<p>I am still struggling to find my niche as a (soon) MS student in Electrical Engineering.</p>
<p>I am considering a specialization in a few of these areas. Can someone knowledgeable give me more information about what my career options are with a specialization in each of these fields? And let me know if I am making any wrong assumptions, etc? Any ideas on what are "hot" or in-demand fields and which ones are very narrow and specific, leaving me with fewer options upon graduation?</p>
<p>Ideally I see myself with an MS or PhD in some years, working for the research branch for a company like Intel, AMD. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I really enjoy studying Computer Architecture, but I am a little weary of focusing too much on this area. First, most of the research seems to be modeling/simulations rather than any circuit design. And I am afraid that outside of a very narrow area, there is not much demand for these skills. I also feel maybe the Computer Architecture principles are more straightforward than RF/Analog/etc, and it might be a better investment of my time to focus on other things during graduate school.</p></li>
<li><p>analog/RF/mixed-signal has a lot of research, it seems. However, I am not totally sure if I am interested in analog yet (vs digital). It is somewhat interesting and I am considering it. But i seems more interesting to me to implement a huge digital system on a chip, than to spend months tweaking an oscillator or amplifier, or matching impedances. What is actual analog/RF work like? What is the industry demand for these skills? </p></li>
<li><p>I am interested in digital integrated circuit design ,from a courses perspective. But I simply cannot find a lot of research projects at any universities in this area. All the circuit design seems to be on the analog side. The digital research that I see is all about CAD/design automation. Although this is interesting, I am worried because this is too specific. Most of the alumni for these CAD labs are working on tools at companies like Synopsis rather than say, circuit design at Intel/Qualcomm/etc. I would ideally like to be working on circuit design as a graduate student researcher rather than just optimizing tools...</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Sorry for this rambling, stream of consciousness post. Any advice from EE-experts are appreciated!</p>