A career path for those who like to tinker with circuits and coding, in order to design, develop and improve upon electrical systems and equipment.
What Electrical Engineers Do
An Electrical Engineering professional designs and develops new electrical systems, and tests, repairs and improves electrical equipment.
Electrical Engineers primarily deal with producing and distributing electrical power through mechanical objects. They work in a range of fields from Renewable Energy to Banking and Finance, and with all sorts of electronic devices, from pocket devices to large supercomputers.
Electrical Engineers are responsible for designing and building the computers, smartphones, medical imaging machines, GPS systems, and all other electrical systems that are part of daily life.
Relevant Jobs
Broadcast Engineers work in television and radio, and are concerned with ensuring transmission meet organisational standards. They are tasked with monitoring, maintaining and repairing transmission signals.
Broadcast Engineers also help to modulate volume, colour, signal and other technical requirements of a broadcast. Typically they monitor broadcasts and diagnose flaws or drop-offs in quality, and fix them. Knowledge of both Digital and Analogue systems is usually essential.
While electrical engineers are generally concerned with generation and transmission of electrical power, Electronics Engineers typically focus on designing components and circuitry that make-up electronic equipment. They construct internal circuitry of smartphones, TVs, satellites, flight systems amongst many other electronic systems.
Furthermore, while electrical engineers might work on transforming vocal/visual data generated by a smartphone into electrical signals, an Electronics Engineer would design and develop the electronic components in a smartphone that make it function.
Electrical Reliability Engineers provide technical expertise and leadership strategies to protect and maintain reliability of electronic infrastructure and equipment. They typically work as leaders of a team which aims to diagnose system faults and determine suitable solutions.
Network Engineers or Network Architects are concerned with computer networks and network systems, such as Local Area Networks (LANs) and Intranets. They typically work to setup and maintain networks for organisations, working closely with CTOs and other network specialists.
Network Engineers typically have experience with Information Systems or computer science, and may perform additional roles for a company, depending on its size, such as working with IT systems.
Software Engineers design and develop software that provides solutions ranging from automated traffic control systems and manufacturing processes to mobile apps or computer games. They almost always collaborate with other programmers and engineers to make improvements to websites, apps and/or automated systems.
Systems Analysts are concerned with analysing and designing information systems and techniques to solve business problems using information technology (IT). Typically, they work to find the best-fitting information systems for their organisation. Systems Analysts typically work in conjunction with business analysts.
Business analysts typically evaluate the need of the client and identify a solution, while the Systems Analyst will evaluate and code that solution.