Electrical Engineering Overview

Fellow presentation and intro to your career path

Hello fellow problem solvers and STEM aficionados! Welcome to this article, which is for you, if you want to use technology/engineering to solve problems in your daily life. I am Akshta Suresh and I am originally from Chennai, a city in the southernmost state of India called Tamil Nadu. I did my bachelor’s in Electronics and Instrumentation in India and came to the US in 2018 to pursue a master’s degree in electrical engineering at NYU. 

If you ask me what made me choose that field, here’s what I’d tell you – “A matchup between two of the greatest maestros of the game – the final was not yet over. As I slipped to the edge of my seat, Rafael Nadal served out the set and gathered the victory points against his bitter-sweet rival, Roger Federer.” This scene used to be a common one about ten years ago. ‘Grand Slam Tennis’ kindled my passion for Tennis and my love for Rafael Nadal. But above all, it kindled the child-like fascination for technology and an excitement for simulation within me. Maybe this was what set the ball rolling for this inquisitive kid in me, who grew up in a generation where the virtual world was developing at an exponential rate. In a world where the unreal seems real, the near-life portrayal of the present-day virtual characters intrigued me and that was the starting point of my interest in technology and engineering. I wanted to be at that point where I got to build these simulation games and what better option than joining a field that teaches the mechanical, electrical and technological aspects of such a concept. 

As a person who completely relies on logic and reasoning for every step that I take in my life, the problem-solving aspect in Electronics drew me like a magnet. This, in turn, led me to take the same subject in my High school. As I was taking little steps into the field of electronics, using bread boards and wires to forge connections, I happened to do a project of standardizing and calibrating the galvanometers and potentiometers which triggered in me a spark – a fire to delve deeper into this domain. This project convinced me that electronics was my area of forte and I was offered admission at Sri Sairam Engineering College, one of the premier institutions for engineering in India to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Instrumentation. All the experiences during my undergrad enabled me to realise that the various domains of electronics are interconnected and that working on Robotics and Control provided me with an immense sense of satisfaction and happiness.

This is what prompted me to apply to colleges in the US to enhance my knowledge further in that domain and I ended up selecting NYU to pursue my master’s. I had initially opted for the Mechatronics and Robotics domain but later moved to Electrical Engineering as I believed it provided me with a vast array of career options. And, that’s how I ended up pursuing my master’s in Electrical Engineering with a majority of my electives being from the Robotics domain. The conscious choice I had made helped me balance out my career choice and passion. 

Having completed my master’s in Eletrical Engineering, I worked as an Application Engineer at Everel America, a major manufacturer of different types of switches. Later, I realized that I wanted to get into development rather than being on the application side and that’s when I came across Building Momentum, a company that was into training and designing projects for the US Navy, Military and many other companies. Initially, I joined the R&D team and gradually made the transition into the Training team that not only develops cool products but also goes around training people from all walks of life with technology to leverage the skills they learn to solve their day-to-day problems.

In this article, I will take you through a journey of the various career options available in the Electrical Engineering domain, my personal experiences in finding a job and the interesting aspects of my current work in an endeavor to get you excited about making a career in the Electrical Engineering field. 

Electrical Engineering career options 

Becoming an Electrical Engineer is a potential career choice as this field has plenty of employment options. The industries you could work with range from government agencies to private tech companies. For a technical product to work in today’s world, electricity/power is essential. In this section, I have listed the various options you have available in the field of Electrical Engineering in the hope that learning about these career paths will assist you in figuring out which one of them is perfect for you.

• ‍Electronics Engineer
  Electronics engineers oversee creating and manufacturing electronics and their parts. They choose the most incredible power supply possibilities and visual components to support a novel item’s essential features. Furthermore, electronics engineers establish a product’s final criteria so customers can understand its functional needs and constraints.
  ‍‍
• Electrical Engineer
  Electrical engineers are responsible for creating, assessing, and putting into action various electrical gadgets, from intricate power systems to individual electrical devices. They utilize their understanding of electrical circuits and currents to supply power to technological equipment in a secure manner.
  ‍‍
• Robotics Engineer
  A Robotics Engineer designs and develops robotic prototypes. They also construct, configure, test, and debug robots and robotic systems. In addition to this, they install, operate, calibrate, and maintain robots. They ensure that robotic machines operate safely, dependably, and with precision; identify and implement modifications.
  ‍‍
• Application Engineer
  An Application Engineer in the Electronics Industry will be involved in the design, development and qualification of electronic controls systems and electrical components for new and existing electrical products/ projects in a company.  This role involves working with and coordinating a cross functional engineering team, test labs, marketing, and industrial design towards the successful implementation of the new electronics projects. Additionally, they give manufacturing tips and suggestions depending on customer requirements and demands.
  ‍‍
• Test Engineer
  Test engineers are responsible for developing the procedures to detect problems and verify their operability. They develop tests to determine whether products fit functional and safety specifications, designing an isolated environment that enables them to monitor experiments precisely. Test engineers monitor test runs and modify the evaluation procedure depending on the outcomes.
  ‍
• System Engineer
  A systems engineer ensures that the systems under their management are entirely operational and optimal. They may upgrade systems as necessary, track their progress, and install new programs and hardware. In addition, systems engineers may set up a feedback procedure to find problems and propose fixes to stakeholders.
  ‍
• Control Engineer
  Control engineers are responsible for providing dependable, effective, and top-quality production procedures in manufacturing and energy facilities. They create the entire production strategy for the plant, making modifications to maximize the outcome. They also alter the factory floor’s setup and automate crucial workflow procedures to boost productivity.

Main hard skills you use on daily basis in your current job

1. Research and Design
   Having been an Application Engineer, an R&D person and currently, a Training Manager, research has been a constant all through my career. Staying up-to-date with technology has been a major part of the jobs that I have had, be it either for supporting customers in need or for developing solutions to problems. Reading research papers and articles on the technologies in use and getting an idea of what future technology holds has been an important part of all the jobs I have held. Some important tools that have helped me during research has been our good old search engines like Google and lately has been the new AI bot ChatGPT. So as you can see, adapting to newer methodologies is always the one constant change in any career path you choose.
   ‍
   Now, let’s move to the design part. Design entails a significant part of an R&D engineer’s role. In the Electrical domain, PCB design is the most common and there are some programs like KiCAD, Altium, Eagle etc., that make it easy and plausible. Simulating a circuit and actually seeing if the desired output is obtained is also a part of the design process. Some techniques or programs used for such simulation processes are LTSpice, Tinkercad etc. An engineer in the Electrical domain also needs to write code during the design process. Some programming languages that are required to be known are C++ and Python. You can effectively develop these skills by attending related courses in colleges and enhance it by doing some fun and DIY projects on your own for practice. 
   ‍‍
2. Laboratory Techniques and Analysis
   Being in a position where you are constantly developing and testing new products and technologies requires you to be proficient in various electrical and electronics lab equipment. For example, multimeters, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, power supplies, soldering tools, precision tools are the most common laboratory equipment that you need to know how to use when dealing with both electrical and electronics circuits. Microprocessors and microcontrollers are also an important part of an electronics lab.
   ‍
   These skills or rather becoming familiar with such laboratory techniques and equipment can be learnt by enrolling in lab specific courses or looking for internships in relevant companies or organizations. You can also apply and work under certain professors from the Electrical Engineering department in your college in their labs helping them in their research and in the process learning or enhancing your skills to use such equipment. Youtube videos are another source available to you to help you familiarize yourself on how to use certain laboratory equipment.
   ‍
3. Documentation and Presentation
   In my current role as a Training Manager, documentation and presentation encompasses a substantial portion of the job. Documentation involves using the Microsoft programs like Word and Excel, Adobe programs like Illustrator and PDF while the presentation part is done by Power Point or Google Slides. These skills can be developed mostly with practice and can be developed by making presentations for your projects/ classes in college. 
   

Soft skills you use on daily basis in your current job

1. Creativity and Problem-Solving
   ‍As Albert Einstein once said, “Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been.” So, creativity and problem-solving is or should be in the DNA of any engineer. In my current job, this skill is like gold-dust. As a person who goes out and trains people in technology, I encounter many new and old problems everyday. So, this skill of thinking out of the box and solving a problem with tools-in-hand becomes crucial. 
   ‍
2. Communication and Collaboration
   ‍As a manager, good communication is vital as I need to communicate to my team in a way that can increase their productivity as well as keep them satisfied in their jobs. In this process, I get to work together with so many innovative minds and learn a lot from them. Communication was important not only when I became a manager but also when I was an Application Engineer and had to interact with customers to understand their needs and provide them with suggestions and solutions. Effective communication is a continuos learning process and is developed over time by interacting with people and connecting with them.
   ‍
3. Good Planning and attention to detail
   ‍Planning and detailing become important to an engineer who majorly works in product development. I need to properly plan to meet deadlines from clients. In addition to this, giving attention to the smallest of details from clients keeps them satisfied and makes them want to come back to the company for more. Planning often goes hand-in-hand with organizational skills and can be improved by prioritizing one’s tasks, delegating time for each task or co-ordinating resources.  
   ‍
4. Adaptability
   ‍As we all know, change is the only constant; be it in life or at work. The person who survives in any situation is the one who is most responsive to the change. This skill of adapting to new changes at work will help you not only survive but also thrive in your workplace. I need to constantly adapt to changes in technology and keep myself updated so that it becomes helpful to people we train. The art of adaptability in my job helps me make a difference in many-a-lives of which I am proud. In order to adapt, the first step is to recognize the change and not ignore it.

‍

Your personal path

Looking for jobs can be an exhausting yet rewarding journey. To elucidate this statement, let me share my personal job hunting experience with you. As you all already know from this article, I came to the US in Fall 2018 to pursue my master’s. I graduated in May 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Neither did I have a commencement ceremony nor a job offer at the time I graduated. 

It was a really tough situation to be in. I had applied to hundreds of jobs through various sources like LinkedIn, Indeed and even on company websites since the start of the year 2020. I had a few interviews lined up in February but unfortunately, COVID came about and made life altering changes putting the entire world to a lockdown. This resulted in all my interviews for jobs getting cancelled or being put on a hold. Not only was life already hard during COVID, but not being able to attend interviews made it even worse. These were physically, mentally and emotionally testing times. 

The virtual system of hiring was new to most companies and in a domain such as Electrical Engineering, it was even harder. Conducting interviews through Zoom and Skype calls was difficult as display of hardware and design experiences couldn’t be done effectively. Being an international student added more hardships and time crunches to my job search as I had a limited number of unemployment days. At that point, I was offered an internship/ training in the Data Science (Machine Learning) field by a company and I took it up to stop my unemployment days. As I attended the training sessions, I felt that it was not a domain in which I wanted to pursue a career. So my search for a job was still on. At one point, I had lost hope but kept applying for positions online and continued developing connections through networking. 

I slowly started getting interviews again around October 2020. I finally got my first full-time job offer as an Application Engineer from a company called Everel America in November after three rounds of interviews. The first round was an initial phone screening followed by an online mechanical and electrical aptitude. This was followed by a technical interview with the hiring manager and then I was offered the job. They were a company that was into manufacturing different types of switches and I knew that this was definitely what I wanted to be doing.

As I was working my way through my job, I learnt many new skills and understood how everything worked in a profesional environment. I developed my communication skills as I interacted with many customers to understand their needs and provide solutions. Although I evolved a lot professionally, I felt that there was something still missing. I slowly realized that it was the absence of giving back to the society. As I was pondering on what to do in order to make a difference to the community, I came across this company called Building Momentum that provided problem solving, training and teaching solutions to almost every section of the humankind through technology on LinkedIn and reached out to them reagrding an opportunity to work with them. And the rest is history! 

I interviewed with them and there was a total of three rounds in the interview process. The first one was a general screening phone call followed by another phone interview with the CTO of the company. Then, I was asked to come in for an in-person interview where I had to present a solution to a problem set that I had been provided with 48 hours before the interview. Apart from this, I had to teach a new skill to about 7-10 people at the interview as a test of my teaching and training abilities. Last but not the least, I had to solve an Arduino based coding challenge that was provided to me on the spot. It was a very fruitful interview experience for me and a week later, I was offered a position in their R&D team. As time went by, I made a transition to their training team that apart from developing products and solutions also went around providing training to help the people from the army, defense, military and navy come up with creative solutions to problems that they face in the field using technology.

Some technologies that we provide training for are as follows: Software Defined Radios, Drone Technology, Advanced Manufacturing techniques including design and 3D printing, Robot building and Wireless Communications. I recently got promoted to the manager of the Training team and I am really elated to be in a position that is in line with my passion as well as provides me a sense of satisfaction. I had to patiently wait and put in all efforts before I could end up in a job that I really enjoy. So, this proved to me that everything valuable takes time and there are no overnight successes. Staying postive and loving the process and journey does ultimately get rewarded.

‍