Engineering RF Test Engineering - Curious about the field

[pratiken]

RF Test Engineering -- Curious about the field

Hi guys,
I just graduated college and I have an offer for an RF Test Engineering position that sounds pretty amazing to me. The company is a telecommunications company that works mostly with gateway routers. I would be responsible for designing automated RF testing methods used in manufacturing facilities overseas.

Ultimately, I would really like to work in the medical device industry. However, I don't mind beginning elsewhere and growing before getting there. It's just a goal someday.

I figured this would be a good way to do that as wireless technology is only growing, even in the biotech industry.

From what I understand, RF Testing is a pretty small niche field. To me this sounds like a good thing. I'd gain valuable skills and make myself marketable someday. On the other hand, would I have room to grow? In all honesty, I don't know much about that area of industry as I'm actually a double major in mechanical engineering and computer science, but not EE.

Do you guys have any advice on such a field? Is it a good field to get into or am I digging myself into a corner niche?

Thank you!

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

You'd be surprised just how many fields this "niche" is embedded in.

I got my start decades ago working on two way radio systems, and then Custom RF and Microwave design. It led to many opportunities later.

That said, if you focus too tightly on just this field, it will always remain a niche. Keep the broader scope in mind and go for it

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to the PF.

Sounds like a very good starting point. RF is a challenging specialty in EE fields, and will give you good extra experience over a more vanilla EE job. Plus you will necessarily learn a number of important things about how to handle signals, how to probe signals, how to process signals, etc., that you would not learn in a vanilla DC device test position.

Beyond that, if you are interested in Biomedical Engineering, I would strongly encourage you to keep heading in that direction. The next few decades will see an explosion of new medical treatments, drugs and devices, IMO, and it would be great to be part of that. Study hard!