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going from EE to FE

thegreatone

Joined
4/3/09
Messages
8
Points
11
Well.. I've recently graduated in EE, been working for about a year now. I have a decent job, decent pay (about 70k), but I feel I can't really thrive in my industry.

I've always been passionate about Math, more than electronics.. I've also been pretty interested in the financial sector... I started reading about an MS in FE and it is really interesting me.

Is the switch a big one? How would an EE grad with an MS in FE be perceived in the industry. Would my EE degree be almost useless?

And what about pay? Is it a step up or a step down from EE in general?
 
How recent? Why do you say you can't thrive in your industry? What type of EE do you do? Signal processing? Control Systems? Power? Analog design? Digital Design? VLSI?

Regarding pay, the way things are now, your salary might be controlled and cap by the government.
 
I had about 16 months of internship experience (4 months c++, 12 months doing C). After graduating from college, I am working as a mixed signal engineer (mostly electronics + VB).

When I say that I can't thrive, it's that I don't feel that I have a true passion to what I'm doing. I don't see myself being able to have an interesting career path if I'm not that interested in what I'm doing :/
 
alain said:
How recent? Why do you say you can't thrive in your industry? What type of EE do you do? Signal processing? Control Systems? Power? Analog design? Digital Design? VLSI?

Regarding pay, the way things are now, your salary might be controlled and cap by the government.
Click to expand...

This is a current trend for large institutions, but not for all companies and more importantly not forever. Things may change a lot in 3-5 years.
It is human nature to take current state, project it to the future and ignore the past completely. Or in other words, we should have some genetic background on martingales :)
 
thegreatone said:
I had about 16 months of internship experience (4 months c++, 12 months doing C). After graduating from college, I am working as a mixed signal engineer (mostly electronics + VB).

When I say that I can't thrive, it's that I don't feel that I have a true passion to what I'm doing. I don't see myself being able to have an interesting career path if I'm not that interested in what I'm doing :/
Click to expand...

what kind of C++ and C did you do? Real time coding? embedded processors?

What do you mean by "mixed signal engineer"? How do you us VB? EE is a very wide field. I was an EE major and I did DSP, power supply designing/testing, test engineering, embedded coding among other things before I ended up in a bank by pure luck.
 
12 months C: embedded
4 months C++: real-time

I am now working as a mixed signal test engineer, where I am using VB.
 
A large number of MFE applicants holds some kind of engineering degree. This is especially true for those coming from India, China. This means your EE background is quite common among those MFE graduates so you shouldn't worry much about it.
As for pay, think of FE as a sideway step from your EE career, not a step up nor a step down. A lot of factor plays into how you do in the new career path.
Lastly, you may want to stick to your stable EE job for a while until you are absolutely sure you are emotionally and financially able to handle the great unknowns ahead when you move to FE.
 
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