What else are Electrical Engineers good for?

[teknoaxe]

Hey there all,

I'm an Electrical Engineer with two or three years (depending on how you look at my internships) of work experience. I was laid off from my last company in May due to a revenue shortfall. I used to live in California, but I moved just outside the Boston area to be closer to some family of mine, arrows were pointing to a resurgence in hiring and there are surrounding cities also with engineering companies.

The problem is that even though the job market may be warming up, there's still a big influx of people looking for work in the engineering fields. I'm finding myself in fierce competition with everyone else who's gotten the axe as well. And while people seem to be impressed with my qualifications, it also seems that companies latch on the very specific laundry lists of qualifications.

I'm trying to look at my options here. I suggested to a recruiter that for a short time we look for technical writing assignments as well. He didn't like the idea, stating that he didn't want to pigeonhole me in that career. But there's got to be other uses for my degree other than electrical engineering, right?

One option, buck electronics and get into power engineering. I've had two classes in this direction, so maybe that's an option.

But other than that, are there other career fields that I should be taking a look at? I've got a couple months of unemployment left. I can't believe I haven't found anything yet and it's getting pretty frustrating, to be honest.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent on your forum. Please let me know any suggestions you may have.

 

[airborne18]

Technical writing is actually a very good career path, especially if you want contract work. I have a very good friend who makes his living doing nothing but contract work, and he always negotiates that he work from home.
It is not top money, but he does okay with 1099 rates.

The key is that you should know milspec requirements for documentation, that is the easiest area to get work in. But by all means that is not the only area..