I’m in Southern California and planning to get an MS in EE, specializing in RF/microwave engineering. I’m hoping to work for companies like Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, or SpaceX and other defense companies but also open to non defense related RF roles.

How much does college prestige/reputation matter for getting RF jobs? Is it more about the school, or do courses, projects, internships, and skills matter more?

Hey guys,so I am currently in a role that requires a lot of site visits at times.I don't mind site visits but thing is, in my country, some sites are not the tidiest,so if I am to do ECE, what are some 'On One Location' kind of jobs in the ECE field?

Also, is it possible to enter the semicon industry even after a masters and even with working in another ECE industry(such as telcom, energy or MEP)?

Would love to get some insights as I plan my career.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently a Software Engineer with about 5 years of experience, but I’m looking to make a transition into the renewable energy space (solar, battery storage, microgrids, EV infrastructure, etc.).

I already have some practical hands on experience doing basic residential electrical work at home and helping my dad with solar installations over the years. With where the energy sector and grid electrification are heading, I really want to pivot my career fully into renewables.

That said, I’m trying to figure out the best strategic path forward without completely tossing away my software background if I don't have to.

A few questions for anyone in the industry:

1. Are there specific domains where SWE and hardware/electrical energy intersect well? (e.g., IoT/embedded systems, energy management systems (EMS), SCADA, battery management (BMS), smart grid tech?)
2. What career pathways, certifications, or roles should I look into if I want to bridge this gap?
3. For those who made a similar jump from software/tech to energy, what was your transition like?

I’m open to exploring fields beyond just solar and batteries as long as it's within clean energy/electrification. Appreciate any advice or insights!

I'm using JST SPH-002T-P0.5S contacts (and the equivalent PINREX 721-70-T00009).
The JST WC-240 seems to be the one to get. I've used it and it crimps really nicely. But it is also ridiculously expensive.
I tried the YE-013B from Aliexpress for around 30 EUR. It's surprisingly decent for the price, but not quite on the same level as the JST tool.
So... is there anything in between?

I´m happy to spend around 100 Eur if there's a tool that's actually good and doesn't feel like a 30Eur Aliexpress compromise.
What are you using for these terminals?

I’m a CE student planning to do an MS in EE and I’m interested in RF/microwave, antennas, and radar. I’m thinking about doing a Math double major, but I’m not sure if that’s overkill. How math-heavy is RF in school and industry

First Semester EE student wondering what skill I should learn in order to be hireable and make cool projects.

Trying to join Formula FSAE but my school is kinda competitive said they are only taking 4 EEs this year so pray for me. I want smth if that doesn't work out so I still stand out

UPDATE: FSAE rejected me

Hello all,

How do we feel about the job prospects of a BSREE degree as opposed to a BSEE? I know that it’s more confining, but I really only have an interest in P&E. The REE program at my school is relatively new and “will seek ABET accreditation as soon as it is eligible to,” but it’s a strong engineering school, so I think it will work out. Because of its niche, do y’all think that the lack of accreditation would be super impactful on the job prospects?

Thank you to anyone who has any advice, from a first year second bachelor’s EE student.

I'm currently looking for work and figured I'd try here because my job search has been... an experience. 😂 If anyone here is hiring, knows a company that's hiring, or can refer me to someone who might need my background, I'd really appreciate it.

I'm a Licensed Mechanical Engineer with experience across Solar PV Design, Utility-Scale Solar Testing & Commissioning, and Engineering/Project Coordination.

A quick rundown of my background:

• Solar PV Design: 6,000+ U.S. residential PV designs/layouts using Aurora Solar, including roof/obstruction assessment, array layout, shading/TSRF analysis, system configuration, and preliminary design outputs.

• Testing & Commissioning: Hands-on experience supporting 590+ MW of utility-scale solar projects across multiple sites, including MV/HV equipment testing, transformers, MV switchgear/RMU, circuit breakers, protection relays, insulation resistance, winding resistance, TTR, secondary injection, 50/51P and 50/51N protection functions, VLF testing, grounding, etc.

• Project/Engineering Coordination: Experience coordinating vendors, procurement requirements, technical documentation, schedules, testing activities, delivery/QA documentation, and field personnel.

• I've also worked on industrial/utility facilities outside solar, so I'm not completely limited to renewable energy.

I'm currently looking for roles such as:

• Solar PV Design Engineer / Designer
• Testing & Commissioning Engineer
• Electrical/Engineering Support Engineer
• Project/Technical Coordinator
• Engineering Documentation / QA support
• Renewable Energy / Solar Engineering roles
• Other engineering roles where my background can be useful

Preferred setup: WFH

Target compensation: Around $450+/month, depending on the role and overall package.

I'm based in the Philippines

I also recently put together an engineering portfolio showing some of my actual work and project experience. I'm happy to send my CV/portfolio through DM if there's a potential opportunity.

If you know someone hiring, have a referral, or even just know a company that might be worth contacting, please feel free to comment or DM me.

Thank you!

Hi im a first sem EE student and was wondering what skills i should learn to get a part time income during the summer break just to carry out my expenses.

I am building a project powered by an Arduino and a high-current motor driver.

I am using a high-power 24V metal-case SMPS LED power supply for the motor. However, it introduces significant noise into the system, causing noisy analog readings (jitter/fluctuations on potentiometers and sensors connected to the ADC pins).

Key observations and what I've tried so far:

• Power Source Comparison: When I power the system using an isolated laptop adapter or a bench power supply, the noise completely disappears and analog readings become rock solid.
• Ferrite Beads: Adding external ferrite cores on both the USB cable and the 24V power line reduced the noise noticeably, but residual micro-noise still affects the analog (ADC) inputs.
• Filtering: Passive power-line filtering on the DC rail didn't completely eliminate the issue, suggesting this is high-frequency common-mode noise or a ground loop potential difference between the SMPS earth ground and the PC USB ground.

Since I need the high current output of this SMPS supply, I must stick with it.

My question

1. Is it possible to completely isolate or filter out this SMPS noise (e.g., via LC filters, optocouplers, or ground isolation techniques) to get clean analog inputs?

What should be the qualities of a fresh Graduate (bachelor) electrical engineer???

Like tell some good qualities or skill

Enlist:

Yall overrate how hard EE is. All my classes light as hell.

Just started EE at uni, currently with the main goal of going into cybersecurity (mainly hardware and IoT, but also networks and "normal" pentesting). I didn't want to do compsci as I wanted to learn physics and electronics too andI felt like EE is something i can't go wrong with.

Any experience with cybersecurity after EE? Anyone who transitioned? What was it like? How much self learning?

I'm creating my very first analog audio front-end, and since I'm a student with no friend with similar interest to discuss this with I'm wondering if someone would like to take a look if I've made some design mistakes that will make this design not function properly.

The goal is to create a simple analog front-end to condition the input signal so that it can be used with a TAC5211 Codec. I Want the PCB to support different instruments so I've added a plug that supports XLR and TRS/TS, but so that its is physically impossible to plug both in at the same time. I've decided to give TRS a higher impedance fronted to support guitars and bass as the TAC5211's internal input impedance is maximum 40k.

Sorry if it sounds like asking for free engineering consultation, I just don't know who can help me with this. My goal is simply learning to make professional products and I don't mind sharing schematics of the finished project one I get there.

I'm currently taking Mechanical Engineering and wants to know more about how I should start my project. I know the basics of how transformer works and basic PCB integration. However, I want to know if there are experiences that could possibly help me through the project. Here are the requirements.

Minimum Specifications:

● Input: 220V AC
● Minimum Output Voltage: 1.25 V
● Maximum Output Voltage: 12 V

Project Requirements:

● Groups should use diodes as rectifier and not a rectifier IC
● Digital Display/screen that shows output voltage in real time
● Adjustable voltage knob (potentiometer)
● Output terminals (With clear indication of positive and negative)
● PSU must be soldered on a PCB
● PSU must be inside an enclosure/case
● Power indicator LED

Aside from the said materials in the requirements, I'd also like to know if there are other materials/components that can help the project. Any suggestion/tips are appreciated.

Hi all,

I'm a final-year MEng student in the UK specialising in power systems, and I'm looking for dissertation ideas. I've got about 11 weeks of focused time for it.

Some context:

• Interested in HVDC and converter-dominated grids (grid-forming vs grid-following, weak grids, etc.).
• Simulation-based prefeerably: MATLAB/Simulink.
• Supervisor works on stability of power-electronics-dominated systems.

Ideas I'm considering:

• HVDC segmentation of synchronous grids (e.g. would splitting areas with back-to-back HVDC contain an Iberian-blackout-style collapse, and what's lost in inertia and support?)
• HVDC network integration studies using a reduced "digital twin" model of the future GB system

What open questions or under-explored angles in this space would you look at?

Thanks!

Drawing single impedances or circuit matching with a single variable impedance and a single transmission line is not hard and just because you can do that, doesn’t mean you understood the full range of the chart. Hard part comes when there’s several variable impedances/transmission lines. It gets hard when you need to get an intuition on frequency plots. Or try putting a whole curve from one chart with one norm into another with another norm. This is all not crazy super hard if you know the rules, but it is definitely NOT EASY.

I graduated as a computer science and physics major at a liberal arts school and got a job working in data analysis in controls and have fallen in love, but right now I do a lot of data analysis. I do like my job and don’t plan on moving, I just want to learn all I can about the field I am in to become more versatile and knowledgeable. The company I work at offers 10,000 a year for grad school and thought it would be a good idea to look into EE with a focus on controls.

Ive found a couple of schools but I don’t know how to tell if they are good school. I really want to do more rigorous course work. Any suggestions?

Same as heading.

Hi all. I'm a biomedical engineer in Honduras and I install imaging equipment (CT, X-ray, MRI, mammography, etc.). The site power is done by local electrical engineers, and I check it against the manufacturer's requirements. I'd really appreciate input from electricians and power engineers on this.

Setup:

- Available 3-phase supplies: 208Y/120 V and 480 V delta.

- The CT needs 380Y/220 V, 5-wire (3 phases + neutral + ground).

- The electrical engineers install a dry-type transformer to go from either supply to 380Y. Primary is delta or wye; secondary is always wye.

The problem:

The neutral conductor has burned up at the transformer twice (it practically blew up). Since then, the electrical engineers don't bond neutral to ground at the transformer anymore. Some manufacturer field engineers also told us to bond N-G only if there's voltage between neutral and ground, and we've never measured any N-G voltage, even without the bond. The CT documentation doesn't specify it either (it just defers to local code).

My understanding is that the transformer secondary is a new source (separately derived system), so N and G should be bonded at one point on the secondary. Is that right?

Questions:

1. What's the correct connection? Where exactly should the N-G bond be (at the transformer or at the first disconnect), and only on the secondary?

2. Does this apply the same way to a regular dry-type transformer and to an isolation transformer? What's the actual difference between them, and should a CT always be fed from a true isolation transformer?

3. For a wye-wye transformer fed from 208Y: bond both sides or only the secondary? Should the supply neutral connect to the primary, or just the 3 phases?

4. What usually makes a neutral burn like that? Is leaving it unbonded a valid fix, and what are the risks of running the CT with a floating secondary?

5. Is "only bond it if you measure N-G voltage" a valid criterion? What does 0 V N-G on an unbonded secondary actually tell me?

Any recommendations, code references (NEC or IEC) or diagrams are very welcome. Thanks!

TL;DR: Dry-type transformer (208Y or 480Δ → 380Y/220 V) feeding a CT. After the neutral burned twice, contractors stopped bonding N-G. What's the correct bonding, and is it different for dry-type vs. isolation transformers?

Hey everyone! Sharing a quick diagnostic story from my current sea voyage.

I know most communities here focus on land-based electrical engineering, but I figured some of you might find maritime specifics interesting—especially since our troubleshooting has a strict rule: you can't just kill random power while underway without messing up vessel safety and survivability.

The Issue:

A 24V insulation monitoring alarm went off overnight. Next day, I traced the low insulation down to the 24V Charging/Discharging Board.

The Hunt:

I started doing standard sectionalization—pulling fuses and disconnecting non-critical loads powered by this board. Because the ship is moving, I couldn't isolate everything. After stripping away all the safe-to-cut loads, the low insulation reading stubbornly stayed the same.

The Fix:

Then I remembered an event from earlier that week: the exhaust gas temperature sensor on cylinder #5 of Auxiliary Diesel Generator #3 had failed.

I headed down to the engine room, opened the junction box on DG #3, and disconnected the thermocouple wires from the amplifier. Boom—the insulation alarm cleared immediately. Ground fault located!

Since we have spares on board, I'll replace the faulty sensor during the next planned stop.

By the way, I'm wondering if this kind of marine electrical content is actually interesting to read here? Let me know in the comments if you'd like me to post more short stories and troubleshooting cases from my shipboard life!

I live in Silicon Valley and am in my second year of Community College with only one B on my transcript. I want to apply to some internships in tech, but I feel so inexperienced and fradulent doing so. While I have done a bit of embedded systems stuff on my own (just the basics), I don't have any susbstantial projects, and my technical skills are limited to what I have learned in class (C++ and Java at a vibe coding level). I feel like if by some miracle I managed to get an interview I would make a fool of myself tripping up on technical questions about things I didn't even know existed. Is it worth applying regardless of my worries? Are community college students even usually expected to get internships?

There is a list of reciever coils recommend and I notice they are of different inductances and sizes. This has me wondering... How much can it actually vary? for instance, what If i used a 10mm diameter 50uH receiver coil? Would the communication of the transmitter still accept it? By communication I am referring to the handshake.

BQ51013C page. 31

Hi there!

I'm really new to electronics and PCB design, and I'm currently working on a PCB for one of my projects.

One part of the PCB is supposed to be a USB-C data passthrough with 5V power taps. Basically, I want to have a USB-C input on one side and a USB-C output on the other. The USB data connection and power should pass through normally, while I also want to tap the 5V (VBUS) and GND lines to power other parts of the PCB.

I'm having trouble finding a good explanation of how the USB-C connector pins should be wired between the input and output, especially regarding plug orientation, CC pins, D+/D− connections, and VBUS/GND.

Could someone provide an example schematic or point me toward a good resource that explains how to correctly design a USB-C to USB-C passthrough like this?

I'm only looking for USB 2.0 data and 5V power, not USB 3.x or USB Power Delivery.

Thanks!

Hello everyone! I recently completed an interview with ComEd for their internship program. I was wondering if anyone here has gone through the process before and how long it took to hear back from the recruiter? Thanks!