Life As an Electrical Engineer

Life with an EE education: better than some will tell you

I graduated from Georgia Tech with a BEE in 1976. Being broke, I had to work for a few years to accrue some savings. Then I returned to Tech, obtained my MSEE, and planned to pursue a PhD in EE. Gradually I made three important discoveries. First, my interests in EE were too narrow for me to get the PhD. I was passionate about telecommunications and specifically such subjects as information theory, coding, and digital modulation. However, I didn’t care much about electromagnetics, control systems, and a lot of other subjects that were on the PhD prelims. Because I had taken off several years between the BEE and the MSEE, my knowledge of those less-interesting subjects had already faded. I didn’t want the PhD badly enough to re-do the junior year of my undergrad program. Second, I wanted to travel the world extensively -- and at someone else’s expense. Right or wrong, I couldn’t see that happening as a professor. Third, I found out that in industry, the differential in compensation between an MSEE and a PhD in EE was small and transient. (The differential between a BEE and an MSEE is large and long-lived.)

I left the academic world for good and took a job in industry as an engineer. Years later, somebody published a paper on what would have been my dissertation topic. I didn’t mind; I was happy to see the math all worked out.

Very quickly I ran into MBA’s who worked at my employer. I got along with them great. They were smart, and they knew things I didn’t know. On the other hand, I knew that I was reasonably intelligent. Also, I knew things that they didn’t know. We worked together to launch new products. The longer I hung around them, however, I came to realize that what I knew and what they knew wasn’t relevant. What was relevant, and remained relevant throughout my career: it was easy for me to learn what they knew, but it was impossible for them to learn what I knew. That was a powerful insight. After entering industry, my assignments in “pure” EE lasted only three years. I took a management role to run programs in market research and corporate planning. Later in my career, I took assignments in customer service, marketing, sales operations, and contract drafting and negotiating. Particularly in those last two assignments, once again I ran into people who knew things I didn’t know. And once again, I discovered that I could learn the basics of finance and law a lot faster than accountants and lawyers could learn the basics of EE.

Throughout my career, occasions would arise about once a month when my EE training was invaluable. Some type of management decision would be needed, or some kind of operational problem in the business would have to be solved. The ability to speak with an engineer as a peer, earn his or her confidence and respect, and get the information needed to illuminate the question or develop a course of action was absolutely necessary for me to succeed. I didn’t have to be an engineer, but I had to be an expert in working with engineers.

Eventually I left the company in 2009, having traveled on business to almost every country that I had ever wanted to visit. Although the career didn’t make me fabulously wealthy, it was financially sufficient for my lifestyle. Looking back at the career, I have a sense of great sense of accomplishment, although my name isn’t on any patents, nor did I make it to the Board of Directors.

Do I second guess my decision to get the BEE/MSEE, instead of a liberal arts degree followed by an MBA or a JD? Definitely not. I kept my classic textbooks in information theory and coding, as taught by Dr Aubrey Bush. Every few years, I re-read those textbooks for pleasure and better comprehension. To this day, I marvel that a spacecraft one billion miles away can transmit photographs of Saturn to Earth using just a 20-watt transmitter and a two-meter dish. That’s so cool, even today, and I understand how it works. I also kept my handwritten notes from Dr William Rhodes’ superb graduate class in Fourier Optics.

I probably could have made more money with an MBA or a JD. But those people have their own problems: burn-out, disillusionment, the consequences of a hyper-competitive environment. You read about the millionaire entrepreneurs and lawyers, but you don’t hear about the people with those degrees who never get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – or never even see the rainbow. I’ve met some. My time in engineering school was priceless in many respects:

The coursework that I didn’t like was character-building. Some majors can get a degree without ever having to take a hard course that they dislike. Adult life is not that simple.
I learned how to work and accept responsibility for outcomes. High school had been a breeze. Most of Georgia Tech was easy too, but there were occasions when I had to sweat. Sometimes I didn’t sweat enough, so I blew a few courses. I still regret them because I could have done better.
I learned how to solve problems logically, but I also learned how to “think outside the box”.
I learned how to work as a team player. I was one of three students who took all our undergrad EE labs together. Robert was responsible for reading the lab assignment each week and prepping us for the steps to take. Steve was responsible for collecting data during the lab and ensuring that the numbers made sense before we left. I was responsible for writing and submitting the report on time and answering any questions from the TA. This worked like a charm; each of us was good at our role on the team. Teamwork is so important to adult success. You don’t have to be on an athletic scholarship to learn about teamwork.

Has technology changed since I graduated? Sure. But almost all the essentials of cellphones were understood in 1980; it just took time to realize and integrate them (and to drive down the production costs). I use a nice Linux system at home, but I remember taking a class in Computer Graphics at Tech in 1976. The lab computer ran Unix 1.0, one of the very first installations of Unix outside Bell Labs. The Unix command line hasn’t changed much since then.

People overstate the pace of technological advance. Don’t let it frighten you. If you want to stay a practicing EE all your life, you must stay current. That’s doable. If you choose the path I did – to work with engineers, but not as an engineer -- you must broaden your knowledge instead. That’s doable too.

To summarize: the BEE/MSEE opened big doors for me. I faced two forks in the road: one between academics and industry, the other between a career as a practicing engineer and a career that required interaction with engineers. I’m happy with the choices that I made. Best wishes as you make those choices for yourself.

This page is not a publication of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology has not edited or examined the content. The author of this page is solely responsible for the content. Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.