So I'm 28 and after getting/working with a fairly useless bio degree I decide to go back and am now getting a electrical engineering degree at a top 5 national school.

With such a wide field, how do I narrow down what I want to do?

Right now I'm looking for jobs in a co-op program (about a year of work commitment) and have a research type programming possibility on a defense contract. Which seems pretty cool.

Basically my concern are that I don't know if I'd be happy doing code-monkey type stuff on a permanent basis if that's all I do (although I do enjoy it as a hobby/for a year). And I'm not sure having that as my "engineering work exp" would pigeon hole me into that.

thoughts?

previous careers/jobs:

I've done bio research and hating the paper writing/publication process and decided it wasn't what I wanted to do, because I don't "love" discovering small possibly insignificant new knowledge and really just want to problem solve/make stuff work.
I also had too much time on my hands due to the type of project..

I've also done poker(and really enjoyed travel/flexibility), but became very stressed out due to swings/economic insecurity.

More general work experience will help you land a job later. Research experience is important for people that want to continue on to grad school or do research jobs, but otherwise companies want to know that you know how to work within a typical work environment rather than an academic one.

Figure out what you like and go for it.. Degrees don't mean **** in engineering. Sure it's nice to have one, but all the best engineers I know learned by hands on exp.

Figure out what you want and get some real world on the job training.

Obviously finish your degree, I have no idea what this guy is talking about.

If you don't really enjoy programming I would not go into it. You can basically do anything with electrical engineering, many of my friends go into energy and telecommunication companies.

Programming and EE are two completely different things. About the only time they come close is if you're doing embedded programming in electronic devices. If you want to program, you're wasting your time getting a EE. And vice versa - if you want to be a EE, your programming experience (other than collecting the paycheck) is pretty much a waste of time.

If you don't know what king of EE you want to be, talk to counselors. They've heard this a thousand times before.

I never said for him to NOT finish his degree my friend.. What I'm saying is, finish, and get to work. It took me 10 years after starting my engineering career to get to the top. The man will be 40. Engineering is a job that takes actually working on equipment and getting your hands dirty. Seeing things in motion, not reading a book. If I had to choose between a kid fresh off a Masters degree with 0 real world exp, or a engineer with 8-10yrs EXP and no degree. It wouldn't even be difficult. The kid with the masters still doesn't know **** about ****.

I'm an EE and I work for General Dynamics. I'm a Project Engineer for Department of Homeland Security and deploy all of their Telecom. Also, I don't do ANY application programming, except for Avaya phone switches or scripting for our PBX Monitoring System that I developed. I did toss up a few simple PHP pages that pull data from a database and display it for monitoring of our PBX Network, but that's about it.

Yeah I misunderstood you. I'm soon finished with my masters and I think you're right. I would have been way more valuable on the market by taking a bachelor and working for two years than having a masters. Advanced dducation is our generations big bluff. At least I'm glad I did engineering.

There are a few cases where an advanced degree is helpful if you are specializing in something that your employer would need. But in general, its highly overrated. Unless you did poorly in undergrad and need something to prove yourself again.

absolutely, you can never go wrong with studying engineering.

Degrees mean a hell of a lot in engineering. You are very unlikely to get hired at a good job without one.

Engineering degree can lead to all kinds of things. The highest paid EEE I know works in management consulting (after a couple of years working at a defense contractor).

Agree with this, although note that embedded development is an enormous field: covers everything from cable set top boxes to medical devices to mobile, video etc. There are probably more embedded devices than full stack devices in the world by a large margin.

you could also get equivalent military training, which is what I did.

Degree's show you can put forth the work, nothing more. I have no degree, but LOTS of certifications and real world exp. I also went to school @ school of naval engineering(but received no degree, just pass/fail).

I'm proof that it can be done, and I know many fantastic engineers who have done the same. I started with low voltage electrical work, and just kept moving up the pay scale. Went into the navy and they sent me to Telecom school. I got out of the navy, started as a field tech and have worked my way up to project engineering and middle management for a fortune 500 company in the top 100 and make 6 figs+. To say you can't do it without a degree is extremely false, because I did it. I'd say its much easier though to go a different route.

I encourage EVERY engineer to get a degree. It's one of the few industries that actually should go to college. Sciences, Engineer, Medical, and a few more. The rest of the college degree's offered are a huge waist of money and time.

I'm hoping i can do the same as your friend and roll this current middle management job with a defense contractor into an upper management job in the mid 6figs range I'd be happy as a clam at that point.

Was pursued by Red hat for awhile, but I declined because it would require 100% travel.

congrats. You should have no issues finding work.

Trial and error is the only way unless you have a passion for something. I can only speak for Chem Eng, but there's a massive difference between some of the fields you can work in and the type of work you'd do ..... ie an old classmate of mine basically babysits guys on the paint line at GM whereas I do mass transfer/heat transfer/fluid dyn's calcs for equipment design. He sold all of his books right away whereas I still use a handful of mine. Both of us are pretty happy with what we've ended up doing. Eng'ng jobs can get quite diverse.

Co-op is a great way to get your feet wet and if anything - figure out what you don't want to do. The only complication might be for you at 28 if you have other family commitments or student loans and you'd rather be taking on a full time job asap.

I'm not an EE but I would presume the hardware/software divide is similar to what I was talking about with Chem Eng having distinct industries.

There's no reason to assume you'll be 'stuck' as a monkey in the basement after the coop - it could open doors to bigger opportunities with that employer that are more to your liking?

You won't get pigeon holed from 1 coop experience on your resume. When you go to get your first job after grad they're going to hire based on their opinion of how quickly you can learn and if you will be a fit at the company ...... like someone else above me said, you won't know **** coming out of school. It takes a couple of years of experience in industry to get up and running.

Cool thread. I don't want to derail OP but I'm 27 and thinking about going back to school to get a chemical engineering degree. My first time in school I was a varsity athlete at a top program in the sport I played and because of this I chose to get a history degree because it was easier and allowed me to practice as much as I wanted. Out of school I played the sport professionally for a bit, however, I soon decided that I probably wasn't going to live the dream of being a professional athlete. After this I gambled for a living and I have done decently for the last 4ish years but I'm sick of the swings and inconsistent money etc. I also have a girlfriend that I want to settle down with possibly (Not 100% sure on that yet, but I will meet someone eventually and some stabilty would help). I have about 25k in savings and figure I could go somewhere in state close to debt free if I work a part time job while attending school. Even if I have to take on some debt I don't think it would kill me if I had 20k in debt with a decent degree like ChemE. I know internships in the summer and Coop's are important in trying to get a job out of school. I would obviously make those a priority.

Would it matter much what school I went too? Is this really stupid as I would be 30 or 31 coming out of school? I plan on going to talk to an advisor in the next couple of days at a local college just to see what my options are? Some of the math might be difficult because I haven't taken any real math since high school should I take pre cal at a community college before I go? I had a good GPA before btw if that means anything and I feel like at the start the courses might be tough but at 27 Im alot more focused and I'm actually interested in the subject matter now.

Sorry if this is too big a derail I just saw this thread and figured I could maybe get an engineer that knows something about the industry to tell me if I am being stupid.

Cliffs;
Gets stupid degree.
Gambles for a living for 4 years.
Gets older and begins to hate gambling lifestyle.
Thinks going back for a ChemE degree would be a good idea.
Profit?

I know people who graduate older than you and it's still a good idea. I would try to minimize debt. School absolutely matters. But you probably are fine at finding a good public in the area (if one exists).

If you can knock out prereqs at a community college, that seems like a good idea. Not sure if you'd be able to transfer any credit for your previous degree and be able to get it done in faster than 4 years.

The courses will definitely be tough. ChemE has some very hard ones.