5 ms·

This is true. I went to school for EE, but was interested in Computer Science. There was a stigma to switching from EE to CS as taking an easier course because

by imgabe 4y ago

This is true. I went to school for EE, but was interested in Computer Science. There was a stigma to switching from EE to CS as taking an easier course because you couldn't hack it in EE. It was seen as a failure or a defeat. I toughed it out and graduated with an electrical engineering degree, but now I'm a programmer anyway. Wish I had just switched once I realized I liked CS more and saved a bunch of time.

jrumbut 4y ago
I was in roughly the same spot but I had to switch when I transferred schools because I would have practically had to start from scratch in CE but I was halfway done with a CS degree. Not sure it's possible to design an ECE curriculum that's easier to transfer into, take part time, or is more forgiving of early failures, but if it is I bet it would help. Also at the time I went to school (2006-2008) there wasn't any soldering and very little hands-on anything in the courses I took at CMU and UMass Amherst. It was formulae and Verilog (more coding than a lot of CS classes). In the Intro to CivE class I had to take for scheduling reasons we made a cardboard bridge and watched it fail to support the professor who was suspended over a pit. I can't remember a single ECE lab from the two years of classes I took. I learned a lot more from playing around with Arduino and such in the years after.
GeorgeTirebiter 4y ago
I also went to school for EE, but after a summer job doing SW, I switched to CS when I got back in the fall. I think CS (a good program) teaches you fundamentally how Systems work, independent of the substrate. EE is actually rather trivial compared to the complexity of big systems. EEs just learn altium, read some data sheets, and poof, out pop the circuits. Throw it in LT spice if you think it'll impress the boss. That's it. You need to know at most 2 pieces of sophisticated SW (schematic/PCB + spice). For a SW person, heck, there is always something that must be mastered, and pronto. Unless a SW person can kick back and write COBOL all day, there is much more to learn and apply to problem solutions. SW is fundamentally more demanding.
- smilekzs 4y ago
  If all you do is board-level integration of relatively low-speed stuff, then yes, SWE is more demanding. But that's not even the tip of the iceberg in the EE world. To name a few: high speed digital (Gbps+), ASIC (digital vs. mixed signal, RTL vs. physical design, ...), RF, precision analog, both very low and very high power, photonics, EMI... Each of these subjects require deep, arcane domain knowledge on top of physics, AND lots of grinding + experience + tacit knowledge + know-how, much more than SWE. Source: Electronics/Embedded hobbyist with an SWE day job.
  - spoiler 4y ago
    The stuff about needing to know a lot more physics or arcane domain specific stuff isn't so true. If you talk to someone who's got pink sunglasses about SWE, they'll say a bunch of stuff in our industry is "arcane domain specific knowledge" to them. You're probably romanticising it too because it's a hoby of yours, which just leads to skwes in your perception. Source: studied EE, after realising I wouldn't like my career paths, I switched to CS. Mostly worked as SWE tho, but I did work in ab unusual and creative EE role first, before realising that most EE jobs wouldn't be so engaging
    - notch656a 4y ago
      >The stuff about needing to know a lot more physics or arcane domain specific stuff isn't so true ha ha wait until you find out about microwave engineering.
      - spoiler 4y ago
        Pardon, but I don't understand the point you tried to make... Does a software engineer have perfect grasp and understanding about every subfield in SWE? Ranging from DX to writing compilers or designing languages, SWE is an extremely broad field. EE is no different.
        anotherhue 4y ago
Maursault 4y ago
> but now I'm a programmer anyway I had the exact opposite experience. The CS dept. actively recruited me, and I didn't even realize what CS was until I had completed 2 years of study. I like CS, but had I known better at 17yo, I would have gone EE or CE all the way, because that is my interest, and there is little chance I could uncover anything on my own about electronics without the structure of university. I never wanted to be a programmer, but programming is not computer science, nor does a lucrative programming career require a computer science degree, or any degree. But every where I have seen, a computer science career requires a computer science degree or a mathematics degree, but I have little doubt there is the odd physics grad or engineering grad working as a computer scientist. Just remembered, I know a guy with a biology or botany degree that works as a computer scientist on the modeling side and has for almost 20 years. But he just does modeling, not everything CS.
- the_only_law 4y ago
  > I would have gone EE or CE all the way, because that is my interest, and there is little chance I could uncover anything on my own about electronics without the structure of university This so much. Programming is accessible, that's great. I learned as a stupid kid and it worked out fine economically. But if I had to re-do everything, I'd go to school, and select anything but CS. I can always teach myself that. I find myself interested in many things nowadays, but almost never engage them, because I just can't, there's just not much an individual outside of reading.
IshKebab 4y ago
I did a mechanical engineering degree and ended up programming (way better pay) which I already could do before uni. I don't regret it though - it's much much easier to learn programming on your own than other kinds of engineering. E.g. if you got a job doing low level programming, like firmware development or even chip design (basically still programming) your EE knowledge would be very helpful.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  This is my big takeaway. I didn’t really learn programming in my SE courses anyway, so I might as well have done something more useful.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Tinkering with hardware at home arguably used to be more accessible to the home tinkerer starting with building Heathkits. But hardware got more complex and faster and the necessary gear etc. sort of got out of reach. Arguably things like Raspberry Pis and Arduinos have made it more accessible again at a different level of abstraction. But I don't think there's much debate that software is easier for someone without the resources of a university or company to work on in general.

by imgabe 4y ago

jrumbut 4y ago

I was in roughly the same spot but I had to switch when I transferred schools because I would have practically had to start from scratch in CE but I was halfway done with a CS degree. Not sure it's possible to design an ECE curriculum that's easier to transfer into, take part time, or is more forgiving of early failures, but if it is I bet it would help. Also at the time I went to school (2006-2008) there wasn't any soldering and very little hands-on anything in the courses I took at CMU and UMass Amherst. It was formulae and Verilog (more coding than a lot of CS classes). In the Intro to CivE class I had to take for scheduling reasons we made a cardboard bridge and watched it fail to support the professor who was suspended over a pit. I can't remember a single ECE lab from the two years of classes I took. I learned a lot more from playing around with Arduino and such in the years after.

GeorgeTirebiter 4y ago

I also went to school for EE, but after a summer job doing SW, I switched to CS when I got back in the fall. I think CS (a good program) teaches you fundamentally how Systems work, independent of the substrate. EE is actually rather trivial compared to the complexity of big systems. EEs just learn altium, read some data sheets, and poof, out pop the circuits. Throw it in LT spice if you think it'll impress the boss. That's it. You need to know at most 2 pieces of sophisticated SW (schematic/PCB + spice). For a SW person, heck, there is always something that must be mastered, and pronto. Unless a SW person can kick back and write COBOL all day, there is much more to learn and apply to problem solutions. SW is fundamentally more demanding.

smilekzs 4y ago
If all you do is board-level integration of relatively low-speed stuff, then yes, SWE is more demanding. But that's not even the tip of the iceberg in the EE world. To name a few: high speed digital (Gbps+), ASIC (digital vs. mixed signal, RTL vs. physical design, ...), RF, precision analog, both very low and very high power, photonics, EMI... Each of these subjects require deep, arcane domain knowledge on top of physics, AND lots of grinding + experience + tacit knowledge + know-how, much more than SWE. Source: Electronics/Embedded hobbyist with an SWE day job.
- spoiler 4y ago
  The stuff about needing to know a lot more physics or arcane domain specific stuff isn't so true. If you talk to someone who's got pink sunglasses about SWE, they'll say a bunch of stuff in our industry is "arcane domain specific knowledge" to them. You're probably romanticising it too because it's a hoby of yours, which just leads to skwes in your perception. Source: studied EE, after realising I wouldn't like my career paths, I switched to CS. Mostly worked as SWE tho, but I did work in ab unusual and creative EE role first, before realising that most EE jobs wouldn't be so engaging
  - notch656a 4y ago
    >The stuff about needing to know a lot more physics or arcane domain specific stuff isn't so true ha ha wait until you find out about microwave engineering.
    - spoiler 4y ago
      Pardon, but I don't understand the point you tried to make... Does a software engineer have perfect grasp and understanding about every subfield in SWE? Ranging from DX to writing compilers or designing languages, SWE is an extremely broad field. EE is no different.
      - anotherhue 4y ago

Maursault 4y ago

> but now I'm a programmer anyway I had the exact opposite experience. The CS dept. actively recruited me, and I didn't even realize what CS was until I had completed 2 years of study. I like CS, but had I known better at 17yo, I would have gone EE or CE all the way, because that is my interest, and there is little chance I could uncover anything on my own about electronics without the structure of university. I never wanted to be a programmer, but programming is not computer science, nor does a lucrative programming career require a computer science degree, or any degree. But every where I have seen, a computer science career requires a computer science degree or a mathematics degree, but I have little doubt there is the odd physics grad or engineering grad working as a computer scientist. Just remembered, I know a guy with a biology or botany degree that works as a computer scientist on the modeling side and has for almost 20 years. But he just does modeling, not everything CS.

the_only_law 4y ago
> I would have gone EE or CE all the way, because that is my interest, and there is little chance I could uncover anything on my own about electronics without the structure of university This so much. Programming is accessible, that's great. I learned as a stupid kid and it worked out fine economically. But if I had to re-do everything, I'd go to school, and select anything but CS. I can always teach myself that. I find myself interested in many things nowadays, but almost never engage them, because I just can't, there's just not much an individual outside of reading.

IshKebab 4y ago

I did a mechanical engineering degree and ended up programming (way better pay) which I already could do before uni. I don't regret it though - it's much much easier to learn programming on your own than other kinds of engineering. E.g. if you got a job doing low level programming, like firmware development or even chip design (basically still programming) your EE knowledge would be very helpful.

Aeolun 4y ago
This is my big takeaway. I didn’t really learn programming in my SE courses anyway, so I might as well have done something more useful.
ghaff 4y ago
Tinkering with hardware at home arguably used to be more accessible to the home tinkerer starting with building Heathkits. But hardware got more complex and faster and the necessary gear etc. sort of got out of reach. Arguably things like Raspberry Pis and Arduinos have made it more accessible again at a different level of abstraction. But I don't think there's much debate that software is easier for someone without the resources of a university or company to work on in general.