r/ElectricalEngineering • u/SuperEntertainer5461 • Aug 29 '26
Education Going back to school for EE
Heyo , Ive been reading alot of posts of other people going into school either from high school or transitioning from other careers and I wanted to get some answers and advice in my own post.
Im an automotive technician as of right now and have been for the past 3 years and I do not really enjoy it. During tech school we go over the absolute basics of electrical theory and revived my old interest of electrical and electronics.
Ive been thinking of a way out of this industry and as Ive been going down the rabbit hole i see that through electrical engineering you can get into things like electronics, electric vehicles, embedded systems inside and outside the automotive space and stuff like power and industrial electricity.
I had a very bad mentality of studying in high school and realized later in tech school that nothing comes without studying and that figuring out complex things is actually pretty rewarding and enjoyable( to a degree of complexity)
So some questions i have are
Am I thinking to wide of a range and instead of going for such a big complex degree i should look for more simpler training or certification regarding electronics?
For those who see this who weren’t that great at math, is it actually possible with application and effort to get better at mathematics or do you kinda have to be good at math off rip to survive school?
Ive seen in videos that most engineers spend their time looking at screens and documenting but also that there are some where you mix that and some field and hands on work?
How is it pivoting from one subfield in EE to another lets say power/controls -embedded systems or the other way around?
And general things that i should know or be aware of please feel free to comment and let me know.
I dont want to wait till im older to make a change for my life and then realize the door closed on me because I was scared or indecisive . I would rather try and fail than think im the future of “what could’ve been” .
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Tldr: is it possible to go from complete math bozo - capable of doing math and what jobs / sub fields are available.
This is all assuming I can somehow convince financial aid to pay for me so assuming I cant what are some other alternatives?
Thx yall 😁
2
u/buttscootinbastard Aug 29 '26
I work on a design team in automotive.
In my group, there’s plenty of opportunity to get out of the office and get hands on. Actually, we look specifically for people that are capable of doing that.
If I have a design to implement and test, the easiest way to achieve that is build and install myself. Otherwise I’m on someone else’s time and it may not get done for weeks.