Electrical Engineering vs. Electronic Engineering Technology

[Andy1845c]

Hello everyone.

Some of you may remember me. I was fairly active here a few years ago. I have been lurking again lately and am glad to see some familiar members still active.

I have been kicking around the idea of a career in the world of electricity. Currently I am 27 and work for a distribution company, where I have no chance to move up.

I thought I would post here and ask for some input as I know there are a wide range of members posting here, from students to college profs, to EEs to electricians.

My personal interests lie in things like switching an automation circuits and heavy power stuff (3 phase, motor drives etc.) Basically the types of things that control processes in a factory or what not.

I would like to spend at least part of my time out in the field actually installing/trouble shooting/repairing things. I don't want a desk job.

If I understand correctly, the Electronics Engineer does more of what I am after, and the Electrical Engineer does more theory and would be more of a desk job, typically.

Anyone feel like chiming in with advice or thoughts? Anyone happen to have a degree in Electronics Engineering, work with/hire grads from these programs, or teach this program? I am just wondering where the bulk of grads end up. I don't really want to work for a company that manufactures circuit boards. Not knocking this type of work, just think I would go nuts with the repetition.

I know some of what I want to do is electrician work. I would love to do a two year trade school program for that, but its not offered in my city and I would have to move, and that's not an option at this point in my life. The local state college offers both engineering programs, and I see Electronics Engineer offered though online courses in may places.

 

[Sceadwian]

I would think it's exactly opposite at least from how I think of it, "Electrical Engineers" are the people that design whole systems that run using what an Electronics Engineer would build. There's no concrete definintion of what either would do though it depends on what the classes in the degrees associate with and even more dependent on the company that you actually get a job at.

 

[JimB]

Hello Andy, I remember you.

Your question is one which caused me problems many years ago when I was still at school and trying to decide which college/university to go to.
I ended up on an Electrical Engineering course, but that course covered as much electronics (light current) as it did electrical (heavy current and power).

My best suggestion would be that you get a copy of the sylabus for each course.
Read them and if you have questions, go along to the college and ask if you could speak to someone in the electrical engineering department who could give you some advice and maybe explain which course would be best for you.

If I understand correctly, the Electronics Engineer does more of what I am after, and the Electrical Engineer does more theory and would be more of a desk job, typically.

Not necessarily. IMHO.

A few definitions

Engineer: Someone who has had a lot of college, sits at a desk all day, designing stuff, pushing a lot of paper around. Gets into the workshop or out to the worksite now and again and tells the technician what to do.

Technician: Someone who had a reasonable amount of college and who does what the engineer tells him to do. Most of the time.
He may not have the knowledge to design the stuff, but he knows in detail how it works and how to fix it.
He does the practical stuff in all weathers and does not sit in an nice air conditioned office, bored out of his mind.

Manager: Someone who no one knows his background, sits in an air conditioned office all day looking busy pushing paper around.
Moans to the engineers and technicians that it is taking too long, costing too much money, and has little concept of what the practical difficuties are.

There are of course variations and exceptions to each of these job titles!

JimB

 

[ronsimpson]

EE verses EET
About 35 years ago I looked into this. I know things have changed and each school is different. etc
I called the personal department at 6 large companies and asked. They all said a 4 year degree is a 4 year degree and the pay is the same EE/EET.
A EET-2 year program is not the same thing!!
I chose to do both programs at the same time at different schools.
The EE program had too many classes in power line theory. It was very book oriented and has little hands on. There was no need to know how to solder.
The EET program was mostly hands on. There was a class on soldering. I build a wire-wrapped computer from scratch using 150 ICs.

I think the EE program is much better known! Either way you will be an engineer with a 4 year degree.

Before you decide which way to go, talk to some people who hire. (not just one company)

 

[DerStrom8]

Hi Andy! Welcome back!

I always learned that Electrical Engineering deals more with power electronics, power transmission, transformers, and that sort of thing. Electrical Engineering Technology, on the other hand, deals more with small circuits and circuit theory, discrete components, ICs, and microcontrollers. That sort of thing. This is how I learned it, anyway.

Der Strom

 

[Andy1845c]

Thanks for the replys so far.

I do have a few local people I would like to talk to. I just thought I would get some opinions here, since there is such a diverse body of members.

The first thing I need to do is hit math hardcore. I never took it real far in highschool, and have forgotten far too much. :/

I see A LOT of EET degrees as online courses. I have to wonder about those as nothing can be hands on.

I would like to be able to do at least most of the classes online, but some things I think it would be important were hands on. Not that I have a problem building circuits at home, but it sometimes is so nice to do stuff like that in a group setting with someone who knows what they're doing...

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Try this one on for size: 4 yr degree It was called Engineering Technology and Technical management, but they dropped the management part of the eqn. Purpose: Taught you how to basically oversee work and, of course, do some yourself. Lots of stuff from designing light industrial buildings, to thermodynamics and 2 yr degree Electronics Technology: Agree mostly a nice overall course + 2 years of EE. Lots of theory, lots of math. Again, seems like long ago. The EE program had a lot of sub-specialties.

 

[BrownOut]

Hi Andy! Welcome back!

I always learned that Electrical Engineering deals more with power electronics, power transmission, transformers, and that sort of thing. Electrical Engineering Technology, on the other hand, deals more with small circuits and circuit theory, discrete components, ICs, and microcontrollers. That sort of thing. This is how I learned it, anyway.

Der Strom

Hi DS, what you say makes sense from a semantic point of view. However, I can assure you that it's incorrect. EE's do everything from power generation and distribution to microelectronics. It's all about the field of speciality. Unfortunately, the blanket title EE is insufficient to describe the wide ranging field.

 

[DerStrom8]

Hi DS, what you say makes sense from a semantic point of view. However, I can assure you that it's incorrect. EE's do everything from power generation and distribution to microelectronics. It's all about the field of speciality. Unfortunately, the blanket title EE is insufficient to describe the wide ranging field.

Ok, thanks for posting. That's good to know.

 

[phalanx]

Hi DS, what you say makes sense from a semantic point of view. However, I can assure you that it's incorrect. EE's do everything from power generation and distribution to microelectronics. It's all about the field of speciality. Unfortunately, the blanket title EE is insufficient to describe the wide ranging field.

You hit the nail on the head. The world of an EE covers everything from 1,000,000+ volt transmission systems to turning on the low voltage LED indicator on the front of your computer monitor.

The main purpose of any engineering degree (regardless of discipline) is to give you the tools and skills that are needed to attack complex problems and find ways to go about solving them. On the EE side of the world, a proper degree program will include a wide variety of classes including mathematics, physics, computer science, EE specific courses, and even communication and management based classes. As you progress through your degree program you will have time to pick classes that are more subject specific which will allow you to specialize in a particular area (e.g. power, control, electronics, telecommunications, etc.). The key to everything is that when you graduate, you should have the skills necessary to effectively attack and solve problems that are outside of your normal skill set.

In theory, an Electronics Engineering degree program should include all the low level engineering classes that a regular EE program would have but would then transition to a defined curriculum that focuses on lower voltage analog and digital design. In practice this may not be the case at every institution of higher learning. I would review the graduation requirements for both and decide if the Electronics program gives you the same engineering foundations as a typical EE degree. If it does, great! If not, everyone in the engineering community knows that an EE could very well be specialized in electronics/computer engineering.