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It's nice to pay for product you don't want!@
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Mar 18, 2014 23:59
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Is anyone here an EE doing embedded systems programming? I would be interested to hear your take on the pay/job prospects in the field.
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Mar 19, 2014 02:54
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Is anyone here an EE doing embedded systems programming? I would be interested to hear your take on the pay/job prospects in the field. I'm not in embedded systems anymore, but I can answer most questions you might have. The pay and job prospects are excellent. Embedded systems as an industry is growing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Almost anywhere that you see software interact with the real world requires embedded systems, and as time goes on we'll just see more and more of this sort of thing. You won't have any trouble finding a job and you'll get paid very well, with good job security. I got out of the industry because working with hardware is a drag (to me) and because most of the engineers I ran into were older engineers with no interest in modern technology. The fun, interesting, sexy stuff tends to be in the pure software industry (though there are plenty of exceptions to this rule).
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Mar 19, 2014 04:23
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I'd like to know more about embedded systems, too. Is it very location dependent? All the people I know that went that direction went either to a big telecomm company or academia.
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Mar 19, 2014 06:03
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You can find embedded systems work in most major cities, but it'll depend on what industries are present in the area - military contracting, aerospace, consumer electronics, etc.
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Mar 19, 2014 06:33
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So. I'm an EE, with a Masters in Telecommunications. EE right now here in Portugal is more focused on computers than on electricity per se. My masters focused on both computer and telecom networks, so I kind of know a bit about everything. I just got a job at the Enterprise Systems and Data Centers section of a company. I was told that later if I found I couldn't handle the job I could be put on the networking section. However, I think I'll like this ES/DC section better because it's more hands-on, it's actually phisically mounting and configuring the servers. However, I'm freaking scared that I won't know anything. I know the basics of operational systems, but not much else, really. I know poo poo all about virtualization and cloud processing and whatever else is required of me.. As far as I know, these first months will be filled with learning. They're going to pay me for a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 certification which I will take from day one. I'm still not as confident as I know I should be. What I want to know is: any books I should read beforehand? Anything I should know? I'm kind of scared.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:05
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IT worker thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3566701 IT certification thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3521165 Virtualization thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3467608
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Mar 19, 2014 14:10
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Well, thanks!
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Mar 19, 2014 15:03
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orange sky posted:However, I'm freaking scared that I won't know anything. This is completely normal and any good manager will not be hiring a new graduate expecting them to know very much. What you DO have are the tools and foundation knowledge necessary for you to learn what you will need to know. Don't be scared. If you still don't know anything after a year, then start getting scared.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:18
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totalnewbie posted:This is completely normal and any good manager will not be hiring a new graduate expecting them to know very much. My one teacher has repeatedly told my class that we will graduate feeling like we know nothing and no one would ever hire us, because everyone feels that way coming out of college.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:35
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orange sky posted:As far as I know, these first months will be filled with learning. They're going to pay me for a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 certification which I will take from day one. I'm still not as confident as I know I should be. From day one and every day forward will be filled with on-the-job training and learning by doing. The learning curve will be very steep at first, but it will level off as you become more comfortable at the job.
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Mar 20, 2014 00:00
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Thanks, everyone. I don't know many people who work in this area since I graduated before most of my classmates, so I was kind of panicking about what I should or should not know when entering a new job. It's just part of it, I guess. 
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Mar 20, 2014 00:33
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orange sky posted:Thanks, everyone. I don't know many people who work in this area since I graduated before most of my classmates, so I was kind of panicking about what I should or should not know when entering a new job. It's just part of it, I guess. It sounds like you got hired as a sysadmin. There are a metric ton of blogs (and numerous books) devoted to that career track. Oh, if you still have your .edu email address, you can get a free license for Windows Server 2012 from Dreamspark.com to play with.
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Mar 20, 2014 02:01
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As an EE student should I be learning Linux? I've seen it mentioned somewhere.
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Mar 25, 2014 18:13
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Faded Sloth posted:As an EE student should I be learning Linux? I've seen it mentioned somewhere. Absolutely, yes. Especially the command-line.
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Mar 25, 2014 18:17
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In what ways is it used? I'm completely unfamiliar with it but our uni does have a Linux club which anyone can join so I was going to join it next semester. Also what are your most used programs/software? I picked up LTspice and Multisim and am currently learning Matlab. How about AutoCAD?
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Mar 25, 2014 18:57
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Every internship interview I have done has asked about my AutoCAD experience which, sadly, is none. One or two have also asked about Solidworks and Revit. My electromagnetics professor said that his job designing radar was pretty much nothing but MATLAB all day. Other useful EE programs are PSpice, KiKad, Eagle, and any number of programming IDEs. If you still hsve a .edu email address, you can get the most recent version of Visual Studio Professional from dreamspark.com for free. You know how you learned, say, superposition theorem? That's one tool to get something done. Knowing Linux CLI is just another tool to get things done. You might end up doing embedded programming on a SmartTV which runs.... Linux. You might need to use a program that's only available in Linux that is interfaced with mainly in the CLI. Your workplace might have Linux workstations because they're cheap, who knows? One friend of mine lost his job as an EE due to sequester downsizing and walked into a job as a Linux system engineer (I think that's a fancy title for programmer/developer) the next day because he'd had so much experience with Linux development. The pay was good enough that he stuck around and plans on staying there.
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Mar 25, 2014 19:22
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Faded Sloth posted:In what ways is it used? I'm completely unfamiliar with it but our uni does have a Linux club which anyone can join so I was going to join it next semester. In my personal opinion Linux is extremely useful for automating tasks, developing software, and working with LaTeX (for writing whitepapers). Its good to try out a whole lot of programs like autocad, labview, matlab (including simulink), IE3D, and the like. It couldn't hurt to go to your engineering lab and check out what the school has installed on those computers. Google the programs that you don't recognize and learn how to use the ones that seem like they are cool. ( Caveat: this assumes that your department head was savvy and chose industry-standard software for the lab.)
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Mar 25, 2014 19:39
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I wouldn't go so far as to say you "should" learn it, let alone absolutely. But at worst it would be useless and at best it could open a ton of doors for you, so it definitely wouldn't be a bad idea to learn it.
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Mar 25, 2014 19:42
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Faded Sloth posted:In what ways is it used? I'm completely unfamiliar with it but our uni does have a Linux club which anyone can join so I was going to join it next semester. A lot of engineering infrastructure is Linux-based. I started using Linux when I was 8 or so, so I'm completely at home with just a zsh prompt + vim. Our company's entire build system for SW is Linux-based and our workflow is Git-based (so that's purely command-line). Our SW team has setup our environment such that udev auto-IDs specific programmers and FTDI cables and I can debug hardware in the lab from my desk or my couch at home. I do a lot of my initial FPGA development on Windows, but I quickly move to Linux for builds once I've got my Tcl setup properly. FPGA simulators like Incisive, ModelSim, etc. are Linux only, or have a Linux variant that can act as a server/daemon/etc. It's worth pointing out (at risk of a holy war) that most of these tools are not officially supported on Debian (and therefore Ubuntu); you will always see RHEL, CentOS, and perhaps SuSe listed. Personally I started out with Red Hat, so I'm really used to the way they do things even though I've been trying to move to Debian for my personal stuff. Our infrastructure is Ubuntu-based, and I ended up fighting for and getting some dedicated RHEL machines because I don't have the time to try and run massive $20k software on an unsupported distro. This all said, I still got a ThinkPad at work instead of a MBP because my primary EDA tool is purely Windows based (Altium), and FPGA vendors treat Linux as a second-class citizen when it comes to the GUI tools. (At the point where you've got your design solid enough that you're done with IP wizards and are writing HDL, you can move to the Linux tools for a remote, high-power build system). I guess in summary: learn Linux, but don't just gently caress around in Ubuntu, try to do everything over a SSH prompt with tmux/screen/etc. It makes you a more valuable worker if you can setup basic automation / scripts / etc on a Linux box to make your job easier.
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Mar 25, 2014 20:18
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Faded Sloth posted:As an EE student should I be learning Linux? I've seen it mentioned somewhere. Yes. I'm pretty lovely at Linux but it certainly has helped me with a lot of otherwise tedious tasks, even though my school used 5 year old Scientific Linux for everything. Aside from Matlab and some sort of AutoCAD equivalent, I would look into Power System software (SKM Power*Tools, ETAP, etc) if you want to do anything with 3 phase. The funny thing about AutoCAD/Solidwords and MATLAB is that the EE/CE/SE department at my school didn't have a course for it, but everyone expected it out of us. I had half a semester's worth of MATLAB and solidworks because I was initially in Mechanical Engineering and was suddenly a wizard. It depends on what you plan to do, though. I worked with a bunch of Power Engineers for an Oil and Gas EPC and they were still using pen and paper, but that's also just one company. I was apparently an untrustworthy wizard for knowing how to use Excel. At least be able to do some simple command lines, install things, automate tedious tasks and just general installation/etc, though.
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Mar 26, 2014 05:09
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Faded Sloth posted:As an EE student should I be learning Linux? I've seen it mentioned somewhere. The embedded Linux dudes at my office make insane bank so yes. The company is also trying to push everyone in engineering to take a Linux course through university extension so I'd say its pretty important.
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Mar 26, 2014 05:55
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Faded Sloth posted:In what ways is it used? Check out the grep, awk commands in the linux console. You can actually do pretty much anything on the console, and it's great for making use of data and manipulating files in bulk. Say you produced a lot of data in Matlab and you want to go through every single file and extract the necessary data, say the coordinate number 50. You can build a script to do all that. You could also do it in C but it's harder. Also, networking commands. It's basically all you can imagine that controls your computer accessible via command.
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Mar 26, 2014 12:54
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Besides Aspen plus is there any other piece of software that an ChemE should know? I know some matlab and simulink, but I am also considering learning some autocad as it seems that every other generic engineering position has it as a requirement.
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Mar 26, 2014 15:59
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Xeom posted:Besides Aspen plus is there any other piece of software that an ChemE should know? I know some matlab and simulink, but I am also considering learning some autocad as it seems that every other generic engineering position has it as a requirement. A few people have mentioned AutoCAD now...just my opinion, but AutoCAD is very difficult to learn without having an end goal. The program has mushroomed into too many ways to do too many things in order to just "play around" with it and achieve anything useful.
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Mar 27, 2014 02:47
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As a ChE you don't really have much use for CAD beyond basic navigation skills, since you're not responsible for to-scale schematics as far as I know. You might want to look into fluid dynamics software like ANSYS Fluent or pipe network analysis software like Bentley Autopipe, though.
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Mar 27, 2014 03:23
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My local university has a required class in Visual Basic.NET for ME. Is Visual Basic commonly used in the industry, or is this more of an Excel thing?
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Mar 28, 2014 20:30
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ILL ON PZONES posted:My local university has a required class in Visual Basic.NET for ME. Is Visual Basic commonly used in the industry, or is this more of an Excel thing? Industry uses Excel for every goddamned thing, so naturally VB/C# are seen as a good thing.
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Mar 29, 2014 02:23
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To contribute to the AutoCAD chat, Lang & Kalameja's AutoCAD 201x Tutor for Engineering Graphics is one of the best textbooks I've ever had for anything. If you want to pick up those skills and want a book guiding you, that is the one to get.
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Mar 29, 2014 02:42
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Odette posted:Industry uses Excel for every goddamned thing, so naturally VB/C# are seen as a good thing. VBA is used in Excel, but can also be used to interface with Autodesk and Bentley products.
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Mar 29, 2014 04:55
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I had a required programming class for my ChE and chose VB. I've used it at every job I've had despite it not being in the job description; it is just so easy to automate or speed up data processing. It's possible to have an Excel workbook do stuff with Word and Outlook for generating memos/emails!
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Mar 29, 2014 06:37
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I'm making parts for doing electro-chemical finishing processes on parts that go in airplanes, so they sent us plastic models of the parts my part mounts to. I drew up a model of the part I'm making, glued it to cardboard, and cut it out on the bandsaw to see if one part fits into the other. So engineering is like arts and crafts class in kindergarten.
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Mar 29, 2014 22:00
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RogueLemming posted:VBA is used in Excel, but can also be used to interface with Autodesk and Bentley products. At the last place I worked, you were not allowed to use VBA even to read a name from a file of anything in the CAD directory. This was a verbal instruction so of course I'd read the file names from all the files I gave a poo poo about in the CAD directory. But this was a place that expected me to do all my calculations manually with pen and paper and thought that Excel was untrustworthy magic.  Anyways, speaking of Excel, the new place I'm working at is still using Office 2003. Is there any sort of guide online about being able to go from 2010 back to 2003 for simple stuff? There's a huge amount of QoL stuff that I don't know if there's an equivalent. So far I don't need to do anything more complex than Index-Match, but I don't know how long until I have to use it for anything more complex than sorting lists.
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Mar 29, 2014 23:45
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Jyrraeth posted:Anyways, speaking of Excel, the new place I'm working at is still using Office 2003. Is there any sort of guide online about being able to go from 2010 back to 2003 for simple stuff? There's a huge amount of QoL stuff that I don't know if there's an equivalent. So far I don't need to do anything more complex than Index-Match, but I don't know how long until I have to use it for anything more complex than sorting lists. We are still on XP and use 2003 as well. Basically everything breaks and sucks. If a consultant gives me something in a new version it usually ends in debacle. One of these days we will upgrade.
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Mar 30, 2014 00:42
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spwrozek posted:One of these days we will upgrade. It should probably be really soon, isn't MS ending XP support in less than a month?
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Mar 31, 2014 15:44
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antiga posted:It should probably be really soon, isn't MS ending XP support in less than a month? Don't worry you can pay Microsoft a bunch of money to keep supporting old software apparently. We were supposed to upgrade Q4 last year but I think it will realistically be Q1 of 15.
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Mar 31, 2014 16:29
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spwrozek posted:Don't worry you can pay Microsoft a bunch of money to keep supporting old software apparently.
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Mar 31, 2014 20:28
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I've decided to do as much paper and pencil calculating at work this week and the next to get me into the groove for the PE, and it's fun
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Mar 31, 2014 21:02
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spwrozek posted:We are still on XP and use 2003 as well. Basically everything breaks and sucks. If a consultant gives me something in a new version it usually ends in debacle. One of these days we will upgrade. We just upgraded from XP at my company, because on April 8 they are stopping support. RIP Windows XP
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Mar 31, 2014 22:28
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Anyone here ever gotten an interview from something on Cybercoders? There are a lot of great positions open but it feels a little fishy that they ask such specific questions but not about education or work experience.
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Apr 1, 2014 20:35
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