Engineer?

Wow, it depends. I'm an EE with 27+ years in the in Protection & Control of Electric Power Systems... I do not get into circuit design and stuff (though I studied it). My area is applying microprocessor based equipment (circuits) to control the electric power grid.


What's it "like"?? That's pretty hard to answer. I've done a lot of stuff in 27 years, from applications to sales to product development to marketing.... I'm currently a supervisor, managing a staff of young engineers, doing consulting work. Some of those roles have been fun, some.... not so much.

But I enjoy problem solving, understanding how things work, trying to find the "least wrong answer", analyzing what went wrong when things go wrong....

[foderaman77]

Go the www.ieee.org (institute of electrical and electronic engineers). Its a professional society. Where there are electrons being used for power, lighting and processing (analog, digital and materials (semiconductors, electro-optics, etc.)) there will be electrical engineers designing, researching and managing.

[Jonyak]

I am a calibration engineer.

So basicaly I am in charge of a group of peopel that calibrates test equipment and performs repairs.

I mainly end up maintaining our standards laboratory, which includes extensive use of statistics to forcast what our standards will be when when we use them.

I also am involved in prepareing and maintaining uncertainty budgets for all of our cals.

I also prepare procedures which the cal technician use to calibrate equipment. all of this is done to an is0 17025 standard, so there are process controls on everything, that I once again must maintain.

I also purchase equipment and supervise repairs.

there are alot of other things I do as well, and have done over the years.

I also surf talkbass alot.

[jojobean39]

EE is a peculiar major/field. There are so many broad ranges of things that you can do inside the field. From my graduating class I have friends who do everything from aeronautics to power to programming to manufacturing.

Personally, I was never into the programming side of things. I never cared for microprocessors or digital design type stuff. So, I went into power. I work for a consulting firm that does power design for different companies. I've gotten to work at a lot of cool places- NASA, Cape Canaveral, Disney World, FSU's Magnet Lab, universities, utilities, etc.

I personally am a substation and/or distribution engineer. The current project that I am working on is an upgrade of the FAMU campus (in Tallahassee, FL) electrical system. I am doing everything from the 15kV level down to the breakers inside the buildings. It's a good job and you learn a lot. The power industry has been a neglected one in recent years due to the increase interest in computer engineering technology. Within the next 10 years or so the power industry is going to be facing a crisis because so many people are going to be retiring and the industry has not been replacing those people with younger engineers. It's a good field to consider.

[Phalex]

The EE's around here do a lot of controls type stuff. They spec out motors, and drives, and do a heck of a lot of PLC programming.

[Pilgrim]

I've worked with EE departments - they probably offer more options and directions you can go than any other field of Engineering. What they do depends on the industry and the company...I like the ieee.org link above...

[jwbassman]

Originally Posted by Phalex

The EE's around here do a lot of controls type stuff. They spec out motors, and drives, and do a heck of a lot of PLC programming.

That's what a lot of the EEs that I deal with do. The company I work for sells Process Controls and Process Instrumentation. Lots of pressure and temperature devices. Many of them are analog like pressure gauges and thermometers, but we also sell a lot of Pressure Transmitters/Transducers, RTDs, Thermocouples and Controllers. That's the stuff I usually end up deal with the EEs on. I help to figure out exactly what it is they need for instrumentation on the given application. So most of the EEs that I encounter are dealing with large process plants and all of the electrical and controls involved in them.

[etoncrow]

I am a mechanical engineer working in the new construction/renovation field. Working with Architects I design HVAC, plumbing and fire protection systems; but, I also slip over into what is traditionally defined as electrical engineering when I design power distribution, communication and lighting systems. This area of EE is basically "cookbook" engineering because it is so rigidly defined by the NEC.

[craigb]

I'm a "software EE". I switched to EE because I really liked digital circuit design and thought that's what I was going to do. Did senior projects in IR sensors/robotics and extending software for a mechanical engineering ski stress lab. Did my thesis on color image processing while taking classes on machine learning and pattern recognition. Didn't much like analog circuits, materials, fields, etc.

Looking back I see that the first job I chose really firmed up the direction my career has gone. I could have gone and worked on printer design but chose to to image processing software. I've done image processing s/w, embedded systems for telephony, been a manufacturing engineer (sw & systems for POS terminal testing on a mfring line), done some PC diags development and various types of PC instrumentation and enterprise management software.

EE really does encompass a very broad range of stuff. I had the same type of question when I was in HS and remember calling a friend-of-my-mother's-son who was majoring in computer engineering trying to understand the same thing - and what he said was all greek to me. Summer jobs (I worked as an electrician's & millwright's assistant in a chemical plant and saw what they and some of the engineers did, worked at IBM as an intern and saw what quite a few different engineers did) or internships can be the best way to really know what people do on a day-to-day basis.

As a "sw EE" I spend most of my time sitting at a computer - programming, writing specs, researching, debugging issues, etc. At least when I'm not in meetings or occasionally heading into the lab to reconfigure equipment. When I was a mfring engineer I spent a part of my time with the folks on line who ran our equipment, part of the time in our lab working on new equipment and part sitting at a computer programming, checking on the data from the line, etc.

[jwbassman]

Here's a good example of the stuff I end up dealing with:

Email conversation

I get customer's request. (Engineer at GE)

Could you please provide me with a low cost pressure transmitter for the following application:

Stream Composition: Flare Gas
Temperature: 100-140oF
Pressure: 40-80 psig
Pipe Size: 6"
Hazardous Area Rating: Class 1, Div. 1, Groups B-D
Connection: Flanged and NPT (please quote both but the end user with choose which one to use)


I quote transmitter

get response back this morning about 5mis ago:


For this quotation, I have two questions.

1) Can you please change the cable length from 6 foot to 75 feet?
2) For the electrical connection (1/2" NPTM), how is the customer suppose to connect to it? Are they suppose to use a C1, Div.1, Group B junction box or do you leave it up to the end user to install to the requirements of local code (NEC)?

This guy is the engineer!! I'm not. Somehow with most engineers I deal with I end up engineering exactly what they want and I'm not an engineer!!

Any case, it seems like most EEs have a lot of different aspects of what they are dealing with. My job is to help them out the best I can.

In this case I advise that the explosion proof transmitters is designed to mate directly to conduit and have the customer terminate it according to the Local Code (NEC). Whether that is via junction box or directly to their controller, that's up to them.

[Kosko]

Haha, I love it being a programmer and not feeling nerdy enough.

[DeluxeRed]

What is it EEs do? Whatever they want to! What are your interests--how does electricity/electronics apply to that? That's what you can do as an EE. Do you play bass? How about active pre's or big amps? Do you surf? How about transponders? Do you like girls? How about clothing with embedded pc's? Do you like big bucks? How about coming up with a new solution to a big problem?

It's a pretty wide-open world. Go grab you some.

[aborgman]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Everybody knows electrical engineers drive electric trains.

Okay, I am not an EE, but I work with quite a few of them, and I have done this kind of work in past jobs. I work for a company that manufactures scientific instruments which contain, among other things, electronic circuits. The EE's design those circuits. More to the point, this involves things like:

Finding out the requirements for a design, ranging from functionality to compatibility with various government regulations.

Researching components and suppliers.

Designing the thing, and working with vendors to get it made. Design is done using CAD software.

Testing and debugging -- oscilloscope and soldering iron.

Working with engineers in other disciplines (mechanical, optical, software, etc.) to get the circuit working with the rest of the system.

Documenting the design so that it can be manufactured and maintained over the duration of the product lifetime.

Working with manufacturing plant to deal with production and quality issues as they arise.

EE's often pursue some related sidelines such as the embedded systems, which are circuits controlled by microprocessors, and digital signal processing.

I am an EE - and what he said is probably the best general description you're going to get.

It's basically what I do now.

I previously worked for Intel in microprocessor design - and there I basically just did circuits, logic design, and microarchitecture.

[DerHoggz]

My mom was one back in the day, she worked on stuff for fighter/bomber planes, coordinating software and all kinds of stuff.

[coreyfyfe]

They engineer electricity. Duh.







Seriously though, my father-in-law is an EE and is a civilian contractor for the air force designing/maintaining radar systems or something like that. I'm not really sure actually. It's something with radar at a local airforce base. That's all I'm allowed to know........

[Thunderscreech]

Wow, thanks for all the info guys!

it's been a toss-up between an EE and an Organic Chemist. EE seems like it'd have less potential to get me in trouble, but I'm still not sure.

Thanks again!

[Deluge Of Sound]

Yeah but Organic Chemistry means you can create all sorts of fun and exciting things that may or may not be very easy to get a hold of otherwise.