<p>I'll be short and to the point. I would like to work at a company like Microsoft, Intel, Google... one of the tech giants. I am a rising freshman at Illinois in the ECE program as an EE. I'm thinking of switching my major to CompE. I have two questions.</p>
<p>1- Will this major help me get a job at the above companies over EE?
2- The answer is pretty safely yes to the above, but I wonder that if, for some reason, I don't get in to a company like that, will the EE major be so much more versatile that it will be easier for me to get a job elsewhere, or is the CompE major equally as valuable? In summary, will the two majors have roughly the same probability of me finding a decent job?</p>
<p>Since with a degree in CE you could arguably maneuver yourself into a well-paying CS or SE position, and with a bare minimum of certifications you could always find jobs in IT, I would say that it would be the more versatile option, unless you're avoiding the computing professions for some reason.</p>
<p>UIUC EE and CE are almost identical to my understanding (correct me if I am wrong, I am a CS student at U of I). Both majors are also very well recruited by tech giants that you have mentioned above. In my opinion, there really isn't a big difference between the two.</p>
<p>I faced similar dilemma when deciding on majors (currently a freshman EE)...from the people I talked to it seemed easier to go from a EE degree --> CompE job than it is to go from CompE degree --> EE job, so I think EE is more versatile, and that is the main reason I am doing EE over CompE.</p>
<p>Go to the career services office, get acquainted with the people there, and ask them about recruitment patterns and preferences. Then let us know what they say! (I'm tempted to think that success with the tech giants will depend more on how well you interview, your grades, etc. than which major you choose, btw).</p>
<p>sang54- you are certainly not wrong. The technical core differs by only three classes, I believe, with the only other difference lying in the labs/electives you take, which are almost all the same anyways.</p>
<p>How's CS? I was also considering that as well. Is that more different from CompE?</p>
<p>What about a double major in both EE and CompE? If the classes are basically the same (if whoever said that is correct), wouldn't it be worth taking the extra 2-4 classes and getting a degree in both?</p>
<p>One thing to consider is that both majors vary widely depending on the college you go to. From what I have been able to compile, EE is very hardware oriented, while CE is very software oriented. EE will teach you much more theory than CE, usually, which may be useless if you want to do mainly the software side of things.
An (overly) simplified way to think of it is like this: The EE would build the computer and the CE would program the operating system and make it run.
Now, this isn't universal at all. Sometimes there is great overlap and sometimes there isn't any at all.</p>
<p>EE's would take Power Engineering, Signals and Systems 2, Electromagnetic Waves, Introduction to Quantum Physics, Complex Variables and Transforms, Properties of Materials in Electrical Engineering and CEng would replace these with software oriented courses.</p>
<p>They both have TechElectives so you could take EE and fill those with the courses the CEng would be taking.</p>
<p>At my school, Software Engineering would be the best IMO. They basically give you the same hardware foundations and only in your 6th semester do you really diverge. SEng would get you into MSFT although CS might be better and CEng would get you into Intel although EE might be better.</p>
<p>And I don't know about CEng and software. You would only take 2 software courses. Intro to CompSci & Intro to SoftEng. You would take more courses pertaining to computer hardware though. The way I see it, the EE would build hardware and the CE would build computer related hardware. </p>
<p>This is really my school so "both majors vary widely depending on the college you go to".</p>
<p>Right now I actually think I will go all the way to CS. I want to take two languages and the core is smaller in CS, so if I do that I can still work on what I want (computers) and still get to take my languages without having to graduate in a decade.</p>
<p>CS and CE / EE are very different animals, don't be fooled.</p>
<p>You may have to take a class on logic circuits and a class on computer organization... and that's all the CE / EE you will ever take as a CS major. If you don't <em>love</em> programming and aren't a big fan of abstract mathematics (discrete mathematics, algebra, and theoretical CS) you should reconsider.</p>