Is electric engineering worth it, or is it better to just be

if we were you, we'd already know the answer to your question.

if you just barely graduated high school, then you will find lots of kindred spirits working as electricians. so, that's your only option. if you think, or know, that you can handle lots of mind-numbing calculus, then you have 2 options to choose from.

Very different work man.
You wanna be designing circuits and writing code or working with your hands and installing stuff?
Both take some circuit knowledge and are perfectly respectable professions but its up to you my man.

>>1075784
An electrical engineer can do everything an electrician can do plus more. Engineering has a higher ceiling. If you want to have carpal tunnel from wiring buildings by the time you're 30, go to trade school.

We've got a 30 year old co-op student at my electrical engineering company. He was an electrician until being crippled by a job site accident, so now he's studying to be an electrical engineer.

There is an in between option in there (at least here anyway) called an Electrical Engineering Technologist. It's a 2 year program.

You end up doing stuff like testing equipment, writing code, or can go into drafting/design.

I worked for a big equipment manufacturer, gave me a new truck and tools and basically drove to places we had sold equipment and commissioned it. Also called in to work on setting up variable frequency drives, high voltage relays, stuff like that.

I was an electrician before I took that program, and before that I had finished 2 years of electrical engineering(ended up having to drop out for reasons and never went back).

It was a lot comfier work as a tech, more brain power than manual labour, and hardly ever outside in the mud and rain. I only worked industrial as a sparky though, no residential.

Plus if something happens and you end up with limited mobility you can always go to work in drafting design, and at least in leaf land after 10 years you can stamp drawings.

>>1075784
Become an ee tech. Lots of work in automation. My job starts you at 52k with a 2 year degree.

>>1075784
Degree is ultimately better in the long run if you can do maths, but trades can get some decent money as well but sometimes its very hard physical work.
In some ways they're two different types of lunatic, the EE gets to spend hours.. days, weeks designing shit, which can get pretty fucking mind numbing after a while and sparky gets to go risk life and limb hoping some dickbag's shut down a circuit, or the right circuit.

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>EE is the guy that designs and tests the cars
>Electrician is the person on the assembly line or the mechanic fixing them

You need to make up your mind. Both take half a decade, so it's not a small investment.

As an EE you're going to be poor now. As you'll be be busy studying.

As an Electrician you're going to be working while you learn.

You're almost guaranteed work as an Electrician. But being an EE isn't guaranteed work.

It's a lot easier to become an Electrician. Becoming an EE is a lot of math and a lot of school. If you're not good at math don't waste your money.

>>1075797
No he can't you shit.

An Electrical Engineer can't go on a jobsite and start fucking with panels and boards because he's not qualified to do so.

>>1075797
Yeah nah this is wrong.

>implying electricians aren't just glorified construction workers

>>1075784
If u like math and no fun engineer.

If u wanna blue collar with a descent people and get paid okay electrician.

>>1075784
Do industrial elcetrician, then get dual ticket with Instrumentation, 100k + a year

I am good buddies with two electrical engineers

One runs a generator dealership and also a consultation and motor repair company.

The other is involved with the government trying to develop geothermal energy and promoting energy efficient systems.

Both of them seem to make bank and enjoy their work. But they have decades of experience behind them.

Who you are as a person depends on how far you will take your skills. If you only apply yourself enough to be stuck at a desk with a calculator then there you will be until you quit. If you have good problem solving skills and the ability to think outside the box (intelligently), which in my opinion is what makes an engineer, then you will find yourself having lots of fun and will often be in the field.

>>1076003
This is a lie.

>>1075935
Like how much studying are we talking about 3-4 daily, or 8+?
When it comes to math, are we talking like using the right formula in a cal or doing math without a cal?
>>1075863
How's it like being a Electrical Engineering Technologist? better pay than a Electrician ?

>>1076028
cant speak for ee specifically but rather generally it goes like this:
>you must master fundamentals of related maths (differential, integral, multivariable calculus & differential equations (& linear algebra for some)) year 1 and 2
>once you have slogged through these and proven you aren't a complete fucking idiot you start to learn specific applications of the maths to your field year 2
>from now on you learn concepts, and the backing mathz that go with them. You learn how to apply these to problems within your field, and the implications and limitations of these. yr 3
>all the while you generally start to specialize in one subarea of your bigger field, by this point you are learning/relearning finer details of things. expect to hear "oh well we taught you this before, but it is actually much more complicated; let me show you..." start building your own projects through senior design labs and classes. Yr 4

And all of the upper maths require more than just "given number goes here" thinking. You need to be able to use the equations as a toolkit and analyze a complex problem set up, see what *might* work, try to break down the problem and apply your maths, then see if it works. You do not need to know how to do this from the start, you will learn it as you go. Most important thing is to understand the fundamentals.

>>1076028
>3-4 daily, or 8+?
Not sure but its a fuckton. Expect to miss some social functions on weekends because you're working on something.

Most of my math courses the professor didn't allow a calculator on tests, and we went up to solving partial differential equations

>>1076028
To be an EE you need to pass several semesters of calculus, even if it's not heavily used in coursework (passing mention in signal analysis, kinda important for device physics). The math you'll be using most often is algebra and trig, maybe a bit of linear algebra.

If math doesn't come easily to you then I wouldn't recommend engineering.

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>4 years in the military as an electrician
>another 5 years in the civilian sector doing generator/HVAC repair
>start using my GI bill to get a mechanical engineering degree
>have a 2.9 GPA
>my experience means fuck all and nobody wants to hire me just because of that number
>will probably just go back to spinning a wrench but now 4 years behind in my career

pretty fucking salty about it, not gonna lie.

>>1075784
protip: skilled tradesmen make more on a per hour basis than engineers do.

most engineers don't work 40 hours a week, they work more like 50-60 and often take their work home with them in order to meet deadlines.

>>1076109
also, the vast majority of people who get engineering degrees don't end up doing engineering.

most turn into project managers or cost analysts who basically move man-hours and $ around in excel and spend half their day dealing with shady contractors.

>>1075935
If you are competent in math can you get by as an electrician without the calculus ,trig etc.

>>1076109
Yea nah. Electricians peak out at pay pretty early and usually sweat/bust their ass until they die unless they get some kind of field supervisor position. Then they get a non-physical but still usually hot/cold job, a small raise, an undeserved sense of entitlement, and a 1 in a million chance to become a PM. Only way to get wealthy is to start your own business.


But it's true most Electrical and Mechanical Engineers usually don't end up doing "engineering" but they do usually end up doing CAD, programming, or immediately start out as a PM. The first two can still count towards getting your PE if your company is decent and are easy jobs mentally and physically. Hours may technically be worse than a guy in the field, but at 40 your knees will work. Starting out as a PM, you've already surpassed what 99.99% electricians will do, and you'll be resented. You will probably fuck up, but it won't help that your field management will do everything they can do to sabotage you.
If you do start out doing actual engineering, pay will probably be shitty for the first year or two, then you'll be in the top 1% of your region.

>Dad was an electrician out of high school, died last year after owning his own small business for about 20 years. Made 400k his best year, but didn't turn a profit for the first year and barely made anything the next 4, then his profit just fucking exploded when he dropped union employees and started working with non-union GCs.

I was lucky enough to work as an electrician as a teenager, got a ton of experience and knowledge, and then got a 5 yr dual ME/EE BS's and go straight into true design. I've seen the old timers never amount to anything, and I've seen countless URs get put into the described roles above. I'm 32 now, a PE, and make $120k and am slightly underpaid if it means anything. I do work some long weeks, but I also work short ones.

I am a new grad electrical engineer. I make 70k and I do real work. I also get paid over time. Aka, don't work for a shit company

>>1076147
>Yea nah.
yea, yea. you know absolutely nothing my man. i said skilled, not some knuckle dragger pulling romex in residential housing. you may make 120k$ but thats some cherry picking anecdotal shit. the average for engineers is 65k$, which works out to around 30$ an hour if you work only 40 hours. any decent solar tech easily makes more than that. if you can troubleshoot PLC's or do some industrial stuff its even more.

i got paid 45$ an hour to walk around with a power analyzer looking for places in commercial buildings that could use harmonic filters.

for someone who claims to be an engineer, you sure haven't done any research into what the vast majority of your peers actually make.

Lucky I'm just going for my gen ed at the moment, after seeing some theses posts I'm starting to think that maybe this is'n the best career choice, What's the best type of engineering? I did want to be a robotic engineer, there any demand for that yet?

>>1076163
Forgot to add to this. But i'm pretty decent on a computer, computer engineering worth it?

>>1076108
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0C4_88ub_M

Good doco

>>1076161
65k is starting for engineers.

If you're worth a shit you'll easily be making 6 figures

>is engineering worth it
what kind of era do we live in that someone has to ask that

I blame patreon

>>1076184
Well it's manly just going to get this degree, and not being able to get a good job with it that is giving me the biggest fear

>>1076190
If you get the degree you'll get a job. Worry about the degree first. And whether or not you actually like it

>>1076108

I don't even know what a GPA is but as far as I am aware you can be the best in your field but a bad GPA means that you can't be the prom king in the states, which means no hand egg scholarship or girlfriend to cuck you or even a car.

Why would you live in that country?

>>1076197
i would live in europe but i can't speak arabic.

>>1076182
Most EEs from my graduating class started out at around 65k while the computer engineers were like 80k go figure

>>1076199
>80k CPE
god this software bubble needs to burst.

>>1076154
What industry are you in? Most people from my graduating class had to go into defense to make 70k+.

>>1076200
The only difference between comp sci and computer engineering is a couple semesters of hardware that will probably never be put into practice. I don't understand why there aren't more computer engineers, you can get the same jobs as a code monkey and more.

>>1076022
nope, livin the dream right now, going to my last year of Instrumentation schoolin 2 weeks, full paid wages in school, made over 100k last year before OT

>>1076217
*in two weeks

>>1076028
>How's it like being a Electrical Engineering Technologist? better pay than a Electrician ?
Actually? It's not, maybe with 10 years behind you it is, but I'm comparing to the higher end industrial electricians. Pretty close though, and I think you could hit a higher ceiling, I'm also >>1076217
so not really typical right now, just compairing to other guys i went to school with.

>>1076144
>competent in math
>without the calculus ,trig etc.

What level of math do you consider good enough for an electrician?

>>1076226
Highschool school trig

>>1076217
Nope. If that's what you're doing, good for you, whatever it is you're doing is obviously working but to say this is the rule of thumb is a lie.

>>1076234
I'm speaking for a limited area to be sure (I don't know people working all over north america), but where I am the salaries I mentioned are accurate.

>>1076108
After I left the military (was an EE before I joined) I just went on a contracting binge for a few years. China, India, PNG and so on with either telcos or mining companies.
Its a good life if you don't have any immediate family and don't mind travelling. Lot of countries have their local engies but they're shit, corrupt or basically incompetent cunts so if you're even half competent and willing to work hard they'll always have something that needs doing.

Good chance to get some bankroll, experience and while you might not have done well at the schooling, hard experience does count for a lot.

>>1076254
>I just went on a contracting binge for a few years. China, India, PNG and so on with either telcos or mining companies.

Where did you find these gigs?

I think a lot of the times its mostly attitude and work ethic that will carry you no matter which one you choose. Been an industrial mechanic for three years, with one year of electrical trade school, and am already at 50k a year. Am going for ee tech next.

Anon, I electrical engineer from Russia.
Where is find a board about electrical area?

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So what is considered good pay, I haven't really much experience with cash yet, is 100k good, or realty good? 60-80 decent

>>1076565
60k-70k is average for an EE who just graduated. 80k after working for a few years. Over 100k after a decade.

This is assuming you're actually competent. Some people stay in entry level positions their entire life.

>>1076257
Few different ways, bit of the old fashioned social networking- actually talking to people helps, Linkedin isn't too bad and you can also find a few people with similar skillsets, experience along with jobs there. Its sort of a facebook for adults really.
Recommendations from previous employers helped a lot too, that tends to make the world a bit smaller for finding work and you're not as liable to get a shit job too often. After awhile I just started my own small business, rolled it in with the farm and a few other things and I just pick up jobs from telcos mostly- designing their backhaul networks, sometimes a bit of R&D into new products and power supplies.

Sort of working on a project management degree on the side through open university, figured I'd done so much of it over the years I may as well have that on paper too. Don't forget you other skillsets, be that leadership, logistics, people management etc- and while I can't really go full mil-spec on them (it makes civilians cry) I do know how people work as a team and how to make them work better.

>>1076593
Thanks, but I mean in general. Like what amount is a living income and what's a good and luxurious income? Does it depend more on where you live?

>>1076782
Engineering jobs are usually upper middle class. You're not going to be buying a ferrari and mansion, but you can pay off your student loans in a couple years, get a pretty nice house, put your kids through university, and still have disposable income for hobbies and trips.

It does depends a lot on where you live. In a city like San Francisco engineers are payed a lot but have to live like their poor because renting a tiny studio apartment is $2000/month and buying a house costs a couple million.

Depends on if you ever want to retire

>>1076854
This

Go with electrician and you'll work until the day you die

Go as engineer and you'll retire at 65 (earlier if you're smart with your money)

>>1076190
Dude, it's right up there with asking
>Is being a lawyer worth it?
>Is being a doctor worth it?
Granted, those other fields will eat up MUCH more of your time upfront before you start seeing big gains

But yes, man, engineering, if you can sit your ass down and do the homework, is generally a very good idea to really have your education on your resume covered

>>1076782
My grandpa was an immigrant and my dad was an engineer. It effectively lifted up our family, I've never had to worry about money and now I'm becoming an engineer. Want to start a business though and get into the upper class.

>>1076816
Thanks for the example, just trying to make enough to live comfortably and provided for my family, if I ever have one. .

>>1076022
Instrument techs get paid ridiculous amounts.

>>1076257
USAjobs is good for DoD contact work, especially if you still have an active clearance. It's where my wife found her foot in the door in the IT/cybersecurity field. That and knowing people from working in the military. Reservists can network like crazy.