Insights Blog
-- Browse All Articles --
Physics Articles
Physics Tutorials
Physics Guides
Physics FAQ
Math Articles
Math Tutorials
Math Guides
Math FAQ
Education Articles
Education Guides
Bio/Chem Articles
Technology Guides
Computer Science Tutorials
Forums
Science and Math Textbooks
STEM Educators and Teaching
STEM Academic Advising
STEM Career Guidance
Trending
Featured Threads
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Science and Math Textbooks
STEM Educators and Teaching
STEM Academic Advising
STEM Career Guidance
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
More options
Contact us
Close Menu
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Forums
Science Education and Careers
STEM Career Guidance
Tips for a Physics BS going into a systems engineering job?
Reply to thread
Message
[QUOTE="CrysPhys, post: 6633843, member: 605891"] OP: I got my PhD in Physics. During my career, I worked in several different fields, including nearly 15 yrs as a systems engineer for major telcom companies (private industry sector). At this stage, you probably can't do much advance preparation. Systems engineering covers a broad scope of activities (as does other branches of science and engineering). You don't know what to prepare for until you get further details of your responsibilities. Given that you need a security clearance, those details might be hard to come by. Here are some general considerations: * One important consideration is the scope of the "system" you're working on. As telcom examples, a "system" could range from a single mobile phone to a global communications network. * Another important consideration is the size, structure, and scope of your systems engineering organization, and of the organizations that systems engineering interfaces with. Some organizations have various tiers of systems engineering that deal with different granularities of technical details, ranging from systems engineers who deal primarily with sales and marketing organizations to systems engineers who deal primarily with design and development organizations. * Depending on your organization, your responsibilities may span a single tier or multiple tiers. For example, in one organization, my role was narrowly defined: I received, as input, customer requirements from a higher-tier systems engineering group and wrote, as output, systems engineering requirements that in turn served as input to the design and development organization. But in another organization, my role was more fluid: I interacted directly with the customer, wrote the high-level customer requirements and the systems engineering requirements. I also wrote the system test requirements and setup the system testbed, and was a member of the field-trial team. * Again, depending on your organization, your responsibilities may include, e.g., reliability analysis and power budgets. Or those may fall under different organizations entirely. * You will most likely spend a lot of time writing documents and making drawings. The tools range from generic (e.g., Word and Powerpoint) to specialized (e.g., specific software for requirements documents and CAD for drawings). Again, since your position requires a security clearance, they most likely will have specialized software that you can't play with in advance. * In summary, when you get on board, try to quickly understand the scope of your responsibilities. E.g., if your responsibility is to write systems requirements for the design engineers, you [I]don't [/I]get wrapped up in design details. This is particularly important since you'll likely be operating against strict deadlines, and the design engineers may not welcome what they view as intrusion on their turf (important to understand the organizational culture). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Post reply
Forums
Science Education and Careers
STEM Career Guidance
Tips for a Physics BS going into a systems engineering job?
Back
Top