Future of Electrical Engineering: In-Demand Sub-Fields and Job Market Insights

[sagan]

Which sub-fields of EE are the most in demand right now? How about for the next 10 years or so? I'll be graduating soon and want to best position myself for the job market.

 

[Vectorspace]

Great question. I'm curious as to whether signal processing is a hot sub field of EE to go into.

 

[evra]

i will suggest microelectronics

 

[digitalblggr]

Parallel Processing
GPUs

 

[Sakha]

I have a gut that EEs in the photonics field will be in high demand in the coming years.

 

[czelaya]

I hope I'm not bombarding this thread but is computer engineering a specialized field within electrical engineering that deals with microprocessors and machine language?

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I have a gut that EEs in the photonics field will be in high demand in the coming years.

Why do you say that?

 

[AlexES16]

Electrical Engineer work with robots?

 

[Sakha]

Why do you say that?

Optical data connection can achieve impressing speeds, 50Gb/s was the latest Intel demonstration. I think this will be the way to keep us at Moore's law pace, until quantum computing becomes feasible.

 

[Cspeed]

I'm bumping this thread because I was about to ask the same question. Does anyone else have suggestions? Basically about which EE subfields have the most jobs now and in the near future? And this doesn't just include "popular new emerging fields" but also old fields if they will be in high demand still.

 

[DizzyUFOPilot]

Photonics is hot. UCF (Univ of Central Florida) has a whole school devoted to optics and photonics. Also millimeter wave technology - for airport scanners, for radio astronomy, for applications yet to be thought of. Get into any mm-wave related position, and be good for a range of careers in that area.

Digital, which I personal find boring, will always need FPGA programmers, chip designers, board designers, etc. I've taken an interest in signal integrity due to its analog nature while living in the digital world, but while talent is always welcome it didn't appear to be a big growing field. Maybe that's changing?
If you don't like such fast-moving electrons, there's always demand in renewable energy, solar, and so on, though that's mostly big-scale high-power stuff, and more economics and politics than actual technology.

 

[fss]

Digital Signal/Image Processing is a booming topic now as ever.

 

[FlexGunship]

Which sub-fields of EE are the most in demand right now?

Motion control and industrial automation. I get calls from recruiters weekly.

 

[jbs80106]

If we're talking 1st real job opportunties I would suggest considering a broader experience/background to open up the most doors to opportunity. I would be cautious about burrowing down into a very specialized field as you may find limit initial job opportunity. In the defense world most entry jobs I've seen have been looking for the most versitile new employees they can get. An ability to learn, adapt, and grow to meet current and future business needs. Specialized folks tend to be senior (e.g. older) and somewhat limited to very defined boundaries.

 

[Phyisab****]

From what I've seen (my job search has been very narrow so far), control systems expertise is in high demand, and also doesn't seem like something which is subject to as much fluctuation in demand as other jobs. On the other hand, it's not as "sexy" as some fields mentioned above.

 

[Cspeed]

Yes, I'm interested in 1st jobs. Can you explain which kinds of jobs wouldn't be very specialized?

 

[sheridp]

I also share this concern: I'm a recent graduate with a computer engineering degree (lot of FPGA work) but switched to solid state EE for graduate school. I'm wondering if I've made a mistake since I've heard a lot of talk that the semiconductor industry is dying in the US. Does anyone have input on this?

I'd also really like to talk to someone who works in the semiconductor industry to get an accurate picture of what day-to-day life is like. Your input would be greatly appreciated.