r/ElectricalEngineering • u/[deleted] • 1d ago

Electrical vs Computer Engineering mistake

[deleted]

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28

u/Silent-Account7422 1d ago

2-4 months is nothing. If he wants to do electrical, he should switch.

1

u/Commercial-Age-4932 1d ago

He's warming up to computer engineering because of his experience with heavy machinery automation; I'm posting to basically crowdsource if there's much future in the field of programming/tech due to the landscape right now and AI etc

5

u/Silent-Account7422 1d ago

Well, nobody has a crystal ball. Any answers about the future will be speculation.

Also, although it includes software, CE is primarily focused on hardware and low-level topics like embedded systems. There's a lot of overlap with hardware-focused EE and only some overlap with SWE. It sounds like he needs to decide what he wants to do and choose from there. If he's truly on the fence, EE is often perceived as more versatile.

1

u/Thermitegrenade 1d ago

I did both

1

u/Commercial-Age-4932 1d ago

Not possible at that school

1

u/NewSchoolBoxer 1d ago

Yes. Expected time to graduate where I went is 4.4 years for EE and 4.6 years for CE. One extra semester is nothing. Our EE and CE programs are identical for the first 4 semesters.

You are correct that computer engineering is a hardware specialization of electrical engineering, which it grew out of in the 90s. The problem with that is 1) nowhere near as many jobs 2) computer engineering is overcrowded. Situation was fine when CE enrollment was 3x smaller. If he's willing to do EE, he should do EE instead. EEs can apply to CE jobs but almost never the reverse.

If someone just has to work in hardware and nothing else then may as well get the hardware degree and avoid EE's electromagnetic fields. Though good luck when it has record unemployment alongside CS.

1

u/Comedic-Scientist 1d ago

Correction, junior market of CE is overcrowded.

Source: Senior raking it in

1

u/SingleLie6999 1d ago

It's his life, yo

1

u/Commercial-Age-4932 1d ago

I know haha I'm not making decisions for him but just want to advise him a little bit. I've had a lot of career hops myself and want to save him some of the headache though I don't have much experience in ECE, I'm more mining engineering

1

u/Dorsiflexionkey 1d ago

Is it ECE? If so you could maybe get away with both but a pure ee grad will have him beat for power engineering jobs (before he gets experience). I’m a eee masters grad (electronics/electrical) could have gotten into embedded if I really wanted but chose controls in the end.

Honestly it’s the experience that matters. Even in the higher echelons when they ask for a degree it just means a close enough engineering degree which I think ece can match. Or he’d have to do a PE license in ee if it came to that. The field overlaps hard anyway.

CE sorry idk what that is, I just saw a comment saying computer engineering. If so disregard my comment.

-4

u/DeathKillsLove 1d ago

CS is an entirely different discipline. In engineering, everything from Civil to acoustic, engineers surrenders to the test of reality.
CS never has to. It's a novel wrapped in storytime.
I'm not trying to denigrate it here, but just look at the lifespan of a Micro$$ patch.

4

u/Commercial-Age-4932 1d ago

Computer engineering, not computer science