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I went through an EE associates program at my local community college after I’d graduated with a BA, purely because I wanted to know how to fix/modify/tinker wi
by nativeit 3y ago
I went through an EE associates program at my local community college after I’d graduated with a BA, purely because I wanted to know how to fix/modify/tinker with audio equipment. I went at night, part time, and it was easily one of the best experiences of my life. Like yourself, I had some amateur experience already, and as the gaps were filled I had at least 4-5 truly paradigm shifting moments where multiple concepts finally clicked together and whole swaths of the world suddenly made sense. I found elegant connections in the physics, familiar logic applications, and gained a lot of insight that I hadn’t expected, which helped reinforce my sense of just how little I will ever really know.
Even though the purpose for taking those classes was largely personal, it’s materially contributed to my career in a lot of indirect ways (I’m an IT consultant and Linux sysadmin) by giving me a unique perspective for how things function on a much lower level than my colleagues who just have CS educations. I can troubleshoot Wi-Fi and signal transmission issues using spectrum and vector network analysis which makes everyone look at me as if I were a witch. I am comfortable disassembling and repairing equipment like scanners and commercial printers, with lots of moving parts and mains electricity that other techs won’t touch.
All that said, I highly recommend attending an EE program, and even though you’ll feel like a big, wrinkled brain smart person—you will never stop turning it off and on again, bit-bashing, or sign flipping—all quite valid techniques for when the years of diligent study and experience loses out to fat fingers and poor eyesight.