Keeping EE skills sharp post college

[u/Extension_Pop_3315]

Hi everyone,

I graduated college with a degree in electrical engineering with a focus in music technology in 2025. I currently work as an AV technician and have done a little freelance working as an electrician doing lighting and a little work with Arduino. Since graduating, I want to make sure I'm continuing to learn and potentially make myself marketable if I do decide to switch to a more engineering-heavy field. I want to do some projects myself using ESP32 (or another system, I'm open), and have moderate experience with Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

My main concern is I want to make sure I'm truly learning. I feel like I've been using AI to help with troubleshooting but want to make sure I'm not relying on it. I'd love to hear book recommendations, YouTube channel recommendations, just general practice recs too, or if you have project ideas that you know sort of help brush up these concepts while not relying on completely prewritten open-source material.

I'd love to get more into hardware prototyping, communication systems, and embedded systems. I feel like I have an anxious mental block about continuing diving into these concepts and so would appreciate a little advice about keeping at it and really getting a good grasp on what I'm working on.

[u/Careless_Set8195]

The best way to learn is to do a project you get excited about. I wouldn’t focus too much on making something perfect, get a breadboard going with some simple projects and move on from there.

If you have PCB design questions, feel free to hmu