“Original thought? Distance learning (DL) is growing. They take basic science information and use the rules of mathematics to solve problems and design new products. That hole is filled with more study in computer hardware and software. Every engineer that works there starts as a technician, period, and the only time frame to advance is when the partners collectively agree you're ready. If you know what you’re doing, this step is where you really take your skillset to the next level. Those who want to work as engineering technicians should have at least an associate degree in engineering technology, although some employers will hire candidates who don't have formal training. Think about, and then find out how, the things you buy and use are produced. That strategy is the frontal attack. No campus? This is effectively a career track into engineering. Engineers need to be good at maths and sciences as it is applied to a number of different engineering issues. Two reasons. Much of the liberal arts course work may be satisfied by your prior schooling. Though we will not dwell too much on specific EE course material here, you can find an outline of a typical curriculum from Virginia Tech, a mid-tier engineering school at their web site. Stay in the job for several years to build up a base of engineering experience before you start shopping for another job. If you can demonstrate the characteristics of an engineer (see above), and you are personally mature, and you have studied and applied the techniques taught in engineering school, many a company will confer upon you the title of engineer. However, the program would only run on a PC (new at the time), and the source was locked to prevent students from changing the simulator. Once while working on a test program for a combinatorial logic TTL IC, I asked him some question about the specs of the part. Get a copy of a writing handbook, read it and use it. Doing the dirty deed is a batch of courses designed to put students through the ringer. Taking the company’s track is smart because it gains their blessing, which expands your job opportunities within the company. The day of the first test, the hall was full. However, I learned years later from another student that the professor gave his tests in two or three year cycles. This transition usually takes many years, and rightly so. I did a quick Internet search and got more hits than I could investigate in a week. If I were to make a choice I would say be an engineer but learn from the technicians. There is no such thing as digital vs. analog, software vs. hardware, engineering vs. science. I’ll call them Tom, Dick, and Harry. The Engineering Technician's responsibilities include performing research, building prototypes, inspecting products, ensuring sites are safe and clean, providing customer support, and reporting to the supervising Engineer. I took a microcomputer interfacing course that dwelled on basic stuff I had known for years. If you can earn a PE license, it can only be to your benefit. NDT technicians perform inspections on materials and critical components, looking for flaws that may have adverse affects. Remember, engineering is not just another job, but a different way of thinking. He chose a scrolling LED display, common today but not then. There is a very solid glass ceiling which is hard to get through. In reality, there are many flavors of electrical engineer, many with respect to both education and experience. There is no substitute for knowledge, experience and wisdom, not even a degree. I learned from Harry that there is no compartmentalization of knowledge or science. Other coursework depends on the specialty. The best place to start your inquiry is at the nearest college. This is a curriculum that is lighter on the analog side, fields and waves, radio theory, and possibly some basic sciences. My brother was smart enough to stifle the laugh! He would tenaciously pursue solutions until the best was had. A technician typically has a two-year Associates degree from a junior college, or a technical degree or certificate from a military, trade or specialized training school. I have known many technicians who have in-depth knowledge about one or more areas and that has landed them good jobs in engineering. They can disagree with your opinion, but there are no facts to dispute. Because engineering courses enhance creativity, problem solving skills, and understanding of technology, they provide a strong foundation for further studies in medicine, law, business, dentistry, and almost any other field. The rest can possibly be taken at a local junior college or you can test-out using CLEP. Engineering Technician vs. Being a person who has worked in industry, you will be very sensitive to this in college when a TA five or ten years your junior tells you that the CHOP setting on a dual trace scope helps to eliminate offset voltages on the inputs. But that’s the taxpayer in me griping. Use the summer term to lowpass filter your course load. He gave me the electronics bug. The degree gets you just enough book learning to qualify you to burn up real components on a company payroll, and that’s frightening. The main difference between the engineering and technician curriculums is the theoretical development of the material. In general, you can expect to study subjects like Engineering Service and Statistics, Engineering Economy, Materials Science, Technical Writing, Design & Automation, Thermodynamics, Mathematics, Engineering Analysis, etc. Take an interest in manufacturing. Engineering careers are very sensitive to initial conditions, however, and the choices you make now will shape your career. Experience is not the only factor in such a transition, but the education comes not in a classroom. Thus, you will find that scientists and mathematicians look down upon engineers as lacking theoretical background just as engineers look down on technicians in that way. Rather than argue with this goofball, I cracked the lock myself and did the work at home. Dissing one area in favor of another is like the foot snubbing the hand. Your writing should reflect your best thought simply because you have time to ponder what you have written before pressing the ‘send’ button. With the addition of an engineer’s general background they are unstoppable for one reason: they are successful. Let me assure you, poorly formed communications make you look like an idiot, and the world has enough of those already! I have electrical and software experience as well as working in physics research so I have a pretty good technical background. Don’t we all feel better now? Working there with the regular employees, I became friends with many and enjoyed the several months I had with them, but I was considering what to do after that job expired. Though engineers have some coursework in the pure sciences, (chemistry, physics, biology) and considerable coursework in math, the engineering curriculum is considered ‘applied’ by the scientific community. That is, he was practically an accessory to cheating. Here, the process allowed you to become good and become known in the same movement. If you have an arcane interest in switching power supply design, that may be an inroad for you as such engineers are hard to find. The CLEP exams cover a wide range of subjects, mostly the basics taught in freshman and sophomore classes. There are ‘colleges’ on the web that will email you a degree in anything for $10, so you must be careful. The next day, there were 50 students again. The process of making technicians and engineers is similar, but the course material is quite different. Find your area of interest and excel in it. You will not be respected by all other, ‘real’ engineers, even BSETs. On another front, the geek engineer stereotype exists for a reason: it is true. While the company is on the medical side and I … Don’t believe that you will be running IBM’s R&D wing without a politically correct degree. The job role of a telecom technician is erratic and appointing a full-time candidate can be the pain points for a company. In fact every sleeping moment was, too. The difference is probably most pronounced right after graduating from school. From the outset I am assuming that you want to be an engineer for the right reason — you love electronics. As with engineers, the functional, on-the-job quality of the technician is only loosely related to the quality of his (or ‘her’ in all that follows) formal education. I just don’t want you to think that the sheep skin magically confers some special wisdom. If you want to be an engineer just to take home a bigger paycheck, you should be working on your real estate or insurance license, or working for a non-profit company (a dot-com). Your boss takes his boss out for steak. Your core exhortations to techs to earn a BSEE are noted, applauded, and admirable. The tech who has the right attitude and is ready for loads of study and hard work. Isn’t there always a bigger fish in the pond? All content copyright Atlantic Quality Design, Inc. Atlantic Quality Design, Inc. R&D Services. The second boost for your career is public speaking. If he does not earn the title [the way I did it] [the canonical way] [by paying his dues], the he does not deserve the title.”. As a technician I was focused more on getting the job done in the most practical way. So be willing to do volunteer work at a company, try to find a part-time job as a helper or volunteer or whatever – it’s not relevant to making money but more towards preparing you for the actual professional job of engineering. Lecture was in the morning, lab in the afternoon, and in three short months I had fulfilled my chemistry requirement. We were designing a wafer probing system to characterize the output of a new gallium arsenide wafer fab. Notice that I said the ‘first thing’. The moral of this warning is, be sure your have a support network in place. I suppose politicians consider the scientists who work for them inferior as well. Keep in mind that the initial education is only the first step in becoming an engineer. A Fiber Technician is someone who plays a prominent role in the Telecommunication industry. The military used to teach electron flow instead of conventional current flow, and that was one point of confusion for some techs. It is continuous learning, because not knowing something is no excuse for not knowing something. Buck the system. They worked on interesting projects and worked for the brightest staff engineers, a big bonus. That said, if you know for a fact that you want to work in a shop, on cars, and repair/modify/tune cars, then becoming a mechanic is pretty much the option you need to take. I have heard often that the best engineers are the ones who were first technicians. My first job as a tech was with a huge company. Whenever you see or suspect cheating, however, you must take action because cheating devalues your degree. When determining what will transfer and what won’t, deal only with an admissions counselor who has the authority to sign the transfer forms. There is usually a lot of reading and writing involved, much more than in a traditional class. Notice that most of these skills require a measure of what you already know as a technician. You still have to study for the test, unless you have a natural interest or ability in the subject. Calculus is the most well known. They are an independent consulting firm though, so this may to some degree be based on the constant need for engineers that create and maintain clients on their own. (No one will respect a degree with banner ads, anyway.) You were not born knowing physics or dynamics of rigid bodies, and neither was I. For example, future electrical engineering technicians will take classes in electrical circuits, microprocessors, and digital electronics. I once took a course in rudimentary assembly language programming. They know which end of a soldering iron is hot, how to use a scope, and they have great detective abilities. Some students look forward to taking the summer off. As an engineer, waiting for a technician to come back from vacation to wire up a prototype will kill your schedule. (Does the military still teach that?) Credit is awarded by your college on a pass/fail basis, and you can take the tests multiple times. A technician may be able to do a work faster than an engineer but the only reason is practice. That kills some time, but on the other hand I get a private tutorial with an expert in the field, and I usually end up exploring some work related area that interests me such as error detecting and correcting codes. IT service engineer Alternative titles for this job include Computer service and repair technician, IT engineer, IT service technician, IT support engineer, IT field engineer. They generally follow procedures developed by doctors or engineers. So I'm going to be graduating in two weeks as an Applied Physics and Engineering major. One of them referred to the techs as “grunge technicians.” What a downer that was. Do some research and see whether this step makes sense for you. Some dwell on power engineering, others on communications or fiber optics. Land a job as a Network Technician/Admin or in Technical Sales. But take courage! He seemed shocked when I delivered the working hardware to him at the end of the term. I figured the kids were sharing their notes. But there is hope. As such he must be capable of wearing many hats. As I look back on my working career, I can name three individuals who inspired me to expand my thinking. The problems that gave me difficulty I brought to the professor. And you will no doubt meet some savvy, affable professors who will more than make up for the dorks. If this happens to you, start working fast on your knowledge base because you are in a very dangerous position. You need to ask a college counselor to be sure. No on- campus program? You seem to face a couple of challenges; let me come to those in a minute though. You might even get the title before you are ready. Here is a short list of skills you must have as an engineer. Many do it every year, and in many ways. I applied and was granted an interview. Many engineers are geeks, having meager social and communications skills. Learn about the job description and duties, and see the step-by-step requirements to start a career as an energy engineer. Rather, there is one continuous rainbow of knowledge and skill, each person settling in this area or that. When a professor sees that a student’s notebook contains 50 pages of problems and solutions for each chapter of the text, that is a big bonus at grading time, but you are probably not going to need that extra point between the B and A because you already aced the course. But remember, there are no short cuts! Just make sure you repeat the basic facts along the way to lend some substance. The experience of the technician counts for [little] [nothing] [less than nothing]. Those afflicted with and addicted to electronics, read on. Students can expect to take courses in college algebra, trigonometry, and basic science. The shop he ran was not responsible for new product development, but only support of existing computer systems. Technicians usually start their careers in NDT performing tests that follow an established procedure. My first influence was my brother, Bill. They improve our buildings, roads, and vehicles. I will have to disagree. It turned out that the job they had in mind for me was not test engineer (as advertised), but a technician job calibrating scopes and meters. Yes, but derive maximum advantage from your summer construction work experience it should be as closely related to the field you plan to work in when you graduate. Also, technicians moving up to engineer are not paid as well in some cases. Good! (You won’t lend much prestige to the staff with only a BS, whatever your specialty, so count that factor out.) For example, technicians need not know exactly why the semiconductors are doped a certain way. Email is especially loose, and I receive poorly written emails regularly from people with advanced degrees. Colleges are realizing that busy adults want an education but the cost is just too high to quit work and go back to school. Just to establish my position before the flame emails start pouring in, I think that the best route to the title ‘engineer’ is the BSEE degree. Everybody’s happy, but you are making $20,000 less than a ‘real’ engineer. Know any good toenail models? Knowing my work but not my education, one MSEE there even asked where I did my graduate studies. And not all courses are alike. More than 1.2 million engineers work in the United States today, making engineering the nation’s second largest profession. You should: Keep your distance from any visitors and avoid physical contact. If you do take a job as a tech you may get slotted into it and not be able to move up to engineer later. In step two, basically all you do is help with minor stuff (except if you set up a home lab and decide to work on more advanced things). Having a technician background myself, I found that I could burn through engineering courses with much less pain and agony than the other students. You don’t have to use the word ‘mentor’ with this person, but you will know him when you find him (or her). One last bit of advice. I think it has to do more with boot camp than tech school. Harry was the jack of all trades. Educational expenses are not always deductible, so speak with your accountant before assuming they are. That is why a good technician is worth his weight in gold. A good tech can take a sketch and build it and debug it without much help from the engineer. I did not include in the list the basic requirements of any job. From Technician To Engineer (C) 2003 Hank Wallace. The second reason to earn a non-EE degree is that the most convenient technical degree may not be EE. It is frustrating not being able to talk to the professor, especially when the TA obviously is clueless. He is an electronics guru and a professor in a junoir college, but was pursuing a doctorate in education. Let me put an example from my Circuits II instructor when I studied Electronic Engineering. (You’ll have to dig for the requirements because the PhD’s keep moving the relevant pages!) If you want to become an engineer, studying maths and physics at A-level is often essential, while budding chemical engineers should pursue chemistry. I could hide the formula for making gold out of chewing gum in the advanced section of a calculus text and be in no danger of discovery. You must learn as much as you would sitting in class anyway, so this too is not a short cut. The day of the interview, I was working on the wafer probing system as usual, so I just took off my bunny suit, walked across the hall and introduced myself. I asked the professor if I could do a project instead of driving 40 miles one-way to class and he agreed, but on the condition that he could name the project. If you are an employee whom the boss cannot risk introducing to a customer because you speak poorly, that means your chances of getting an engineering job are much slimmer. They develop systems to clean our water, process our foods, make our fuels burn more efficiently, and recycle our waste. They are workers that are highly trained to perform specific tasks. You are being paid $35,000 as a tech. According to the US Department of Labor, the demand for qualified engineers will remain strong well into the next millennium. When you talk with your counsellor you will find that you need to earn your last one or two years of credits directly from that institution. The first option is independent study courses. Where do paper clips come from? How do you survive for the next few years? They often work side-by-side on projects and their job functions commonly overlap. Seeing as you already have some college credit from your tech schooling (even if only physed), you need to take the fastest, least expensive way to your goal: graduation. -. You start with what you know, and being aware of areas of basic science as a result of your education, you know what questions to ask to get to the next step in the process. Because many pay BSETs just as much as money as BSEEs, which galls the EEs. Public speaking can be learned. Shooting for the top of the class? This article series is for techs who desire the title and responsibilities of engineer, and are willing to put in the hard work to obtain it. These support people could be working engineers, professors you know personally, or other resources like family or the Internet. Some engineers never obtain an engineering degree, but work their way into an engineering position with a combination of personal study and on the job training. He took off on a tangent and eventually assigned me the task of writing a general purpose program that would test any combinatorial logic part, given its boolean equation and a table of timing and DC specs. A colleague years ago related to me how he got an A in a class by doing yard work for the professor in their well known engineering school. You may be surprised, but engineering and technician educations are different from the ground up. There is a huge difference between an A grade engineer and a C grade engineer, though both of their business cards read the same. The title of this page may be a little misleading. Of late there is a trend toward the Computer Engineering degree. When you are communicating in writing with coworkers, customers, or vendors, always use proper grammar and punctuation. His training was in math, but he did not let that stop him. Entry Level Engineer as a first job out of college? If you have that, you can be anything you want (within the law). See their web site for information on ordering the excellent printed study guide. Some professors are amenable to offering a course as an independent study even though the course is not usually done that way. You will have to go back to the basics and effectively start over. But if a trader or engineer needs to visit your home, there are steps you can take to protect yourself and avoid spreading the virus. Find out what else you'll need to become an engineer. Plastics Engineer and Plastics Technician Job Description Plastics engineers perform a wide variety of duties depending on the type of company they work for and the products it produces. Certainly you are passionate about something. Frequently I receive emails from others in business which appear to have been written by their elementary-age children. I earned a math degree from a fully accredited private liberal arts college in Virginia, Mary Baldwin College. Let’s talk about mentors. What can one do? If you do the math and consider the time value of money, something taught in engineering school, the income you lose as a technician working up to engineer is quite a lot. He allows the design engineer greater freedom from the bench while performing challenging work in his own right. Technician Vipperman considers becoming an engineer. With liberal arts courses, there may not be a ‘right’ answer, and searching for one or arguing absolutes will only turn out to be a waste of time and lower your marks. While good A-level grades and a degree are essential for entering the field of engineering, they're rarely enough on their own. The military trains many technicians and the ones I have worked with know their stuff pretty well. At the very beginning of my career there was a lit path. But be careful exactly how you do it. Generally, technicians and engineers are not in competition unless it is on the ball field. For example, you have to show up on time, be diligent at your work, and have a smile for the boss and your coworkers. If you peruse several degree plans from different engineering schools, you will notice some differences. The Fiber Technician sets up the electrical and electronic testing to pave the way for the development of new applications. Of course, lab courses require the student to be on-site, unless you enjoy dissecting frogs on the kitchen table. I used to go to class and work problems during the lectures. People who have a particular area of interest find the best researchers in that field and attend the school where that work is being done. Assuming you are a technician, what additional background do you need? In fact, I know of one four-year EE program that pressured its sister BSET program out of existence because the ET grads were getting lots of job offers. I hope that this series has helped you technicians out there in your quest to become engineers. Take advantage of this by writing papers that challenge the status quo. We accept this as a fact of life, but I dispute the necessity of this system. Why are BSETs disrespected in some companies? What’s more, the exam will cost you only a fraction of what the college course costs (about $55 per three semester hours where I took them). With that and some experience you can get the title, the fame and the fortune. This is the kind of mentor you should seek. Courses transferred from an accredited junior college are usually worth more in transfer credit than those taken in a technical school. I will consider the BSEE and Computer Engineering degrees equivalent for the sake of our discussion, though you will prefer one or the other path. With distance learning, we should be needing less real estate, not more. (One physics professor came to me and asked about a problem in the text!) Average salary (a year) £12,000 Starter. In my city, several local colleges and universities, along with local government, have taken an old office building and rennovated it into classrooms and offices to the tune of $12 million. Certainly not a title. The last topic I want to cover here is distance learning. They test, repair, and adjust equipment or products. Just be ready to be the target of some nasty jokes from the ‘real’ EEs. This allows mature people to take courses remotely, either through the mail, via email, over the web, or using videos or other technologies. Don’t waste your money on a non-accredited degree. Research the requirements to become an energy engineer. The implied second thing is experience, which will be covered later. How about computer chips or jelly beans? I could tell you horrific and humorous stories about new-grad engineers who were too big for their britches. With forty or fifty working years ahead of you, it’s easy to feel you’ve all the time in the world. I already know how a manual clipper works, and that’s the base where I start. The Engineer In Training (EIT) certificate is also a plus in your efforts. A successful career in technology begins with scouting out some awesome entry-level IT jobs. When I was a tech, I thought in specifics: measurements, data, procedures, troubleshooting. It may be math or computer science or physics, depending on local course offerings, what will transfer from your past education, and how wealthy you are. Generally, technicians and engineers are not in competition unless it is on the ball field. So I thanked him for his time, walked back across the hall, put on my bunny suit and continued my engineering work at an engineer’s pay. On the other hand, if you are a technician looking for an easy title upgrade, you do not have my encouragement, either. The school’s strength affects its curriculum, though the basics of engineering are the same just about everywhere. As a technician, you already know how to solve difficult problems in electronics.