The Best Area To Specialize In Electrical Engineering

Q: I am an Electrical Engineering student ,and I would like some advice. What is the "best" area to specialize in? At my college, their are really four areas of electives I can take: 1. Communications 2. Digital 3. Power 4. Telecommunications Please help me choose what area to take. I am currently on a "full- ride" at my college ,and I have a limit (Approx. 140 credit hours) to how many classes that I can take.

A: When I was in college, only two EE options existed, power or electronics. The electronics option qualify you to work on the development of the really whiz-bang, new devices and products. If you're lucky in choosing an employer, you may be lucky and not get laid off every time the company looses a contract, but likely will. After you reach age 40, you'll likely have difficulty finding another job except by taking a significant pay decrease. The power option generally focuses on more mundane things like motors, generators, power distrubution systems, etc. Take this option and you'll likely end up with life-time job security working for a power utility or a major supplier to the power industry, plus one of the best pension/retirement packages available anywhere. I chose the electronics route, and I believe that I chose poorly. The bottom line is essentially this, had I chose power I could have always done electronics on the side while having a secure future. By contrast, I chose electronics and in electronics it's a 'dog eats dog' game, and electronics firms (unless you own one) display absolutely no sense of employee loyalty. This raises the question: "What is your bottom line goal in pursuing an education?

Discuss It!

KK said:

Thank you for the people who questioned and answered on this topic. I am getting my EE degree soon, and my studies have mainly been in power. I totally agree with the answer here, and I definitely think power is more stable and the newer technology involves more electronics nowadays.

Emmanuel said:

I disagree with the age referring to electronics because my dad is a RF Principal Engineer that works in the semiconductor field with a specialty in communications and he did not have any problems finding a another job with the same position and job title after he had switched to a different company.

Jason said:

I agree with the first answer. I am more in the power side of EE. I'm doing very well. I make more money than anyone I know besides my boss. I'll admit that my job isn't as exciting as designing the next iPhone, but I do all the whizz bang stuff at home. (I design speakers in my spare time.) Honestly, engineers have such a leg up on society you really can't go too wrong.

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