Break Points
Why did you become an Engineer?
Jack Ganssle
2/22/2010 11:17 AM EST
As of this writing there are two responses; the one from betajet is both very well written and extremely insightful. He laments that engineering in the USA is a dead-end career, but writes about how his childhood obsession with knowing how things work drove him to this calling.
It's fun to ask people why they chose this path. Some answers get quite involved. With me it was and is simple: I like to make stuff. As a kid it was all about banging nails into boards. Then it was forts in the back yard, which became such an obsession my grandfather regularly hauled salvaged boards over for me. Around 8 years old, oh happy day, my dad gave me his old electric drill. What havoc I wreaked with that aluminum-cased Craftsman!
We moved to Maryland two years later and I claimed a small corner of the basement for a "lab." Pretty soon people were asking me to repair their TVs, an easy task then when most of the problems were bad tubes. The drug store tube tester was just a short bike ride away. Ironically, after a lifetime in electronics I doubt I could repair a modern TV given the mass of high-integration chips.
The TVs were a treasure trove for parts and pretty soon my friends and I were building vacuum tube amplifiers and Morse code ham radio gear. My best-ever contact on the radio was when the FCC picked up my second harmonic clear across the country. Their stern notice led to some modifications to the transmitter, but I was so proud of a 3000 mile contact I pinned the official letter on the wall next to the other QSL cards (postcards hams mailed to each other to confirm a contact).
We built rockets. Rebuilt engines, cars, eventually boats. Various projects led to the use of transistors and ICs; by late high school there was no doubt that my major would be electrical engineering, a term that still sounds odd to me. Shouldn't it be "electronic engineering?"
Why EE? Simply because it was so much fun to build stuff, and the EEs I knew used a soldering iron as much as a drafting table (uh, for the younger readers, we used "pencils" and "vellum" before the CAD era). Designing circuits was an intellectual challenge, and working with my hands on the prototypes satisfied my need to build stuff.
A very close friend, also an embedded developer, recommended "Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work," which I have ordered.
The book's thesis is apparently that working with one's hands connects us in important ways to the world around us. I hear he dismisses cube dwellers for their disdain of the trades.
But we engineers, prime examples of white collar office workers, make stuff. It could be an iPod or a well-crafted ISR. Maybe specialists assemble the circuits due to the high-density SMT. But turning an idea into a device, picking up the scope probe or loading the debugger to make it work, and then seeing a product emerge, is a hugely satisfying endeavor.
What do you think? Why did you become an engineer? (Editor's Note: This is the Embedded Poll Question this week. To vote, go to the Embedded.com Home Page. )
Jack G. Ganssle is a lecturer and consultant on embedded development issues. He conducts seminars on embedded systems and helps companies with their embedded challenges. Contact him at jack@ganssle.com. His website is www.ganssle.com.
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NevadaDave
2/23/2010 2:24 PM EST
Oh, yeah! I went a similar route - I liked (and still do like) a variety of tech stuff, but the day that my Christmas-gift crystal radio kit picked up our local AM station pushed me over the electronics cliff. I, too, fixed TV's by testing & replacing tubes (a skill that also worked well with the electronics we had in the USCG), did the ham thing, built audio amps & shortwave receivers & converters. It has been a great ride for me, and I hope to continue for years to come.
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N9BDF
2/24/2010 11:13 AM EST
I think the poll should have another option, "I find the work rewarding and it does a pretty good job of paying the bills". I acquired my first Amateur Radio license when I was 15 and held an Advanced Class license by 16. The first time I worked on an Embedded System (Z80 assembly-based hotel/motel telephone call accounting systems), I was hooked.
I find the work to be very gratifying and it has done a pretty good job of paying the bills. Plus, I like the fact that a bit of myself goes out into the field and lives on for 5 to 15 years for every device I develop.
-Michael
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krwada
2/24/2010 11:38 AM EST
I can clearly tell you this. It was this guy...
![]()
src="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/krwada/scifi/Star%20Trek/stoneknivesandbearskins.jpg" border="0" alt="stone knives and bearskins">
... that was my inspiration when I was a child.
Later on in life:
- got my undergrad in Chemical Engineering
- minor elective in solid state physics
- got my graduate degree in Material Science
- side elective in PhD program in control theory
.
... let us say it was a long and very circuitous route to becoming an EE in the advanced broad band optical networks industry!
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Dmd
2/25/2010 1:50 AM EST
My path to EE was the same as Jacks yet different. I never did anything with ham radio or TVs,
but I was, like Jack, a thing maker using mostly wood to build all sorts of, well, things. Ok, my friends
and I strung wires down the alley and across the street to each others house for morse code communication.
I was good at math and my math teacher was in charge of the PA system for the school's gymnasium.
I was curious how that system worked so decided to study electrical engineering in university
to find out. In university I discovered computers and the rest, as they say, is history.
They are adult toys...
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Tippers
2/25/2010 7:01 AM EST
At school it was mostly science that held my interest, so when it came to University my first choice was Maths (UK spelling!) or Physics (or both). Then I realised I'd need a job when I was through so I switched to engineering. The next part of the decision involved pain - which branch of engineering was least likely to hurt. That ruled out Civil (too high), Mining (too dark), Mechanical (too heavy), Chemical (too explosive), Aeronautical (also too high) and basically left Electrical/Electronic. During my degree I discovered software - assembler for the 6502 (I think) written on a Video Genie with 1k RAM and cassette tape storage. Software definitely hurts less than soldering irons, and I like being able to point at things and tell my kids "that's got my software in it".
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The Heretic
2/25/2010 10:23 AM EST
I blame ossilsoscopes. The just looked so cool, and they showed you how things you couldn't see worked. At the time they cost way too much for a poor farm boy, so I had to study them at school. Then one day I saw something about a new device called an 8080. After that my fate was sealed.
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FBG
2/25/2010 10:35 AM EST
I think 1 and 2 in the poll should be combined; if you "have the knack", then it's the most fun you can have. Or at least, the most fun anybody will pay you for. I was actually fascinated by electricity when I was very small and never had any doube about a career choice. They only thing that rivals engineering for me is Physics, so I double-majored. Like a lot of the rest of you, as a kid I built things, repaired TVs, and so on. It's been a heck of a ride and it's still the most fascinating thing I know.
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eiphan
2/27/2010 8:46 AM EST
Yeah, I chose this electrical and systems engineer bcz of my passion.
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digitaljetset
2/27/2010 9:17 AM EST
I think that almost all of us (if not all) started doing stuff since childhood. In my case at 10 yr old, I was quite sure I wanted to become EE.
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twk
3/1/2010 6:31 PM EST
Guess I started earlier than some, had an uncle that taught be to wind a transformer. I learned to design vacuum tubes and that went the way of technical things. Had it during the best of times. Have things I actually built in orbit, gone out of the solar system, bringing men out of harms way, and communication with aircraft and all still doing it. Even have one commercial product still in service. Don't think those starting today will even have the opportunity to be so involved in real learning and growth. I have trouble really recommending engineering today because that kind of exciting discovery is pretty rare. I can still be positive about my career without hesitation. Even got a business degree along the way.
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mohnkhan
3/8/2010 2:14 PM EST
Its something similar with me too, It all started with toys, torches, winding a transformer to my specification. Building motor boat toys. With time I just got more and more Interested, more involved in finding how things worked sealing my eventual fate to what I would become
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