From Physics to EE: Exploring the Path to Becoming an Engineer | Tips & Insights

[Gabuke]

Hello everyone, I am currently studying physics (2nd course) and dreaming about becoming an electrical energineer. I am sure that once I am finished bachelor studies I will go for a master degree in EE. But will it grant me an engineer job? I am highly interested in an electrical engineering, especially in renewable energy and I am currently studying electrical engineering subjects on my own like circuit design and so on.
Also I have skills in graphic engineering ( AutoCad, SolidWork), programming with c++, HTML, PHP.

Almost forgot to mention that I took 60 credits ( apx. 1 year ) of electrical engineering in my physics courses.

And how is the situation abroad ( USA, UK ) within physic's graduates getting an engineering job? I am from Eastern Europe.

Many thanks for the answers.

 

[berkeman]

Hello everyone, I am currently studying physics (2nd course) and dreaming about becoming an electrical energineer. I am sure that once I am finished bachelor studies I will go for a master degree in EE. But will it grant me an engineer job? I am highly interested in an electrical engineering, especially in renewable energy and I am currently studying electrical engineering subjects on my own like circuit design and so on.
Also I have skills in graphic engineering ( AutoCad, SolidWork), programming with c++, HTML, PHP.

Almost forgot to mention that I took 60 credits ( apx. 1 year ) of electrical engineering in my physics courses.

And how is the situation abroad ( USA, UK ) within physic's graduates getting an engineering job? I am from Eastern Europe.

Many thanks for the answers.

Welcome to the PF.

If you want to work as an EE eventually, why don't you just switch majors now? I agree that physics is more fun to study than EE , but upper-division (the last 2 years) for physics and EE are very different. And trying t\o make that up in graduate school kind of is a waste of graduate school time, IMO.

As for getting a job as an EE, I look for applicable experience or background when interviewing EE candidates. If most of your background and experience is in physics, that will put you at a disadvantage in EE interviews, I believe.

 

[Gabuke]

Hey!

The thing is that I just can't go to EE instead of physics now, because at my university there are certain laws that you can't go from engineering to natural science, unless you want to start everything from 1 course, so I think that it is not an option for me.:)

 

[clope023]

Hey!

The thing is that I just can't go to EE instead of physics now, because at my university there are certain laws that you can't go from engineering to natural science, unless you want to start everything from 1 course, so I think that it is not an option for me.:)

It's very doable to go from a physics BS to an EE masters; I've known people who've gone from Math bachelors to EE masters and their EE research/specialty area was experimental/hardware related, there is no reason to make up the last 60 credits of an EE degree to do a masters which is specialized on a particular area anyway.

It's also possible to get an EE type job with a physics degree, one of my colleagues was in such a situation; but I agree that it's generally more difficult if you don't have an understanding hiring manager that ought to be looking for skills to do the job rather than blindly following what the name on the degree says.

Is is possible for you do some sort of experimental senior thesis involving circuit design? That would do well to demonstrate skills that could be applicable to some EE jobs.

 

[Crass_Oscillator]

I switched to EE from physics. The easiest way to do this in my case was to get in touch with a faculty member I was going to do a master's thesis with or perhaps a PhD thesis. They were able to then help me with all of the idiotic bureaucracy that got in the way.

One thing that helps is to realize that many EE programs (at least in the US, I don't know about European countries) have a solid state division. If device physics interests you, it's a straightforward switch. Otherwise, device physics might be in your physics department. If that field interests you, it will be the easiest way to switch into engineering either with a physics or EE degree.

 

[Gabuke]

Thanks for all of the answers!

I am choosing 60 credits of EE instead of specialization, and I will take circuit design experimentals as you adviced, thanks :)

crass_oscillator, thanks for sharing your experience. I am curious are you currently got a job in EE field and how things are going?