Many working electrical engineers wanted to be engineers when they were young, and many of them feel they made a good career choice. A full 91 per cent of engineers said their career is fun, according to a 2004 survey by Electronic Engineering Times. More than three fourths of those respondents said they'd recommend engineering to their children, and 80 percent liked the company they worked for. That's very good satisfaction for any workplace.

What electrical engineers like is the ability to play with technologies that they find pretty interesting. After all, many engineers took apart radios, toasters and other products in their youth just to see how they worked. Toying around with things and seeing how they work, and whether they can be made to work a bit better, is just plain fun for people with a technical bent. Companies buy them the latest technical gear, send engineers to technical shows and conferences to see what's new, and pay them pretty well to do it. These technologists also get to participate in one of the most exciting fields of the modern age, as electronics pervades nearly every aspect of today's society.

Electrical engineers were integral in the development of the Internet, as well as the technologies that make space travel possible and the portable electronics many people carry. While many engineers work to improve the products we all enjoy today, others are working on advanced technologies that won't come to market for years. It's difficult to know what new products being developed today might have a big impact in the future, but there's no doubt that electronics will continue to alter modern life.

Many engineers work in factory automation, networking, or they build the infrastructure for fields such as the cellular phone industry--these activities aren't generally considered as glamorous as designing the commercial gear everyone wants to buy. But these engineers are developing the background products that make it possible to manufacture and support these more exciting technologies.

Electrical engineers often find that they become the neighborhood or family experts on fancy new technologies. Any time someone buys a nifty new toy, they want to know about the electronics that power it. That's not a huge thing. But it underscores the respect that many people have for those who understand, and help advance, the high tech world.

Downers

One downside is that the field is changing so fast, it's easy for an engineer to become obsolete. Engineers refer to their knowledge base as having a half life, similar to that of nuclear materials. That period is getting shorter all the time. Employees must work hard to stay abreast, which often means studying on nights and weekends.

This rapid rate of change also concerns engineers who work in declining fields. They might enjoy what they're doing, but as technology moves forward, their skills may no longer be needed. An interesting case in point is the Y2K transition. Prior to that, programmers who understood the old Cobol language, which dominated the 1960s and 1970s, found that skill irrelevant as new software languages emerged. As this happened, engineers who didn't learn new skills found it harder to find new jobs.

But the Y2K transition gave programmers who knew Cobol a once-in-a millennium reprieve, giving them a chance to re-enter the workforce, since their knowledge was needed to complete the transition. But once the older software was updated for the new century, the need for engineers with these skills again disappeared. Two points remain clear. First, it's important to keep an eye on how the market is changing, particularly as regards the technology you're working with. Second, it's important for electrical engineers to stay abreast of the latest technology in their field and to keep their skills up to date.

Another factor that's a big concern for EEs is global competition. U.S. wages are higher than those of many other countries, particularly Asian countries like China and India. Some of these foreign workers are brought into the U.S. through a government program called the H1-B, which has become a well-known term in the technical world. The other impact of these low-wage countries is that global companies can hire far larger engineering staffs in these countries, outsourcing jobs in what's called offshoring. "H-1Bs and offshoring will remain major issues for the foreseeable future. They're sensitive issues for members," Paul Kostek, chairman of the IEEE-USA Career & Workforce Policy Committee.