Is Electrical Engineering a Good Career for Me?

Electrical engineering is a desirable career pursuit if you value job diversity, security, and a decent salary. Armed with an undergraduate degree, followed by professional certification, you can be a pivotal player in such sectors as power generation, transportation, biomedical, robotics, and communications—nearly every industry in any geographic region is in need of electrical engineers.

Electrical engineering job opportunities remain steady in the United States. Future job growth will occur largely in engineering services firms because more companies are expected to cut costs by contracting their engineering services rather than directly employing engineers. These engineers will also be in demand to develop sophisticated consumer electronics.

There are also career opportunities in Europe for electrical engineers. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) maintains that, in comparison with other EU nations, Germany has the largest share of older engineers within its engineering workforce and will thus be affected by demographic issues in the near term. Despite a rising number of graduates, the country is still reliant on migration of skilled workers to fill these gaps.

Now, let’s talk about career diversity. A partial listing of areas-of-focus for electrical engineers includes circuits engineer, design engineer, electrical controls engineer, electrical design engineer, electrical engineer, electrical project engineer, instrumentation and electrical reliability engineer, power systems engineer, project engineer, and test engineer.

Electrical engineers work on electrical products and systems in offices, labs, or industrial plants in such diverse fields as transportation, information technology, manufacturing, power, construction, defense, and telecommunications, just to name a few.

Finally, there is an endless list of projects an electrical engineer can work on, including computers, robots, cell phones, radars, navigation systems, medical devices, or wiring and lighting in buildings.

Electrical engineers are problem solvers and often have the ability to:

Long hours may be required in order to meet deadlines, and a sharply-focused mindset is necessary to complete complex tasks. However, the challenges, opportunities, and variety of work are more than enough compensation for those eager to pioneer the next new technology.

If this sounds like a good career fit for you, consider taking the electrical engineering FE exam. This will allow you to become an engineer in training (EIT) and gain some valuable experience in the electrical engineering field before becoming a licensed engineer.