Electrician trying to be an EE

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Hello world...I'm a Journeyman Wireman who just went through a 5 yr apprenticeship program to become an Union Electrician. I received almost 2 yrs college credit for doing so. With that being said, I want to put those credits towards an EE Degree. My dilemma is my work schedule will not all me to attend any of the local colleges with the EE program due to the fact they are all atleast an hour away and they don't do very many night classes. So I planned on taking a few classes at my local community college to receive an AAS EET degree. Afterwards I want to get into UNC- Charlotte's BS EET program because they offer a distance learning course, which would really work around my schedule. </p>

<p>I've heard so many rumors of EET degrees being a waste and inferior to EEs. My question is will my years of experience as an Electrician help me with EE related employment if I have just a BS EET? Or do I need a MS EE to compensate?</p>

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<p>Your experience as an electrician gives you an idea of electricity- supplying it. A degree in EET will give you an idea of how electricity actually works and what you can do with it. You will start with DC, move to AC and then learn about discrete components, like resistors, capacitors, inductors, operational amplifiers, transistors, mosfets, and more. Additionally, you will learn about circuits, filters, microcontrollers, TTL, and probably some introductory programming like Pspice and perhaps C++, etc. Furthermore, you will need to complete courses in mathematic, trigonometry and calculus along with some physical science courses like physic or perhaps chemistry. </p>

<p>The four year degree will expose you to more advanced topics like motors, advanced programming with matlab and or labview, PLC programming, advanced circuit design. More so, you will need to complete additional supplementary courses like quality control, calculus 2, differential equations, physics 2, etc. </p>

<p>To your question, will being an electrician help you with employment as an EET or EE? The answer, it absolutely could have an impact. However, it depends upon the employer and job! Some employer would love to hire a person with such broad knowledge while others wouldn’t care. </p>

<p>Many EE’s will declare EET’s to be useless or lower tiered. In reality, it depends upon the school offering the EET program. Some EET programs are as advanced as EE programs, while many aren’t as well respected. However, I’ve read a few articles recently that stated the technology students were being employed at faster rates then their engineering counterparts. The articles stated that many technology students were prepared to “hit the ground running” as employees while the engineering students were left deficient with little practical “on the job” skills. Importantly, many individuals will experience different things…. Your mileage may vary….</p>

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<p>I think if you were to go through with it, you could probably find a job with an electric company and focus on power, because you would have an unique background. </p>

<p>Look into power engineering.</p>

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<p>Just to make sure we’re all on the same page: An EET is not an engineer.</p>

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<p>Just to make sure we’re all on the same page: An EET is not an engineer</p>

<p>and </p>

<p>Just to make sure we’re all on the same page: An EE is not an engineer, until you pass the PE :)</p>

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<p>If you’re going to make the PE a qualification, he could take it in some states based on experience only in some states.</p>

<p>My point is that if he’s looking for an engineering career or work as an engineer, he might be disappointed with an EET program. That distinction should be made up front before he’s spends money on the degree.</p>

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<p>I thank y’all for the feedback. But like I said I want to purse an EE Degree but it would be much easier and affordable to do EET because of my job. Just wanted to know was it possible to be as valuable as an EE with just an EET and years of experience in the trade. </p>

<p>I may not have the degree but my 5 yr apprenticeship was catered to an EE as far as Schooling is concerned. I’ve dealt with ac & dc circuits, PLCs, semiconductors, photovoltiac systems, motor controls, instrumentation, power lines, every electrical formula u could think of…and the list goes on.</p>

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<p>EE and EET are fundamentally different degrees that lead to fundamentally different careers. I recommend more research before settling on an EET position.</p>

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<p>EET is more of a Technician degree where EE is a lot more theoretical. You won’t get as much calculus and physics in the EET program and even though it has EE in the name it’s not going to take you to the same places that an EE degree will. If you want to know how electronics work enough to troubleshoot when something isn’t working correctly then EET may work for you. If you want to design new circuits or improve on someone else’s project then EE is what you want. Can EET’s get jobs that require an EE degree? Some jobs they can some they can’t. Will you be able to apply your EET credits to an EE degree? No. Even the classes that look the same are not the same. EET classes will teach you how electronics work based off of Algebra and Trig. EE degrees will teach you to do it with calculus and show you the theoretical proof on why it works and how to alter those principals to make something do what you want it to do. I looked into these two a lot. I was in a similar situation. I’ve been an Electronics Technician in the Navy for 20 years. I’ve wanted to be an EE for a long time now and I thought about doing an EET through Excelsior College. But even though that’s all I could do at the time to progress toward my goal, it would not lead me any closer to the EE degree and Engineering Jobs I really wanted. I wouldn’t count on getting much credit that will apply to an EE degree from your electrician apprenticeship either. Engineering degree plans are pretty specific on what they need to satisfy the degree. I have tons of electronics training and such from the Navy and about 30 upper level credits from and electronics management degree. But they won’t even count as good electives for an EE program. You can’t even start the EE type classes without Calculus 2 and Physics 2. </p>

<p>I chose to wait until I could get in to the program I wanted all along. I know this is not the answer you want, it wasn’t the one I wanted either but it is what it is.</p>

<p>Will your Electrician Background help you land an EE job? It will show that you have more practical experience in a related field and that always makes you more marketable. But it still comes back to EET is not EE. Do some EET’s get jobs that were asking for EE’s? Yes there are a few that have. Some people can really sell the interview and the job might not have needed an actual EE to do it. </p>

<p>Nurse practitioners can prescribe meds but that still doesn’t make them doctors.</p>

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<p>I somewhat loathe these engineering technology debates. The engineering technology programs are not as well regulated across academia as the traditional engineering programs like electrical engineering or mechanical engineering. With that stated, at my university, the engineering technology students go all the way to differential equations. I was an engineering technology student, but I scheduled engineering classes in place of the engineering counterparts. For example, I scheduled ME 300(thermodynamics) instead of the engineering technology version. However, I discovered the classes were identical, same professor, same homework, same tests and same final exam. </p>

<p>I am currently in grad school earning a maters degree in engineering. So, while some programs might be watered down version of engineering programs, this is not inclusive of all programs. Apparently, some programs are much more rigorous.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the feed back I’ll will take all this in consideration</p>