<p>though i’m still a high school senior, i really dislike the concept of working for companies where the engineer supposedly gains “experience” but is in fact fashioning his abilities towards doing one monotonous job. therefore, i feel it’s a pity and a waste to have learned so much engineering at college simply to employ 10% of it at work. so, here are my questions:</p>
<li><p>how can an electrical or mechanical engineer become self employed? what are things that EE’s or ME’s can market to companies or other customers?</p></li>
<li><p>are there companies that allow for innovation and freedom for EE’s and ME’s? if so, please list and describe them.</p></li>
<li><p>so far i’ve been accepted to Cal Poly SLO and UIUC (OOS) for EE. i’m waiting for response from the UC’s. so, is it beneficial for me to attend Cal Poly to gain immediate hands-on experience or attend some of the bigger universities to labor through theoretical material and wait until my 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year to understand what the hell EE really is about. obviously i’m biased against the bigger universities, but i consider them because of their national respectability and my parents encourage me to go there.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>my high school report:
-top 4%
-taken highest math (calc III, in linear algebra) and physics (AP physics C) courses offered</p>
<p>1) EE's can become self employed simply by buying some IC's and soldering something together that's useful to people. I know a guy that spends his spare time making DSP chips and actually has spawned a small company.</p>
<p>2) Small companies tend to be better than big companies for this.</p>
<p>3) That's pretty presumptuous. There are many technicians working in the field with tons of "hands on experience" that don't know jack about theory and therefore do not even completely understand what they're doing. The opposite extreme is of course harmful as well.</p>
<p>That blog is pretty amusing. While self-employment might be worth it for some, you're not going to be self-employed if your love in life is say high energy physics or microelectronics. I especially enjoy the parts where the author appeals to the American love of freedom and distaste for perceived oppression and tries to paint anyone who doesn't agree with his views as sheeple (e.g. "If you’re currently a well-conditioned, well-behaved employee, your most likely reaction to the above will be defensiveness. ").</p>
<p>3M is a company that encourages innovation. I believe they have a 15% rule where you can spend up to 15% of your time on your own pet project. </p>
<p>Being self-employed is a viable option only if you're not interested in a career that involves high capital costs, i.e. you're not going to start your own Toyota or Boeing. Another thing to consider is that you're going to have to work harder if you're self-employed because you'll need to find your own clients. You won't have to spend as much time on marketing or business development if you're employed by a company.</p>
<p>EEs/MEs can become self-employed if they start their own company to produce something or if they provide their services to companies on a contract basis. To produce something you could invent something new or simply produce anything that would be competetive. Some might start their own company to provide design services - like the EE who is specialized at designing microcontoller boards or ASICs or something or the ME who is specialized at designing equipment enclosures or something. Some can end up making millions of $$ at this, some can earn a decent living at it, and some will find that it's not worth the effort and difficulty of running a company and decide to work for another company. I've known people who have made millions as well as people who gave it a try but then ended up back at some company. I've also known people who have made millions working at another company through stock options. Some people like the idea of having their own company but don't like the idea of fronting money for it, having the risk the product doesn't sell well to customers, don't like dealing with the financial aspects of running a business, don't like the management aspects, dealing with hiring/firing, sales aspects, etc. Others love this stuff. </p>
<p>I think most companies would like to see innovation from their engineers and often have a program to reward that innovation. A lot of companies for example, will pay bonuses to people who have been awarded patents while in the company's employ. Some companies are more aggressive than others in this area but many very much encourage the pursuit of patents. Without innovation from their employees most high-tech companies wouldn't survive for very long. </p>
<p>
[quote]
dislike the concept of working for companies where the engineer supposedly gains "experience" but is in fact fashioning his abilities towards doing one monotonous job
[/quote]
I don't know why anyone would want to do a monotonous job but most of the engineers I've known haven't considered their jobs monotonous because they've enjoyed what they were doing which includes the challenge of designing new items in innovative ways as well as many of the other aspects of an engineer's duties. If someone finds themselves in a monotonous job they should consider working elsewhere. </p>
<p>The UCs manage to turn out EE/ME grads who do quite well. CalPoly is good also. Take a look at the actual curriculum of the particular colleges to see how they differ and what might appeal to you more.</p>
<p>hey, i apologize for my hacking of corporate lifestyle; it's just that for the past 10 years, i've been seeing my dad and his friends toil endlessly in companies. since my dad is a manager, all he does is check emails and try to settle everybody's problems. his colleagues, though, commit to monotonous work managing, testing, and simply brooding over small projects that, quite honestly, are given little attention to. even if they work on significant projects, their bosses take nearly complete, if not all, credit for their labors. i've heard them complain plenty of times but never protest for the sake of keeping their jobs.
this is the picture that comes to mind whenever i think of an engineering company. because of these views on this issue, i think self-employment is a viable cure.</p>
<p>the other reason i thought of self-employment was so i could build prototypes of things, be it for the military or the market. moreover, i'd like to explore my creativity and be respected for it.</p>
<p>anyways, thanks for all your responses. @gthopeful: i'm glad you found that article interesting; the author shared some good ideas</p>
<p>btw, i forgot to add my question for #3: which college would u recommend and how will it help my purpose? i live in southern cal and i've applied to six UC's (cal, la, sd, sb, irvine, davis), cal poly, and UIUC</p>
<p>All of the colleges you mentioned are very good and would serve your purpose well. You're in-state for the California colleges vs. UIUC so i don't know why UIUC would be on your list unless you like colder lousy winter weather. Consider that wherever you go you'll probably live there for 4-5 years so select a college you think you'd be happy at because of the non-academic aspects of the college, the area around the college, the recreational opportunities that you like, cost if it's a factor, wether you like major college sports teams and watching/rooting for games, etc. </p>
<p>btw - you can prototype things at corporations as well - someone has to and I certainly have done it. </p>
<p>I think you have a skewed idea of what working for companies would be like - probably based on what you stated with your immediate experiences. Remember that there are thousands of companies with some that would be great to work for, some awful, and many in between.</p>