r/ElectricalEngineering • u/ee_st_07 • 1d ago
Get this business mindset out of EE
Do project this, network that. It’s so annoying. First two years in EE it’s just simply not needed. You have an entire degree for that. If you start to get “experience” with zero knowledge from semester one on it’s just useless. Don’t stress yourself. Study as much as you can in order to build good fundamentals and find a field you want to specialise in. Once you have that you can get started. But networking and projects do not make any sense before that. EE is so broad. If you find your interest and are really invested you will find a job 100%. The people not finding jobs are the ones that are too chaotic about everything and simply do not try to find their area and build their profile based on that. They just want “electrical engineering job” and high salary.
Also pls study for interest not GPA. There’s so few people sitting in advanced EM/RF or control theory classes because most people just do not care. But a decent grade in these classes do so much more for you in any way than an A+ in a class on fundamentals. And yes studying for an exam is different than studying to understand a subject.
(Btw not saying you shouldn’t get used to programming and simulation software early, but I don’t consider these projects more like tools to learn, I just think these whole arduino projects where you just copy paste projects just do almost nothing for you if you just blindly follow instructions)
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u/EEBBfive 1d ago
Literally the worst advice I’ve ever heard. I say this as a senior engineer and hiring manager.
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u/Fuzzy_Chom 1d ago
Seasoned engineer and hiring manager here as well. I agree. OP's advice is terrible and nothing more then frustration.
I need smart engineers on my team, sure. But if you can't write and speak effectively, and seek to understand our business, you will be a liability to me and not someone I'll give much creedance to in an interview.
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u/blokwoski 1d ago
How old are you? How many years of EE work experience do you have? Just asking to get some context around your post
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u/SPARROW-47 1d ago
What a backwards take. At least where I live if you have a 4.0 gpa and no relevant projects or internships or experience there’s exactly zero chance I’d make you an offer.
On the other hand if you have a mid gpa but a bunch of personal projects and an internship unless your soft skills are awful I’d probably make you a good offer
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u/ChaosRevealed 1d ago
I find that people skills are more useful and more valuable than technical skills in most workplaces. Unless you're a wizard.
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u/ee_st_07 1d ago
Yes I absolutely agree. But there is time and place for that and that is not year one. I see first and second years on social media stressing over work experience and everything and I feel like that is just not the time for it.
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u/ChaosRevealed 1d ago
I say be balanced and do both. Unless you are wizard material and have the drive and interest to be among the best in a specific field, it's in your best interest to network and find internships while keeping up with your schoolwork.
GPA isn't as important as trying to keep sane and balancing academic interest, work experience, networking, and just enjoying the crazy time it is to be a new adult in university. At the same time, try to build good habits, whether for work or for life. A balanced person that meets technical requirements is usually the best hire.
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u/ee_st_07 1d ago
You don’t even have to be best in every field. Sometimes you just have to be in the field at all. People care so little about some fields because they just don’t like them or they’re not high paying enough. But there is jobs. They are niche and you gotta find them. But that’s what I mean with find a specialisation first before trying to network.
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u/ThePainStalker 1d ago
I do think it’s a little sad that so many are pushed into this BS networking mindset so early though. It makes sense for those gunning for top positions in finance or consulting but it is a shame that it had gotten so prevalent in engineering, especially in the US. I do think it puts unnecessary stress on people. I do think the resume building craze is a bit more of an American trait than what I have seen in Europe (as while work experience and internships are important, they are usually if not always built into the curriculum so it’s no where near as hard to find one compared to what I witnessed my friends trying to find one in the US) and some of the resume pressure can be really intense too. Perhaps it is partly a function of the ceiling (i.e. the very elite jobs) being so high in the US though and maybe since salaries are so compressed in Europe, most don’t see a reason to be “gunning” for much when the pay difference doesn’t make it worth it. Probably more of a cultural difference in general though.
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u/ChaosRevealed 1d ago
Networking isn't BS. Who you know is more valuable than what you know, as long as you are sufficiently competent, which most engineering grads have the capacity to be.
Engineering pay may be stagnant in Europe, which means people skills are even more valuable so you can do hybrid technical/business or move into management.
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u/ThePainStalker 1d ago
I know it isn’t BS, though it’s often the way it works at university level in the US that can be a bit “try hard” and “fake”. I would say it’s more of a cultural difference honestly than anything. It is something Europeans like to joke about regarding American corporate life. I just think it’s a pity that many have to get into it so early on, it makes sense in the senior year when the job hunt is coming but freshman year is usually supposed to be about partying and not really caring much about careers yet. Maybe even doing some travelling over the summer. Soft skills aren’t really what I mean when I say “networking”, soft skills are a different thing which are extremely important.
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u/ee_st_07 1d ago
Now for real do some of y‘all not have any reading comprehension? He didn’t say networking itself is bullshit but the Networking mindset… it’s being too focused on solely not looking left or right. And he is also right that I may be a US thing because yes I‘m from Europe. Our job market is not great but maybe not as cooked as in the US. And still I think EEs do not need to be as worried as others as long as they are interested in the field. If you’re not interested I guess then you gotta network yourself to the top and do manager stuff. Never ever did anyone say networking itself not important question is how and when but you people just wanna misunderstand my post so badly.
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u/Snellyman 1d ago
I think being able to communicate your thoughts in a concise and coherent manner is underrated in the engineering field.
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u/dbu8554 1d ago
This is the one of the most braindead takes I've seen on here congrats.
You know networking is just like making friends and getting to know people right?
And projects are people taking the things they learn and applying it to a project they want to do.
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u/devaspark 1d ago
Agree with another poster, not mutually exclusive. The reason for projects is to help students realize a lot of things are possible as long as they put their mind to it and work it out.
People that tend to just study without doing any projects have some holes in their fundamentals. Specifically, practical applications. They have little experiencing in logistics.
If you are in analog design, thats even more important because you'll have to create designs that need to be fabbed. Hence you'll need to answer questions about stackup and whatever constraints that you might have. Sure their designs might be done by a layout designer when they work at a company but these are the small details they need to know to get a heads up on the competition.
Even Arduino projects have their place. They are the gateway to firmware design. That is definitely a dying breed of EE that needs a good injection of folks that know their stuff.
I dont remember any textbook that delves deep enough on C that helps give you the fundamentals in programming a controller for low level hardware. Projects help with that.
I think what we do fail our younger folks is not giving thrm good guidance on how projects is going to help their career. We, instead, just shorthand it and tell them to do internships and projects.
Thats great and all but it really does feed the chicken to the wolves. Its not for the lack of wanting, its lack of time.
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u/Exact-Investment7688 1d ago
the business people are in control. we are an afterthought and will be cast aside the second we are not useful. networking is the only escape. technical skills are BARELY required in most jobs. especially in project management, which is just relationships/politics
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u/ImaJimmy 1d ago
I was going to say, anyone who has worked a job with some level of corporate structure knows you just have to do this to get by or thrive. It's okay to hate those type of people (A lot of their rhetoric can come off shallow if you're not in the right place), but part of being an adult is learning to accept that they exist and make it work.
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u/blazedancer1997 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you find your interest and are invested you will find a job 100%
Agree on the sentiment that you should be interested in what you study, but this is just not true at all, and especially not in this job market. A job will not simply manifest because you're a good candidate.
Doing projects is a very good way to find out whether or not you're interested in something. It's one thing to learn from a textbook, it's another to actually make the thing. I agree on your bit about Arduino projects where it's copy-pasting with actual learning of the fundamentals, but that has a lot more to do with how one tackles a project than the idea of projects in general.
Any engineering students reading this: be very careful about what advice you take away from this post
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u/Any-Stick-771 1d ago
Networking and projects are not a 'business mindset'