Can electrical engineers become programmers?

clint222

Hello everyone!

Is it easy for someone with an electrical engineering education to become a programmer? Will anyone hire an electrical engineer to do development work?

I ask because I am still trying to decide between computer science and electrical engineering at university.

physiker_192

Yes its possible, but not the best approach I think.
Electrical Engineers learn many other things which you may find not so interesting.
A reasonable choice can be computer engineering, involves more programming than the typical EE degrees.

Edit: you should check the courses for the degrees before you apply and see which you like more.

clint222

Unfortunately the computer engineering program at the university I am going to was very recently terminated, so I will not be able to do computer engineering there.

denks

Are you interested in hardware or software? Yes an electrical engineer can program however the focus tends to be more on lower level coding e.g. C, C++, embedded C, assembly and other goodness associated with device drivers, real time control systems and the such. If you just want to program you would be better served with a computer science degree which will have a lot more emphasis on data structures, algorithms, discrete maths and the such. So if I were making the decision I would be thinking of whether my interest lies in control systems / device drivers / embedded systems or business apps.

clint222

I'm not sure what I'm most interested in.

Mike706

Logic design is a subfield of EE - that's done mostly with hardware description languages like Verilog and VHDL these days. You aren't writing software, you are basically writing code that describes a logic circuit for things like processors.

Dr Transport

Right now, the organization I work for is only looking for computer engineers, mechanical engineers, optical engineers and physics majors. That should tell you something,

clint222

Why no electrical engineers?

PhantomPower

I'm currently doing a joint degree in Electronics and Software Engineering. The subjects do seem to compliment each other. Any gaps you miss you should hopefully be able to fill in with some good books and practise.

Perhaps try and find a course similar to this?

clint222

I think I can do a double major in computer science and electrical engineering, however it would probably take around 6 years to complete.

PhantomPower

Unless you teach yourself programming (From the millions of publicatons out there) and work to build a portfolio of programming work?

I do not have direct experience with this but find it unlikely a company will take a software engineer fresh out of University over someone who can say I have done x,y,z - worked on open source project blah, blah,blah and still have a EE degree showing extreme flexability and a knowledge of hardware.

cristycs

Anyone can become a programmer, no degree is required.

Dembadon

Just know that there's a big difference between a software engineer/computer scientist and a "programmer."

cristycs

I believe the topic title was "Can electrical engineers become programmers? " not Can electrical engineers become software engineers

Dembadon

I realize that is what the title says. But the actual decision with which the OP is struggling is not mentioned until the final statement of his/her initial post.

clint222

Yes, I was more asking about if they can become software engineers I suppose.

micromass

You don't need to study the full computer science degree to become a good programmer. Computer science involves much more then is actually needed to program. A lot of theoretical courses aren't really needed.

So consider being an EE and taking programming courses. I think you can finish this in a respectable time.