How to become Electrical Engineer in 2024

Electrical Engineer Research, design, develop, test, or supervise the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment, components, or systems for commercial, industrial, military, or scientific use.

Electrical Engineer is Also Know as

In different settings, Electrical Engineer is titled as

  • Circuits Engineer
  • Design Engineer
  • Electrical Controls Engineer
  • Electrical Design Engineer
  • Electrical Engineer
  • Electrical Project Engineer
  • Engineer
  • Instrumentation and Electrical Reliability Engineer (I&E Reliability Engineer)
  • Project Engineer
  • Test Engineer

Education and Training of Electrical Engineer

Electrical Engineer is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Electrical Engineer

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Electrical Engineer

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Electrical Engineer

Training Required for Electrical Engineer

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Electrical Engineer in different industries are

What Do Electrical Engineer do?

  • Confer with engineers, customers, or others to discuss existing or potential engineering projects or products.
  • Design, implement, maintain, or improve electrical instruments, equipment, facilities, components, products, or systems for commercial, industrial, or domestic purposes.
  • Operate computer-assisted engineering or design software or equipment to perform engineering tasks.
  • Direct or coordinate manufacturing, construction, installation, maintenance, support, documentation, or testing activities to ensure compliance with specifications, codes, or customer requirements.
  • Perform detailed calculations to compute and establish manufacturing, construction, or installation standards or specifications.
  • Plan or implement research methodology or procedures to apply principles of electrical theory to engineering projects.
  • Prepare specifications for purchases of materials or equipment.
  • Supervise or train project team members, as necessary.
  • Investigate or test vendors' or competitors' products.
  • Oversee project production efforts to assure projects are completed on time and within budget.
  • Prepare technical drawings, specifications of electrical systems, or topographical maps to ensure that installation and operations conform to standards and customer requirements.
  • Plan layout of electric power generating plants or distribution lines or stations.
  • Assist in developing capital project programs for new equipment or major repairs.
  • Compile data and write reports regarding existing or potential electrical engineering studies or projects.
  • Collect data relating to commercial or residential development, population, or power system interconnection to determine operating efficiency of electrical systems.
  • Conduct field surveys or study maps, graphs, diagrams, or other data to identify and correct power system problems.
  • Design electrical systems or components that minimize electric energy requirements, such as lighting systems designed to account for natural lighting.
  • Develop systems that produce electricity with renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, or biofuels.
  • Integrate electrical systems with renewable energy systems to improve overall efficiency.
  • Estimate labor, material, or construction costs for budget preparation purposes.
  • Investigate customer or public complaints to determine the nature and extent of problems.
  • Inspect completed installations and observe operations to ensure conformance to design and equipment specifications and compliance with operational, safety, or environmental standards.
  • Develop software to control electrical systems.

Qualities of Good Electrical Engineer

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.

Tools Used by Electrical Engineer

  • Accelerometers
  • Annealing furnaces
  • Atomic force microscopes
  • Auger electron spectrometers
  • Computer servers
  • Cylindrical corona testers
  • Diffractometers
  • Diffusion furnaces
  • Digital oscilloscopes
  • Digital video cameras
  • Digital voltmeters DVM
  • Doping tubes
  • Electrical flow meters
  • Electrochemical CV dopant profilers
  • Electrochemical etching devices
  • Electron beam evaporators
  • Ellipsometers
  • Filament evaporators
  • Fog chambers
  • Frequency counters
  • Frequency drives
  • Glove box systems
  • Imaging spectrographs
  • Inductance capacitance resistance LCR meters
  • Laptop computers
  • Laser printers
  • Laser ranging systems
  • Linearization testbeds
  • Low pressure chemical vapor deposition LPCVD systems
  • Metal evaporation systems
  • Microbalances
  • Microwave automatic load-pull tuners
  • Microwave power meters
  • Mixed signal oscilloscopes
  • Molecular beam epitaxy MBE systems
  • Multimeters
  • Network analyzers
  • Noise figure meters
  • Oxidation furnaces
  • Oxidation tubes
  • Parameter analyzers
  • Pattern generator systems
  • Personal computers
  • Photolithography equipment
  • Photoluminescence spectrometers
  • Plasma ashers
  • Plasma reactors
  • Plotters
  • Profilometers
  • Programmable function generators
  • Pulse generators
  • Pulsed current-voltage IV analyzer
  • Pyrometers
  • Rapid thermal annealers RTA
  • Reactive ion etch systems
  • Sampling oscilloscopes
  • Scanning electron microscopes SEM
  • Scanning tunneling microscopes STM
  • Secondary ion mass spectrometers SIMS
  • Signal analyzers
  • Signal generators
  • Spectrometers
  • Spectrum analyzers
  • Spin-coaters
  • Spinners
  • Sweep oscillators
  • Synthesized continuous wave CW generators
  • Thermocouples
  • Tube etchers
  • Tube furnaces
  • Universal microwave transistor test fixtures
  • Vacuum chambers
  • Vacuum system/thermal evaporators
  • Vector signal generators
  • Vertical furnaces
  • Wafer steppers
  • Wet chemical clean benches
  • Wire bonders
  • X ray guns
  • X ray photoemission spectrometers

Technology Skills required for Electrical Engineer

  • Ada
  • Advanced boolean expression language ABEL
  • Altera hardware description language AHDL
  • Apache Subversion SVN
  • APLAC
  • ATD protocol
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
  • Autodesk Revit
  • Automated material handling software
  • Availability prediction modeling software
  • AVEVA InTouch HMI
  • Bash
  • Bentley MicroStation
  • C
  • C#
  • C++
  • Cadence Allegro Design Entry Capture and Capture CIS
  • Cadence Encounter Test
  • Chip design software
  • Circuit simulation software
  • Computer aided design and drafting CADD software
  • Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
  • Computer aided design CAD software
  • Computer aided manufacturing CAM software
  • Dassault Systemes CATIA
  • Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
  • Debugging software
  • Defect tracking software
  • Digital timing diagram editing software
  • Dynamic object-oriented requirements system DOORS
  • Eclipse IDE
  • Electromagnetic analysis software
  • Electronic design automation EDA software
  • Electronic engineering calculator
  • Embedded systems testing software
  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • ETAP
  • Failure mode and effects analysis FMEA software
  • Failure mode effects and criticality analysis FMECA software
  • Failure reporting analysis and corrective action FRACAS software
  • Fault modeling software
  • Fault tree analysis FTA software
  • Field programmable gate array FPGA design software
  • Finite difference time domain FDTD software
  • Finite element method FEM software
  • Floor planning software
  • Functional verification software
  • Hardware description language HDL
  • Hewlett-Packard HP Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer
  • IBM Notes
  • Integrated development environment IDE software
  • Isograph Markov
  • JHDL
  • Keysight Technologies Advanced Design System
  • Life cycle cost software
  • Linux
  • Logic synthesis software
  • MAGIC
  • MathWorks Simulink
  • Matrix calculation software
  • Mean time between failures MBTF software
  • Mean time to failure MTTF software
  • Mentor Graphics software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft OneNote
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Visual Basic
  • Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBA
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition VBScript
  • Microsoft Visual Studio
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Windows Server
  • Microsoft Word
  • Microwave circuit simulation software
  • Minitab
  • National Instruments LabVIEW
  • Optimization software
  • Oracle E-Business Suite Financials
  • Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management
  • OrCAD Capture
  • Perforce Helix software
  • Perl
  • Physical design software
  • Power analysis software
  • Powersim PSIM
  • Printed circuit board design software
  • Programmable logic controller PLC code generation software
  • Programmable logic controller PLC software
  • PTC Creo Parametric
  • Python
  • Rapid prototyping software
  • Reliability analysis software
  • ReliaSoft Weibull++ 6
  • Requirements management software
  • SAP software
  • Schematic design entry software
  • Shell script
  • Siemens ModelSim
  • Signal integrity simulation software
  • Simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis SPICE
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Sun Microsystems Java
  • Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
  • Synopsys Design Compiler
  • Synopsys PrimeTime
  • Systems analysis programs for hands on integrated reliability evaluation software SAPHIRE
  • Tektronix EZ-TEST
  • Test automation software
  • The MathWorks MATLAB
  • Time and motion analysis software
  • Unified modeling language UML
  • UNIX
  • Verilog
  • Very high-speed integrated circuit VHSIC hardware description language VHDL
  • X.25 Protocol
  • Zuken E3.schematic