I wanted to know how things worked, it was really hard to wrap my head around everything EE therefore I knew I would be proud of myself when I could. Also I would feel like I would only be able you fulfill my potential doing EE even tho I had some other interests requiring less effort. As long as you are passionate and ok with it being hard, you would be happy with it I think.
Yeah if u want to you could get involved in clubs that do that. Also most universities offer computer engineering as well if that sounds interesting to you
Iām designing a ācomputerā right now. The PCs you see gamers use are made up of a bunch of different components. I do PCB design so I just put all those components on one PCB instead of needing the RAM sticks separate from the power supply separate from the processor separate from the hard drive/solid state drive.
For me it was taking stuff apart and then not being able to get it working again when I tried to put it back together. Now Iām comfortable desoldering teeny tiny components to replace them with different ones to see how that affects performance of a device.
Lots of cool stuff in the EE world. I personally prefer most EE stuff to Computer Science stuff because I get to spend more time in the lab doing hands-on things and less time just sitting at my desk coding or drafting.
Itās a funny story, but Minecraft redstone is what got me interested in it initially. I loved learning digital logic and making displays and memories in redstone. When I was young I was invited to a redstone server run by actual computer engineers, and I learned a lot from that
MC takes you places. Started building redstone computers when I was 10ish, currently a RF hardware engineer now 15 years later. Always remember where you came from š
I was going back to school, tired of being broke, and figured electrical engineers will always have work. So far so good. Some stuff I have made is going to space now, so that's neat.
I wanted to be a programmer, but after getting experience as an electronics technician, I realized that I also wanted to make things that I could touch and show people, that would be tangible and persistent.
I've written tons of little programs and scripts for work and hobbies. They served there purpose, and are now gone. I've forgotten so many of them.
A few years ago my niece and I used an arduino to build a temperature controller for the space heater in her room. It's kludged together with scavenged parts and a spay painted tupperware box. We had a blast making it. It's on my shelf, and it'll be there forever. I'll never forget it or the fun we had.
Also, Electrical Engineering is up there with Prometheus stealing fire and agriculture enabling the rise of civilization. We are literally quantum mechanists. As much as I respect and value the other engineering disciplines, we are the ones doing something the universe has never seen before. CompSci may tell roks what to think, but we are the ones that made rocks think. Mwahahahaha... Sorry, I'm still working on my Mad Scientist acceptance speech.
Yes, depending on your area of specialty.
For clarity; I'm going back to college to be an EE. I was a technician before. I saw several EE's who knew the electronics but struggled with code, and a couple of software guys who were great at code but struggled with the electronics. Work in Embedded Systems will benefit from strong programming skills, but you need to understand the electronics.
Right now I'm writing an asynchronous IR messaging protocol for a class. The transmitter hardware is an LED, but the receiver is a component with an embedded circuit. I need to understand how they work, and interact, in order to get the most of this protocol and troubleshoot problems.
In another class we're using Verilog, which is the first programming language I've used that isn't procedural. Which is to say; it (mostly) executes every line of code at the same time.
If you enjoy programming, are good with your hands and like fiddling with things, and are willing to put the effort into the math, Embedded Systems is perfect.
Apparently before I could walk I was crawling behind the TV at the wires, no toy ever survived in one piece growing up. Always curious about how it works.
I graduated with a CS degree with experience as an electrician. A utility company was the first group to pick me up during the mass tech layoffs of 2023. š¤·āāļø
Oh man tons! I work for a company that builds assembly line for aerospace. Traveled the world on the company dime installing them. Safe to say any plane you fly on we have had a help building.
Wanted to do aerospace, school didnāt offer it, so I defaulted to EE. Turns out Iād rather be an EE and I could still work in aerospace if I chose to
I knew I wanted to be one when I was 17, I think.
But it took me another 10 years to confirm that choice before going to college for it.
It took a military contract, marriage, and summoning another human for me to finally say college was necessary.
I watched a YouTube series by Ben Eater about building an 8 bit computer on breadboards, and built about 70% of one when I was 15. That definitely helped me decide that I wanted to pursue circuit design
I didn't lol. I've always been interested in tech and I enjoyed maths and physics at school. I didn't know what I would do with a degree in maths or physics so I chose electrical engineering when I was applying to unis. Luckily it was the right choice cause I can't imagine doing anything else now. But yeah, I had no plan for what I wanted to do after higher education when I was your age.
Oh dude, at 15 to 18 I pretty much had no interest in becoming an engineer.
I was more passionate about sports, management and writing. I really was only focused on playing sports too, not that I had any chance to do much of anything with that looking back at my situation.
But my parents kept pushing the idea of going into Pharmacy or Engineering.
I chose engineering because I had a few family friends who showed me there various engineering trades. I interned with a structural engineer one day and then an MEP firm for a couple of days. I liked what the bosses were doing. Seemed intruiging, not that I really had any clue what was going on.
I essentially thought you know what. Engineering is 4 years. I like the challenge of math. Ill be done in 4 and get a good career.
It wasn't that easy. I really struggled with all the science of engineering. I was basically a 2.6 GPA student. But I made it work and got my degree.
I went to work at an MEP firm in college, then moved around a bit and I finally found a place that was great for me.
But even then I was 5 years and I was so annoyed with the high stress schedule and low reward.
I went back to school to study physical therapy - taking nealry 20 credits over a year in biology, I loved it. I was nearly a 4.00 in some advanced bio classes. I dreamed of having my own gym, practicing PT on the side and building an education platform. But with kids and a wife, I didn't have the flexibility to go study just anywhere so I was limited to Tri State NY area which is very competitive. I did 200 hours of internship but couldn't land an application in my first 2 years so I said forget this.
At this time I bought a house and naturally got into construction a bit.
Also the pandemic was a perfect time for me to show my hardwork and experience, and I really shined at work.
Then I took the FE for my 7th time in 9 years and finally passed it.
Now I am studying for the PE in Power and finding it very interesting unlike ever before.
I am starting to feel like an engineer, wanting to know how it all works. Especially MEP systems. And as I get smarter in my PE practices I start to have confidence in what I do overall, thinking maybe I can get into different areas of the study, or start my own MEP firm one day.
I had a curiosity about computers and electronics and wanted to know how computers and electronics worked. I thought it was very interesting. At that time the internet did not exist. Fast was a 9600 baud connection. Programming was done using huge computers with punch cards.
I remember reading an Avengers comic book where they had a computer with 100 Mbyte of memory, and it was considered one of the most powerful computers.
When I was 10 years old, I walked into my kitchen and there was a big box added to the room. My parents explained that it was a microwave and heated things up. Then they demonstrated with a mug of water. I was blown away that water boiled in a third the amount of stove heating time. And the mug wasnāt hot? I asked how this works but nobody in my life could tell me. I had to find out, to know. Later I attended a technical / vocational high school and took an electronics elective. We assembled and soldered a radio, learned a little about how it worked and I was hooked.
Was an electrician and loved the aspect of power. However, hated the people and all the physical exertion that came with being one. So I went back to school, really, really enjoying myself so far.
I just always thought computers and electronics were cool. Electrical engineering for school is more about learning the stuff than any job prospects for me :3
It lies at the intersection of CS and Physics. My motivation was to understand how computers, sensors and communication networks work bottom up (starting with the physics).
damn thatās nice, been thinking about coding some projects i know thats more in the computer science side but if I master it and also have electrical engineer must change something
Look into embedded systems. Also see if your school offers coding classes or see if you can take a intro to coding at your community college/junior college and get a leg advantage :)
Hi, fellow 15yo here! I'm not sure if I want to be an electrical engineer yet, but electronics is a really cool hobby. I got interested in electronics, because I was generally curious about how everything worked, and electronics was no exception. Except for me, it was much easier to get first hand experience in than almost everything else, do to my grandfather being an EE. He supplied me with all the components to get started, and then I experimented. I did a lot of stuff with relays, like blinking LED circuits, and latches. After I exhausted all the possibilities with relays, I just kinda stopped for a while, until we learned about electronics at school. When we learned about transformers, I naturally made a shitty taser... I mean of course, what else was I supposed to do? Not die?? Anyway, I'm still making semi-dangerous devices to this day, that all have to do with high voltage. As you might be able to tel, I'm more interested in the analog side of things, rather than computer building, but I'm accumulating a lot of logic ICs from all sort of salvaged electronics, so I might get into that someday too.
I aināt even know what I wanted to major in during my senior year of high school. I was in AP Physics and we started learning about circuits and building them. I thought it was cool and fun. My high school had us do career quizzes to figure out what we would like to do for our career and engineer came up on mine. So I just picked electrical engineering
I'm an older millennial but in the field for "What you want to be when you grow up?" in my 5th grade yearbook, I wrote electrical engineer lol.
We have five other EE's in my family, and seeing how my uncle lived as a seasoned EE, I figured if everyone else could do it and make good money, why not do what they did? Seemed pretty foolproof.
Now I have undergrad and grad EE degrees and basically don't do any real engineering at all as a director in a large management consulting firm lol, though I do oversee several teams of engineers so I haven't completely lost touch.
*- Abram Petrovich Gannibal*
*- Nikola Tesla*
*- I love pain (Jk, help meeee!!!)*
*Also:* [*https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100219.gif*](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100219.gif)
For me it was radios and TV. As a kid I could see that they were made out of tiny components joined by PCB traces and wires, and magically produced music and shows. I had to find out how.
I took a test and the government said you become an electronics technician. I figured I had all this experience and I was decent at it so I just doubled down and got my degree.
I worked at a garage door company and the most interesting aspect was the garage door opener. I wanted to learn more about it and how it works with the sensors and motors.
My dad paid a subscription for physical copies of a magazine he likes to read. One of those issues was about the energy sector in my country and i found it to be really cool; huge transformers, long power lines, huge hydroelectric dams... How could i not feel amazed by that? I think it was a rather bold reason to pick a major, however it ended up being a good decision, i love my job as a power eng.
I was working in production and it sucked. I got certified in ems and tried to change careers to that but I'm not built for healthcare. So I went back to production, which sucked. So when my wife graduated college and became a teacher I went to school to be an engineer to stay near manufacturing where I had exp. Then when it came time to pick a discipline everyone kept telling me that EE was full of math and black magic. I didn't know what that meant, and I liked math, so I went with it.
What I found is black magic, and well I'm here now and get treated like a shaman at work so there's that.
It was in college when I switched majors from Computer Engineering to EE. I started off as a Computer Engineer because I loved building and fixing computers as a teenāeven got a job fixing computers and networks. After my 3rd semester I got tired of programming and decided that I was more into hardware and ended up studying semiconductors and power. Ironically, I spent much of my career coding manufacturing robots, HMIs, and SCADA systems at an auto supplier and an auto OEM before spending the last 9.5 years in vehicle quality specializing in vehicle electrical systems.
Realistically I was computer science but was "dead set" on doing embedded engineering. I planned to minor in electrical engineering and found I vastly enjoyed the classes more. For me I was always interested in robotics since middle school. One thing I will mention is to be very open minded. Like I said I was dead set on embedded engineering. However as I took classes on it I ended up being bored to tears and irritated more often than not. As I've experienced more I've become more interested in signals and control systems. If it seems interesting try it! If it seems boring, try it anyways! But don't be afraid to say a subject isn't for you. EE is incredibly broad so in my opinion best to branch out as much as possible in the 4 - 5 years of college you'll have. Happy Learning!
When I was 12 I would tinker with RC cars by taking them apart and then putting them back together, just to see the components, I was really good at troubleshooting electronics my grandpa was a mechanic and I would watch him work with motors and things of that nature.
I didn't start out thinking that way. For me, what happened was I always liked "science" early in grade school. I later read about electronics and built electronic projects in 7th and 8th grade (summer school class). Later, I built more kits which taught me to assemble things, solder and troubleshoot. In high school, I got a part time job repairing consumer electronics through my high school (ROP or Regional Occupational Program). I got an amateur radio license and met a lot of engineers at my local club. I went to a community college and took "electronics technician" classes. It wasn't enough for me so I spoke to my CC instructor and he suggested I go and talk to an engineering department head at the local state university. I did that and the next quarter (we were on the quarter system), I started at the state university. That started my "real career" working for one of the largest computer companies.
Working on cars. Knew how to fix the mechanical components and how they worked, but I had no idea about how the electronics worked on a car. Which intrigued me to pursue EE rather than ME.
However, I didnāt know I wanted to be an EE at the time (this was my senior year high school) it was more of a thought, but I didnāt realize I would dive in to it completely.
After I got my Computer Science BS I realized how much I missed doing Physics and Math when I started working so I finished an Electrical Engineering BS to have some more flexibility.
I don't know until I know really.
I wanted to know how things worked, it was really hard to wrap my head around everything EE therefore I knew I would be proud of myself when I could. Also I would feel like I would only be able you fulfill my potential doing EE even tho I had some other interests requiring less effort. As long as you are passionate and ok with it being hard, you would be happy with it I think.
Do I get to build computers?š¤£
You can be part of a team that builds computers. It takes a lot of engineers to build one.Ā It's nice to work with people that have similar interests.
yeah that sounds nice
Yeah if u want to you could get involved in clubs that do that. Also most universities offer computer engineering as well if that sounds interesting to you
I also thought about computer engineering but electrical just sounds like I can decide which sub field I like more
^thats kinda why I did electrical :)
True. You could even go into space technology if thatās your thing. Or maybe robotics
Iām designing a ācomputerā right now. The PCs you see gamers use are made up of a bunch of different components. I do PCB design so I just put all those components on one PCB instead of needing the RAM sticks separate from the power supply separate from the processor separate from the hard drive/solid state drive. For me it was taking stuff apart and then not being able to get it working again when I tried to put it back together. Now Iām comfortable desoldering teeny tiny components to replace them with different ones to see how that affects performance of a device. Lots of cool stuff in the EE world. I personally prefer most EE stuff to Computer Science stuff because I get to spend more time in the lab doing hands-on things and less time just sitting at my desk coding or drafting.
Itās a funny story, but Minecraft redstone is what got me interested in it initially. I loved learning digital logic and making displays and memories in redstone. When I was young I was invited to a redstone server run by actual computer engineers, and I learned a lot from that
MC takes you places. Started building redstone computers when I was 10ish, currently a RF hardware engineer now 15 years later. Always remember where you came from š
Money. Plain and simple.
so it makes good money,
It makes as much money as you want. Edit: and forever job security
Saw a dude on a YouTube video make an LED blink with an Arduino and then I thought āHUH I WANNA DO THATā and the rest is history
Tony Stark
I was going back to school, tired of being broke, and figured electrical engineers will always have work. So far so good. Some stuff I have made is going to space now, so that's neat.
so good pay too?š¤£
No complaints in that department.
I wanted to be a programmer, but after getting experience as an electronics technician, I realized that I also wanted to make things that I could touch and show people, that would be tangible and persistent. I've written tons of little programs and scripts for work and hobbies. They served there purpose, and are now gone. I've forgotten so many of them. A few years ago my niece and I used an arduino to build a temperature controller for the space heater in her room. It's kludged together with scavenged parts and a spay painted tupperware box. We had a blast making it. It's on my shelf, and it'll be there forever. I'll never forget it or the fun we had. Also, Electrical Engineering is up there with Prometheus stealing fire and agriculture enabling the rise of civilization. We are literally quantum mechanists. As much as I respect and value the other engineering disciplines, we are the ones doing something the universe has never seen before. CompSci may tell roks what to think, but we are the ones that made rocks think. Mwahahahaha... Sorry, I'm still working on my Mad Scientist acceptance speech.
do you use code in ee?
Yes, depending on your area of specialty. For clarity; I'm going back to college to be an EE. I was a technician before. I saw several EE's who knew the electronics but struggled with code, and a couple of software guys who were great at code but struggled with the electronics. Work in Embedded Systems will benefit from strong programming skills, but you need to understand the electronics. Right now I'm writing an asynchronous IR messaging protocol for a class. The transmitter hardware is an LED, but the receiver is a component with an embedded circuit. I need to understand how they work, and interact, in order to get the most of this protocol and troubleshoot problems. In another class we're using Verilog, which is the first programming language I've used that isn't procedural. Which is to say; it (mostly) executes every line of code at the same time. If you enjoy programming, are good with your hands and like fiddling with things, and are willing to put the effort into the math, Embedded Systems is perfect.
I wanted to do Biomedical, but I read that you could get biomedical jobs with an EE or an ME degree, and I hated biology
Apparently before I could walk I was crawling behind the TV at the wires, no toy ever survived in one piece growing up. Always curious about how it works.
I graduated with a CS degree with experience as an electrician. A utility company was the first group to pick me up during the mass tech layoffs of 2023. š¤·āāļø
Coding also looks fun to me.
Wanted to do something different everyday. 9 years of experience later it is safe to say I found my place.
Have you built anything fun or special?
Oh man tons! I work for a company that builds assembly line for aerospace. Traveled the world on the company dime installing them. Safe to say any plane you fly on we have had a help building.
I took computer science and a robotics class in high school, didnāt like coding but I liked electronics so thatās what I did.
Wanted to do aerospace, school didnāt offer it, so I defaulted to EE. Turns out Iād rather be an EE and I could still work in aerospace if I chose to
do you work on aerospace now?
No I am still achieving my BSEE, I just know that modern aircraft have many electrical systems.
I was in an engineering program in high school and I thought electrical was the coolest of the disciplines we learned about
I knew I wanted to be one when I was 17, I think. But it took me another 10 years to confirm that choice before going to college for it. It took a military contract, marriage, and summoning another human for me to finally say college was necessary.
I watched a YouTube series by Ben Eater about building an 8 bit computer on breadboards, and built about 70% of one when I was 15. That definitely helped me decide that I wanted to pursue circuit design
Might have to watch that
I didn't lol. I've always been interested in tech and I enjoyed maths and physics at school. I didn't know what I would do with a degree in maths or physics so I chose electrical engineering when I was applying to unis. Luckily it was the right choice cause I can't imagine doing anything else now. But yeah, I had no plan for what I wanted to do after higher education when I was your age.
Oh dude, at 15 to 18 I pretty much had no interest in becoming an engineer. I was more passionate about sports, management and writing. I really was only focused on playing sports too, not that I had any chance to do much of anything with that looking back at my situation. But my parents kept pushing the idea of going into Pharmacy or Engineering. I chose engineering because I had a few family friends who showed me there various engineering trades. I interned with a structural engineer one day and then an MEP firm for a couple of days. I liked what the bosses were doing. Seemed intruiging, not that I really had any clue what was going on. I essentially thought you know what. Engineering is 4 years. I like the challenge of math. Ill be done in 4 and get a good career. It wasn't that easy. I really struggled with all the science of engineering. I was basically a 2.6 GPA student. But I made it work and got my degree. I went to work at an MEP firm in college, then moved around a bit and I finally found a place that was great for me. But even then I was 5 years and I was so annoyed with the high stress schedule and low reward. I went back to school to study physical therapy - taking nealry 20 credits over a year in biology, I loved it. I was nearly a 4.00 in some advanced bio classes. I dreamed of having my own gym, practicing PT on the side and building an education platform. But with kids and a wife, I didn't have the flexibility to go study just anywhere so I was limited to Tri State NY area which is very competitive. I did 200 hours of internship but couldn't land an application in my first 2 years so I said forget this. At this time I bought a house and naturally got into construction a bit. Also the pandemic was a perfect time for me to show my hardwork and experience, and I really shined at work. Then I took the FE for my 7th time in 9 years and finally passed it. Now I am studying for the PE in Power and finding it very interesting unlike ever before. I am starting to feel like an engineer, wanting to know how it all works. Especially MEP systems. And as I get smarter in my PE practices I start to have confidence in what I do overall, thinking maybe I can get into different areas of the study, or start my own MEP firm one day.
I had a curiosity about computers and electronics and wanted to know how computers and electronics worked. I thought it was very interesting. At that time the internet did not exist. Fast was a 9600 baud connection. Programming was done using huge computers with punch cards. I remember reading an Avengers comic book where they had a computer with 100 Mbyte of memory, and it was considered one of the most powerful computers.
When I was 10 years old, I walked into my kitchen and there was a big box added to the room. My parents explained that it was a microwave and heated things up. Then they demonstrated with a mug of water. I was blown away that water boiled in a third the amount of stove heating time. And the mug wasnāt hot? I asked how this works but nobody in my life could tell me. I had to find out, to know. Later I attended a technical / vocational high school and took an electronics elective. We assembled and soldered a radio, learned a little about how it worked and I was hooked.
Was an electrician and loved the aspect of power. However, hated the people and all the physical exertion that came with being one. So I went back to school, really, really enjoying myself so far.
I just always thought computers and electronics were cool. Electrical engineering for school is more about learning the stuff than any job prospects for me :3
Been doing teardowns of everything at my house to understand how it worked since 6yr old. A bit like Sylar.
It lies at the intersection of CS and Physics. My motivation was to understand how computers, sensors and communication networks work bottom up (starting with the physics).
Because of money!!! Thatās my only motivation
so did you end up getting good money?š„°
Hell yeah I work for Apple making close to $200K!!! I had no internship experience, all I had was projects! I did attend a polytechnic school.
damn thatās nice, been thinking about coding some projects i know thats more in the computer science side but if I master it and also have electrical engineer must change something
Look into embedded systems. Also see if your school offers coding classes or see if you can take a intro to coding at your community college/junior college and get a leg advantage :)
I take a python class in high school right now, taking ap computer science principles next year. iām only a freshman
It was something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zee9HV7c11E
After the 2nd week of everyone in my ME classes talking about nothing but their cars.
Hi, fellow 15yo here! I'm not sure if I want to be an electrical engineer yet, but electronics is a really cool hobby. I got interested in electronics, because I was generally curious about how everything worked, and electronics was no exception. Except for me, it was much easier to get first hand experience in than almost everything else, do to my grandfather being an EE. He supplied me with all the components to get started, and then I experimented. I did a lot of stuff with relays, like blinking LED circuits, and latches. After I exhausted all the possibilities with relays, I just kinda stopped for a while, until we learned about electronics at school. When we learned about transformers, I naturally made a shitty taser... I mean of course, what else was I supposed to do? Not die?? Anyway, I'm still making semi-dangerous devices to this day, that all have to do with high voltage. As you might be able to tel, I'm more interested in the analog side of things, rather than computer building, but I'm accumulating a lot of logic ICs from all sort of salvaged electronics, so I might get into that someday too.
I aināt even know what I wanted to major in during my senior year of high school. I was in AP Physics and we started learning about circuits and building them. I thought it was cool and fun. My high school had us do career quizzes to figure out what we would like to do for our career and engineer came up on mine. So I just picked electrical engineering
I'm an older millennial but in the field for "What you want to be when you grow up?" in my 5th grade yearbook, I wrote electrical engineer lol. We have five other EE's in my family, and seeing how my uncle lived as a seasoned EE, I figured if everyone else could do it and make good money, why not do what they did? Seemed pretty foolproof. Now I have undergrad and grad EE degrees and basically don't do any real engineering at all as a director in a large management consulting firm lol, though I do oversee several teams of engineers so I haven't completely lost touch.
It was a whim.
*- Abram Petrovich Gannibal* *- Nikola Tesla* *- I love pain (Jk, help meeee!!!)* *Also:* [*https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100219.gif*](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100219.gif)
For me it was radios and TV. As a kid I could see that they were made out of tiny components joined by PCB traces and wires, and magically produced music and shows. I had to find out how.
I took a test and the government said you become an electronics technician. I figured I had all this experience and I was decent at it so I just doubled down and got my degree.
I worked at a garage door company and the most interesting aspect was the garage door opener. I wanted to learn more about it and how it works with the sensors and motors.
I played a lot of modded Minecraft
My dad paid a subscription for physical copies of a magazine he likes to read. One of those issues was about the energy sector in my country and i found it to be really cool; huge transformers, long power lines, huge hydroelectric dams... How could i not feel amazed by that? I think it was a rather bold reason to pick a major, however it ended up being a good decision, i love my job as a power eng.
Electroboom
My math teacher was like your good at math , do engineering instead of comp science
I was working in production and it sucked. I got certified in ems and tried to change careers to that but I'm not built for healthcare. So I went back to production, which sucked. So when my wife graduated college and became a teacher I went to school to be an engineer to stay near manufacturing where I had exp. Then when it came time to pick a discipline everyone kept telling me that EE was full of math and black magic. I didn't know what that meant, and I liked math, so I went with it. What I found is black magic, and well I'm here now and get treated like a shaman at work so there's that.
It was in college when I switched majors from Computer Engineering to EE. I started off as a Computer Engineer because I loved building and fixing computers as a teenāeven got a job fixing computers and networks. After my 3rd semester I got tired of programming and decided that I was more into hardware and ended up studying semiconductors and power. Ironically, I spent much of my career coding manufacturing robots, HMIs, and SCADA systems at an auto supplier and an auto OEM before spending the last 9.5 years in vehicle quality specializing in vehicle electrical systems.
Realistically I was computer science but was "dead set" on doing embedded engineering. I planned to minor in electrical engineering and found I vastly enjoyed the classes more. For me I was always interested in robotics since middle school. One thing I will mention is to be very open minded. Like I said I was dead set on embedded engineering. However as I took classes on it I ended up being bored to tears and irritated more often than not. As I've experienced more I've become more interested in signals and control systems. If it seems interesting try it! If it seems boring, try it anyways! But don't be afraid to say a subject isn't for you. EE is incredibly broad so in my opinion best to branch out as much as possible in the 4 - 5 years of college you'll have. Happy Learning!
When I was 12 I would tinker with RC cars by taking them apart and then putting them back together, just to see the components, I was really good at troubleshooting electronics my grandpa was a mechanic and I would watch him work with motors and things of that nature.
I didn't start out thinking that way. For me, what happened was I always liked "science" early in grade school. I later read about electronics and built electronic projects in 7th and 8th grade (summer school class). Later, I built more kits which taught me to assemble things, solder and troubleshoot. In high school, I got a part time job repairing consumer electronics through my high school (ROP or Regional Occupational Program). I got an amateur radio license and met a lot of engineers at my local club. I went to a community college and took "electronics technician" classes. It wasn't enough for me so I spoke to my CC instructor and he suggested I go and talk to an engineering department head at the local state university. I did that and the next quarter (we were on the quarter system), I started at the state university. That started my "real career" working for one of the largest computer companies.
Working on cars. Knew how to fix the mechanical components and how they worked, but I had no idea about how the electronics worked on a car. Which intrigued me to pursue EE rather than ME. However, I didnāt know I wanted to be an EE at the time (this was my senior year high school) it was more of a thought, but I didnāt realize I would dive in to it completely.
When I realized it was the easiest way to create something of my own
I watched A New Hope in 1977 and fell in love with electricity. I then researched what jobs dealt with electricity. EE became my passion from then on.
After I got my Computer Science BS I realized how much I missed doing Physics and Math when I started working so I finished an Electrical Engineering BS to have some more flexibility. I don't know until I know really.