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I'm graduating with my BS in EE next month and I've been applying to lots of places working on battery technology since it's incredibly interesting to me, but I

I'm graduating with my BS in EE next month and I've been applying to lots of places working on battery technology since it's incredibly interesting to me, but I have no idea how anyone becomes a "specialist" in that field. Everything I've learned has been outside of class, and there aren't any offered in my department or in Materials Science or Chemistry, and a few of my friends at top-tier schools like CMU and Purdue have said the same thing. It seems so critical for everything from energy grids during natural disasters to environmentally friendly material sourcing/disposal. I hope schools start focusing on it.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
>I hope schools start focusing on it. Be careful what you wish for. Right now you stand to make a lot of money. If schools start cranking out undergrads who know what you know you won't be very valuable. edit: looks like I struck a nerve.
- PascLeRasc 9y ago
  1) I know nothing and 2) that's not the worst thing in the world if we have genius engineers making batteries better.
- swagasaurus-rex 9y ago
  This advice isn't useful because you don't know the market conditions of the future. It's like saying in 1992 "Don't become a programmer, we just had an economic bust, it's overvalued"
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    It's not advice nor does it depend on the market conditions in the future. Boom or bust it's better to have a skill set that is in higher demand than supply.
DigitalJack 9y ago
I’m an EE doing asic design. Everything I do for a living I learned outside of school. Aside from the basics like reading/maths etc.
- throwaway613834 9y ago
  Huh, this is hard to swallow. What digital EE courses did you take in school?
  - ktta 9y ago
    I've had the same thing said to me by my professor about FPGAs. You can't really find much about current EE practices because companies just don't give them away or blog like the software guys do. Textbooks tend to be very general (also old) and don't focus on the tooling used which is the bulk of the work you have to do.
    - egwor 9y ago
      Tooling changes (very) regularly. Learning concepts and techniques is far better for the long term since many of those techniques/concepts can be applied to new situations.
    - throwaway613834 9y ago
      Also skeptical of this one. Tooling seems kind of beside the point? It's like arguing that your school taught you Python and that didn't prepare you for Java (or whatever).
      - ktta 9y ago
        Bulk of the work is done in simulation and verification with FPGAs.
        DigitalJack 9y ago
        This is true, but those tools doesn’t change that often at a given company. VCS and questa probably cover 99% of the fpga market.
akgerber 9y ago
My sister's path was getting an unrelated Ph.D. in chemistry, getting a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in battery chemistry, and then getting a job at a startup in the field that's commercializing and extending its founder's university research. That company appears to hire chemists, ChemEs, and MechEs/industrial engineers right now.
PeachPlum 9y ago
You will find jobs at different levels, from Intern to Researcher https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?keywords=battery&location=Worldwide&locationId=OTHERS.worldwide https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?keywords=battery&locat... Once you know who does the work, target them as a goal.
amelius 9y ago
Are you sure it is interesting from a career perspective? It seems that battery tech is a pretty mature field since it hasn't gone anywhere in the last decades despite huge commercial interests. Of course, things might change and probably they will somewhere in the future, but my guess is that patents will make it a winner-takes-all situation.
erikb 9y ago
Honestly most of the job is learned at the job. Then additionally comes reading papers, blogs and HN to extend the area of theoretical knowledge. Don't underestimate the power of pure crunching on experiment after experiment for 60h/week for 2-3 years though. If you want to become better, find a job in a company serious about battery development and then work your ass off.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

>I hope schools start focusing on it. Be careful what you wish for. Right now you stand to make a lot of money. If schools start cranking out undergrads who know what you know you won't be very valuable. edit: looks like I struck a nerve.

PascLeRasc 9y ago
1) I know nothing and 2) that's not the worst thing in the world if we have genius engineers making batteries better.
swagasaurus-rex 9y ago
This advice isn't useful because you don't know the market conditions of the future. It's like saying in 1992 "Don't become a programmer, we just had an economic bust, it's overvalued"
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  It's not advice nor does it depend on the market conditions in the future. Boom or bust it's better to have a skill set that is in higher demand than supply.

DigitalJack 9y ago

I’m an EE doing asic design. Everything I do for a living I learned outside of school. Aside from the basics like reading/maths etc.

throwaway613834 9y ago
Huh, this is hard to swallow. What digital EE courses did you take in school?
- ktta 9y ago
  I've had the same thing said to me by my professor about FPGAs. You can't really find much about current EE practices because companies just don't give them away or blog like the software guys do. Textbooks tend to be very general (also old) and don't focus on the tooling used which is the bulk of the work you have to do.
  - egwor 9y ago
    Tooling changes (very) regularly. Learning concepts and techniques is far better for the long term since many of those techniques/concepts can be applied to new situations.
  - throwaway613834 9y ago
    Also skeptical of this one. Tooling seems kind of beside the point? It's like arguing that your school taught you Python and that didn't prepare you for Java (or whatever).
    - ktta 9y ago
      Bulk of the work is done in simulation and verification with FPGAs.
      - DigitalJack 9y ago
        This is true, but those tools doesn’t change that often at a given company. VCS and questa probably cover 99% of the fpga market.

akgerber 9y ago

My sister's path was getting an unrelated Ph.D. in chemistry, getting a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in battery chemistry, and then getting a job at a startup in the field that's commercializing and extending its founder's university research. That company appears to hire chemists, ChemEs, and MechEs/industrial engineers right now.

PeachPlum 9y ago

You will find jobs at different levels, from Intern to Researcher https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?keywords=battery&location=Worldwide&locationId=OTHERS.worldwide https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?keywords=battery&locat... Once you know who does the work, target them as a goal.

amelius 9y ago

Are you sure it is interesting from a career perspective? It seems that battery tech is a pretty mature field since it hasn't gone anywhere in the last decades despite huge commercial interests. Of course, things might change and probably they will somewhere in the future, but my guess is that patents will make it a winner-takes-all situation.

erikb 9y ago

Honestly most of the job is learned at the job. Then additionally comes reading papers, blogs and HN to extend the area of theoretical knowledge. Don't underestimate the power of pure crunching on experiment after experiment for 60h/week for 2-3 years though. If you want to become better, find a job in a company serious about battery development and then work your ass off.