hey szbd, how is life being an EE engineering? i am currently an EE student in college and i wonder if its a field of work that people can really enjoy?
EE engineering is a very big area. I think currently the most positions are working with computers, not with those big machines. The common type of work, I think, is make a small package work. This package can be software or hard ware. The software can be a relatively independent thing, like developed from ANSI C, or developed from some existing specialized tools. The hardware can be design a chip, design a board, or put your algorithm in to a chip or a board.
The key is familiar with standards, protocals, drivers, etc. How everything communicates with each other is the most important thing to learn. How the data is transfered from a CPU to a periperal, then to memory, then to another CPU......
To implement the functions, formulas in the books is very simple. To develop your own algorithm and implement is not hard either. The hard part is the communication, move data from here to there, read from this address, write to that address, mapping address, etc. Because as an EE engineer, we always work with things much much dummier than PCs.
Or, use those specialized tools to develop softwares or perform simulations. I'm not in that kind of area though, my wife is. It also demands a lot of experience.
Team work is very important too, and it's very complicated to describe. But one thing i'd like to point out is, be patient with block diagrams. It's very important work to read and to draw those diagrams. Young people usually think that's tedious or just some kind of show bussiness. But in fact it's not.
About the life of an EE engineer, I think it's peaceful overall. As an EE engineer, usually you get fair payment, regular working time, comfortable working environment with AC etc, and no danger. No strict time line usually.
At the beginning, if you do not have high degree or extraordinary skills, they will give you really tedious work. You feel you know nothing, because they work on sth you never saw (this is the usual case, can be some exceptions of course). You will have some pressure, frustration, but you will be fine after 1 year or so. If you have high degree, that's a different story. They may get you to do some R&D work with more theory stuff involved.