Re:Ask HN: Will an EE get any attention in the software world?
by ThrowawayR2 on Thursday February 09, 2023 @07:56PM
(#34734137)
What flavor of EE would you even get[1]? Power EE? Useless for software development. RF EE? Useless for software development. Microelectronics EE? Useless for software development. Chip design (analog or digital) EE? Useless for software development. Digital design EE or CompE? Slightly useful if you're doing IoT/embedded systems but that's a tiny sliver of jobs in an ocean of web front end and back end jobs. You get the picture.
If you get an EE/CompE degree but go into software, 1) future EE/CompE employers will assume that you weren't lucky enough or good enough get a job as an EE out of college (the job market isn't exactly hot for engineers and never has been) and 2) your EE/CompE knowledge will atrophy rapidly from disuse because almost no software jobs outside a few specialties require frequent use of that knowledge.
If you get an EE/CompE degree but go into software, 1) future EE/CompE employers will assume that you weren't lucky enough or good enough get a job as an EE out of college (the job market isn't exactly hot for engineers and never has been) and 2) your EE/CompE knowledge will atrophy rapidly from disuse because almost no software jobs outside a few specialties require frequent use of that knowledge.
[1] A randomly chosen university's list of EE concentrations: https://www.ese.upenn.edu/undergraduate-2/electrical-enginee...