Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Careers

 

Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineers in High Demand

Electrical, computer, and software engineering are some one of the fastest growing career fields in the United States. Job growth in the United States in expected to continue in the  industry over the next decade, despite international competition for jobs. Read more in the following online news articles about the demand for electrical, computer, and software engineers:


What Does It Mean to be an Engineer?

This ought to be the first question that pops into mind when you begin to think about working in this field. Unfortunately, no two engineers will give you the same answer.

Nonetheless, here is one answer: Engineering is the process of designing, maintaining, augmenting, changing, verifying, completing, or improving a process or a system (sometimes both) under some sort of constraints.

This may sound strange but in practice an electrical or computer engineer will end up designing, testing, maintaining, and/or improving a given system under the specifications and price constraints.

Where do these specifications and constraints come from? Common sense, a marketing department, engineering needs, safety, multidisciplinary thought patterns, market analysis results--a very large number of places, actually.

In some sense, the presence of constraints--and the engineer's ability to make a system work within those constraints--is what separates the engineer from the maintenance technician.

Learn about advancing your career with professional registration.

Example

How might this work in real life? Refer to this example:

Your boss says, "We must make a new kind of portable voltmeter, personal organizer and even a portable scope out of the new Palms that are coming out into the market." The engineers have been given a problem. What to do?

  1. They first need to come up with the specifications. This could include the operating speed, operating conditions, let levels for voltage and current that the system will work with, the type of interface, and similar issues.
  2. They need to determine financial constraints--what's the most they can charge for this addition to the new palm? After all, almost anything desired is possible but the price may be ridiculous. Thus, price, the dimensions, weight, color, and so on are all project constraints.
  3. Once the constraints have been identified, the engineers can go to the next phase of the process.


Statistics

If you are curious as to how the graduates of ISU's engineering programs do when they are job hunting, refer to the Statistics & Trends page within the Engineering Career Services.

See companies that hire our students.


Student Professional Development

A program targeted toward graduate and junior and senior undergraduate students, the Student Professional Development Committee aims to prepare students for professional careers. Discover more about us, including our mission and this semester's activities.