<p>It's my senior year and it's at this point that I have to decide which courses to take, and these courses decide my field within my career. </p>
<p>I could either take power systems and control theory, or I could take microprocessor systems and asic design. </p>
<p>If I go the power/control route I have a normal senior design project.
If I go the microprocessor/asic route I have a special senior design project which is created solely by me and a couple friends; this is a very big project with lots of potential. </p>
<p>My question is this; which field is better in terms of job placement, job security, and salary? </p>
<p>Personally I'm more interested in power/control but I wouldn't mind doing the other route. However, I have no experience at all (no internships) and I suck at programming. For this reason I feel power/control is better for me.. help!</p>
<p>ASIC requires master degree to qualify for the most jobs out there. You can get a job in this field with B.S. but you will eventually need master to really contribute to the team and move up within the company. But I find ASIC design really hard when I was taking class in undergraduate. Dealing with all the uncertainty at higher frequency domain with wire coupling… parasitic component of capacitor and inductance to compensate in transistor… If you become truely great at ASIC designer, you can get higher salary than any other field in my opinion. But I think of ASIC design as one of the hardest area in Electrical engineer. </p>
<p>Power/Control area will continue to have job opportunity I believe since the government is pushing green energy and cars need small form of battery for electrical car. P.E. license will really helpful to you in this area so I suggest you get this license. Telecommuncation and DSP area is also great area to look into. </p>
<p>between those two area, if you are trying to get a job as B.S. Degree, I say your chance of getting job is greater with Power/Control. But with master degree, you will be able to grab higher pay salary than power/control.</p>