EET Career Opportunities

With an associates degree in electronics tech you won't likely be working in product development. Instead you would likely be an electronics technician who just takes orders from the real engineers and does skilled labor for them. Alternatively you might find yourself in some part of manufacturing that takes a bit more skill, in which case you would certainly be higher on the totem pole than the rest of the peons. Most companies don't even like hiring NCG (new college graduate) bachelor degreed electrical engineers. The problem is you really need to know what you are doing in order to be very useful in the field of electronics. Unfortunately four years of college isn't really enough to teach you all you need to know. You really need experience to go with it. So most companies only hire electrical engineers with a bachelors degree and 5-10 years experience in their little subfield of interest in electrical engineering. It sucks to be the prospective new employee, but I can't say I blame the companies. NCGs are usually pretty worthless.

Anyone else who has an Associates degree care to comment?

Actually, I work in Product Development with a Medical Company as a Lab Technician. I have an interest in Electronics and quite a bit of amateur experience with computers and computer programming. I feel that I need to get a "skill" and a "diploma" so that I can stay an Engineering tech. My specialty is probably working with Labview and basic data acquisition. So, I thought an electronics degree would go well with that. I have a family, so a 2 year degree looks much more feasible than a four year degree. Although, a four year degree in EET, EE, or CS is possible at nearby colleges. I live in the Northwest region of the U.S.

Are you talking about a 20 year old EET with zero practical experience, or someone with a new EET and 20 years of practical experience (for instance, a recent military retiree with an electronics specialty)?

What area of of the country?

My experience is that the last two companies I worked for (southeastern Virginia and Florida panhandle) hired experienced EETs/METs and successfully used them as tech writers. They interfaced well with the engineers, could check the material for errors, and had sufficient writing experience to put the material in terms easily understood by operators and technicians. Of course, unlike the "real" engineers, they knew which end of the soldering iron got hot and which end of the pipe wrench to use to pound screws!

Richard

Are you somebody who have only the knowledge you have recieved from this

Formal schooling can only give a sceleton of knowledge, the most important and basic stuff. You need to get the rest of your knowledge, the body, in a certain field by yourself.

What did you do in your free time at 15 years of age? Did you hang with others in the mall, drinking beer and watching video every night? Or did you build electronic circuits and read Wireless World?

People who have only formal education will not get the best jobs in the field. People with only hobby interest will never get good jobs either. You need both formal education and self study. As much as possible of both will get you very good jobs.

Right, sorry. Should have said I have an associate's degree in business and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

The general way things seem to work in business is that any extra education or degrees you get should not be expected to have much impact on your advancement in that company as such. The reasoning is that if such education has made you more valuable, it should show in your performance. Conversely, a new hire coming in with the exact same degree will get more money right off the bat... that's just the way the job market works. So after you get the degree, you will have to be prepared to jump ship to another company if you want more money. If your present position seems insecure, the degree is good insurance for the future.

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis