Need some input from experienced engineers regarding job opportunity.

[andylie]

Hi everyone.
I am stuck between Electrical Engineer and Software Engineer.
I finished automotive program 3 years ago and currently work as auto mechanic. I like my job, but the pay isn't that high so i decided to go back and get a higher degree in engineering.
Im currently taking all prerequisites courses for my Engineering major, and I am stuck between Electrical Engineer and Software Engineer.
I know many experienced engineers in this forum and i humbly ask for your guidances and input.
Which one should i pick? what kind of work that those two engineers do? Which one has more employment opportunity?

Thank you so much for your reply and advice.

 

[dawin]

It really depends what you enjoy more. They're really quite different. Employability probably is more dependent on location.

Personally, I'd lean towards electrical because I find it more interesting curriculum-wise, and less specific than software. Do you like computer programming now?

 

[andylie]

I never take any programming class yet, and i don't know whether it is hard or no.
But i had taken some basic electrical class, and i like it.
I haven't really get into the program yet, I am still taking all the prerequisites courses for the program.
Both Computer Engineer/Software Engineer and Electrical Engineer have the same prerequisites courses for math and physics. I have at least 4 more semester until i finished all my prerequisite and transfer to university for the Engineering core classes.

I live at San Francisco Bay Area, i think there are more Job opportunities for Software Engineer than Electrical Engineer, but i might be wrong.

 

[chiro]

Hey andylie and welcome to the forums.

If you end up going the software development route, I'd strongly recommend you get a pris oject or two under your belt that is related to the particular area you want to get a job in.

You should do this on top of your core courses because in the real world, you'll be expected to start producing code very quickly and you will probably be thrown in the deep end with a list of API's, documents to read, and a massive code base that you need to understand very quickly.

If you do projects, try and and make them a bit big (but not too big that they won't get done or are un-realistic) and see if you can work on a multi-person project (i.e. shared repository). These kinds of things will prepare you for the real world jobs.

Doing both the projects and the course-work will give you overall and specific experience and you need both for the real world. Having only general experience is not useful and having specific experience without a general background of things like algorithms, operating systems, data structures and so on is also not a good idea.

 

[andylie]

Chiro, do you know if there is any good basic programming lessons such as textbook, or some other things that i can use for self-study? I have nothing to do in my free time besides playing games. I think maybe i should start look at the book and teach myself rather than wasting my time on games.
Thank you for your information

 

[chiro]

There is a free set of books on learning C++ which I looked at when I was learning:

http://mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html

 

[andylie]

Chiro, thanks for all information. I really appreciate it. I will get the book and look at the material to get to know what thing that I will run into.