Is this an impossible aspiration for an Electrical/Controls Engineer?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the potential for remote work opportunities within the field of electrical engineering, particularly for those with backgrounds in panel design, PLCs, and instrumentation. Participants explore various roles and conditions that might allow for remote work, as well as the challenges associated with it.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that desk jobs in electrical engineering are generally suitable for remote work, while roles requiring physical presence, such as lab work, may not be.
  • One participant mentions that software engineers and CAD-intensive jobs can often be performed remotely, provided the necessary tools and access are available.
  • Another participant notes that while remote work is possible, it may not be feasible for 100% of the time due to the need for hands-on work in certain situations.
  • Concerns are raised about the limitations of remote work, particularly for tasks that require direct interaction with prototypes or equipment.
  • Some participants share personal experiences regarding their current work arrangements, indicating a mix of remote and in-office requirements.
  • There is a discussion about the clarity of communication in posts, with some messages being perceived as garbled due to typographical errors.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the feasibility of remote work in electrical engineering, with no clear consensus on the extent to which it can be achieved. Some agree that certain roles can support remote work, while others emphasize the necessity of in-person presence for specific tasks.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the dependence on specific job roles, the nature of tasks involved, and the varying policies of employers regarding remote work arrangements.

danton133
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Is there (or will there be) some specific fields or roles within electrical engineering that support the ability to work fully remote? To escape the 9-5, location dependent norm.

This could be as a employee, contactor or maybe self employed?

More info: my current background includes panel design, plc's, and some experience with instrumentation and I'm looking for opportunities to steer my career towards remote work.
 
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Any kind of a desk job should be suitable for remote written. Direct injection of materials our products is not.

I once meet a patent examiner living on a boat as she cruised the country. Every Friday she had to fly to DC, walk into the office and say, "Hello," then fly back.
 
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Never, ever, ever leave your home no matter what? That is a lot less likely than working primarily from home.
 
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danton133 said:
More info: my current background includes panel design, plc's, and some experience with instrumentation and I'm looking for opportunities to steer my career towards remote work.
A couple thoughts come to mind. In general if you need to work in the lab (on prototype circuits, design validation, device troubleshooting, test fixture design, etc.), you will need to go in at least a few days a week. That is pretty much my situation. You can mitigtate that a little by bringing some of those setups home, and by using VPN access to the company network to be able to work on your setups from home.

For our company, it's mostly the software engineers who can avoid going into work completely. Also, there are some CAD-intensive jobs where you can work mostly remotely as long as you have those (expensive) tools at your home or again use VPN access to run them from home. PCB layout is one such specialty, for example. But straightfoward layouts can generally be handled at the talented technician/specialist level, rather than needing a full EE to do that work. There are some exceptions for very complicated high-speed designs and RF design work.
 
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With your background you should be able to work mostly from home aside from prototype work or proofing your code (PLC) in the field. What area of the county do you currently work ie East coast?
 
anorlunda said:
Any kind of a desk job should be suitable for remote written. Direct injection of materials our products is not.
The above seems pretty garbled. Spell check gone wrong?
"written" = "work"?
"injection" = "inspection"?
"our" = "or"?
 
Mark44 said:
The above seems pretty garbled. Spell check gone wrong?
"written" = "work"?
"injection" = "inspection"?
"our" = "or"?
Yikes! Very mangled. Yes, your guesses are all correct. I must stop using my phone on PF.
 
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anorlunda said:
I must stop using my phone on PF.
My philosophy (very Luddite) is that phones are great for making or receiving calls or texts, but they are inferior for typing and viewing images. But that's just me...
 
I'm an electrical engineer. I think my work has a baseline plan to get me back into the office although currently I'm pretty much not even allowed to go there... I work fully from home for nearly a year now.

I'm in the same situation as @berkeman described most of my work is using EDA so a lot of CAD work as well as simulations.
 
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  • #10
I'm an electrical engineer. Since most of my work involve designing stuff on the computer, I actually don't have to be in the office a lot. I could definitely see a 50-70% work from home arrangement work, although 100% work from home would be difficult (sometimes every now and then you still need to get your hands dirty). This is entirely up to your employer actually and how good you are.
 

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