How to Become a Successful Electronics Engineer: Tips and Advice"

[Alpharup]

I'am doing my undergrad first year in Electronics and communication engineering..I want to know what are all the practices which will make me a good electronics engineer...I usually like solving tough problems and I also try to learn the depth of my subject..If mathematical rigor is what makes me a better engineer, I am ready to do that...Apart from problem solving and thinking creatively, are soft skills important? How are engineers graded in their workplace? Is it that they should communicate effectively??
Should they possesses soft skills like influencing others, leadership qualities etc..??In one self help book, it is mentioned that these skills are the ones which constitute 85% of the quality of graduates and that the rest 15% is the ability to solve problems by using what is learnt. Is this statement true??
To be frank, I don't have these skills...Even if I artificially learn them, I don't think I can make a difference..Please do help me in this matter...

 

[berkeman]

One of the best things you can do is start building up hobby projects, both in hardware and software. Look at the electronics kits available, and find something that is practical that you can actually use in your daily life (like a clock or timer or TV remote control, etc.). As you start building circuits, you learn to ask more questions of yourself as you learn circuit design, and that helps you learn how to learn better, IMO.

I'd also recommend that you find a local group that helps you learn and practice how to be a good public speaker. In the US we have a group called Toastmasters, and hopefully there is a similar group in your location. I feel very fortunate that I was a member of the speech club in my high school years, because it made me quite comfortable speaking in front of large groups. That skill is very valuable when it comes to presenting in technical meetings and other gatherings that are part of your more advanced work.

 

[analogdesign]

In my experience as a practicing EE, I think soft skills are important but not 85%. Maybe for some business-type workers but most actual effective engineers that I know are more like 75% technical / 25% getting along and communicating. People who are mostly soft-skill end up in marketing where that is helpful (and they will be happier).

Being too focused on technical aspects of your job is also not effective because what good is solving a problem if you can advocate for your solution and convince others to use it?

 

[Alpharup]

In my experience as a practicing EE, I think soft skills are important but not 85%. Maybe for some business-type workers but most actual effective engineers that I know are more like 75% technical / 25% getting along and communicating. People who are mostly soft-skill end up in marketing where that is helpful (and they will be happier).

Being too focused on technical aspects of your job is also not effective because what good is solving a problem if you can advocate for your solution and convince others to use it?

Can being in Research and Development unit in a company help me to do real engineering..ie..solve problems and design circuits?

 

[AlephZero]

Working in industry isn't like being in college. You are not being paid to solve problems that have "right answers," where you can check in the back of the textbook, or get the solutions marked in a test.

If you can't convince anybody else (starting with your boss!) that your answers are "right" (or at least, good enough to be useful to make the company money), your career won't progress far. That is true whether you are working on a project to design an actual product, or doing "research".

My job title is something like "technical specialist in XYZ", and I spend much of my time doing what might be called R&D - but I spend more than half my working time communicating with other people around the world, either within the multi-national company I work for, or with other companies that we work with, or with PhD students and post-docs doing research projects we have funded in universities.