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Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

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Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#31

Post by Cyph0n »

patchorang wrote: post #30

There are a bunch of EEs in here complaining about the software they have to use. I took a few EE courses in school and the only thing I remember is having to use horrible software. Why hasn't someone made good software for EEs to use? And if the have, why do no EEs use it?

In my opinion,

1) Barrier to entry is way too high compared to other software niches. Good luck designing a cycle-accurate CPU simulator, or creating a reliable and robust analog circuit simulator that competes with offerings from EDA giants like Cadence and Synopsys.

2) The adoption process. I learn tool X in school, I start a company that uses tool X, I teach my hires tool X, etc. Once tool X becomes a central part of the design process, it's almost impossible to get rid of it.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#32

Post by madengr »

Been doing RF/Microwave/Antenna design for 20 years. Fortunately I have stayed hands-on with hardware development. Start with simulation, then PCB layout, followed by lots of measurements in the lab. Sometimes meetings for customer requirements, writing technical parts of proposals, getting capital equipment purchased, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#33

Post by madengr »

antoineMoPa wrote: post #23

This year, I left my electrical engineering (EE) studies for software engineering. I had a lot of personal experience with coding before going in EE and I wondered if some hardware would make my life more interesting. After 1.25 years, I realized that I was spending all my life in a lab with no windows, to the smell of toxic soldering fumes, fighting against extremely annoying software (altium & other proprietary ove…

I like Altium and solder fumes.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#34

Post by antoineMoPa »

madengr wrote: post #33
antoineMoPa wrote: post #23

This year, I left my electrical engineering (EE) studies for software engineering. I had a lot of personal experience with coding before going in EE and I wondered if some hardware would make my life more interesting. After 1.25 years, I realized that I was spending all my life in a lab with no windows, to the smell of toxic soldering fumes, fighting against extremely annoying software (altium & other proprietary ove…

I like Altium and solder fumes.

I think the people who coded Altium liked solder fumes... A bit too much.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#35

Post by madengr »

patchorang wrote: post #30

There are a bunch of EEs in here complaining about the software they have to use. I took a few EE courses in school and the only thing I remember is having to use horrible software. Why hasn't someone made good software for EEs to use? And if the have, why do no EEs use it?

There is lots of good software for EE, it just costs $$.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#36

Post by fake-name »

antoineMoPa wrote: post #23

This year, I left my electrical engineering (EE) studies for software engineering. I had a lot of personal experience with coding before going in EE and I wondered if some hardware would make my life more interesting. After 1.25 years, I realized that I was spending all my life in a lab with no windows, to the smell of toxic soldering fumes, fighting against extremely annoying software (altium & other proprietary ove…

If you think Altium is a "overpriced piece of technical debt", HOLY SHIT you should try anything it competes with. It's sooo much nicer then anything else out there in the EDA market. At my work they use Proteus, and it's horrible.

Also, solder fumes aren't toxic!

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#37

Post by [deleted] »

fake-name wrote: post #36
antoineMoPa wrote: post #23

This year, I left my electrical engineering (EE) studies for software engineering. I had a lot of personal experience with coding before going in EE and I wondered if some hardware would make my life more interesting. After 1.25 years, I realized that I was spending all my life in a lab with no windows, to the smell of toxic soldering fumes, fighting against extremely annoying software (altium & other proprietary ove…

If you think Altium is a "overpriced piece of technical debt", HOLY SHIT you should try anything it competes with. It's sooo much nicer then anything else out there in the EDA market. At my work they use Proteus, and it's horrible. Also, solder fumes aren't toxic!

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#38

Post by fake-name »

turnip1979 wrote: post #24

I'm a SW guy .. been mulling getting a job in hw at some point. I watch a lot of YouTube and do hw projects in my spare time. Is there something like sw boot camps for developing hw skills? I'm almost considering getting an ee bachelors or masters as a part time student.

Not really, because hardware is not amenable to boot-camp style things.

Basically, hardware is way /way/ harder then software. Imagine software where each compile took multiple weeks, and cost lots of money (hundreds of dollars for the simplest of projects, to tens or even hundreds of thousands for really complex things). Changing the layout or design almost always involves a complete board respin.

There is no easy getting started (maybe arduino stuff, but there is SO MUCH horrible misinformation in the arduino communities), because the minimum functional system is a complete system. You basically have to get everything right the first time in hardware, or it won't work. The learning curve is more of a learning wall.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#39

Post by fake-name »

jwise0 wrote: post #13

I've served a whole bunch of roles in my five years at my current employer, and I'd probably classify myself as being an "electrical engineer" for all of them. (No single experience is typical, but mine is probably representative of a lot of chip companies.) When I joined the company, the very first role I was put in was on the core bringup team for a complex ASIC -- that is to say, the team responsible for screening…

No VHDL? ( :) ) Also, TCL - WHRYYYY..

ASIC work is fascinating.

Re: Ask HN: What does an electrical engineer actually do at work?

#40

Post by antoineMoPa »

fake-name wrote: post #36
antoineMoPa wrote: post #23

This year, I left my electrical engineering (EE) studies for software engineering. I had a lot of personal experience with coding before going in EE and I wondered if some hardware would make my life more interesting. After 1.25 years, I realized that I was spending all my life in a lab with no windows, to the smell of toxic soldering fumes, fighting against extremely annoying software (altium & other proprietary ove…

If you think Altium is a "overpriced piece of technical debt", HOLY SHIT you should try anything it competes with. It's sooo much nicer then anything else out there in the EDA market. At my work they use Proteus, and it's horrible. Also, solder fumes aren't toxic!

I only tried Altium in "depth" (And some open source shallowly). It is surprising to me that competing products are even worse.
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