Wanted to share my experience as a recent grad. Please don’t lose hope!
My interviews were at Marvell, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple, Arm, Tesla (pick 5). Mostly in physical design / microarchitecture / process technology.
Got an offer early and declined the others before first round.
3.7 ish GPA from a California public school. Had 1 very weak internship beforehand (small defense contractor).
What stuff about ece excites you the most and why?
2 years ago I started an online MS in computer engineering because I was bored and was hoping to deepen my embedded skills. I am a working professional who gets tuition reimbursement (thankfully).
But 2 years into my MS, I can still barely explain to you the difference between I2C and SPI (how I landed a job as an embedded software engineer, I have no freakin' idea, but honestly the work I do is mostly C++ on the application layer, and I almost never touch the kernel).
I've got about 4 more classes left, and wondering if I should just quit or figure out how to make the most with what I've got.
Obviously, the most embarrassing part about this is that I failed do to any proper research and now I'm living up to the consequences. Fully acknowledge that's entirely on me.
2nd most embarrassing thing is that I somehow landed a job as an embedded software engineer with not even a half understanding of any basic embedded concept. Most I know is related to certain protocols that rely on RS485. I might've touched CAN once or twice, but couldn't explain it either. I could maybe figure out a multimeter or oscilloscope. I do use Linux daily though. In addition, I used FPGAs in my undergrad and loved it. Never touched em once in my grad program.
How should I grow and expand my career going forward? Should I start doing side projects that most students (somehow except for me) take on sophomore/junior year of college like writing programs that run on microcontrollers, RTOS, low-level drivers, and whatnot (in addition to my full-time job, grad school, and other responsibilities 🙃)?
Again, fully aware than I am a major idiot for taking on this grad program. Appreciate any/all advice from experienced professionals, new grads, entry-levels, and the like.
Entering final year of my Engineering Degree. Interested in RTL design, ASIC and SoC.
Rate and Roast my resume, help to make it perfect.
Hi everyone. I'm currently a 1st year ECE student in my summer break. A month of my break went to waste and i have a month more left. What can I do during this time? Please give me any course or any suggestions as to what I can do to make this month productive!!
I’m an engineer with >2 years of experience working in HVAC industry. I have the opportunity to switch sectors into the defense/aerospace industry, but I have to move 800 mi away for it, in another major metropolitan area.
My current job is stable and I live with my parents. The commute is short and I’m valued at my company. I received some decent pay bumps this year (annual raise plus comp readjustment). But the long term outlook is 50-50 right now. We’ve been behind on sales targets, constantly missing deadlines and I’ve only worked on one specific product. No one, no matter how well they perform, gets promoted in my company (maybe once every five years).
The new defense job has secured funding thru the next couple of years, and there’s a massive backlog of work that needs to be done. It’s a 20% pay bump from my current salary along with decent relocation and sign on bonus. Since funding just came in, the team is looking to fill dozens of new vacancies. Seems like there’s a solid upward mobility track and opportunities for ownership over projects. Working in defense/aerospace has also been one of my long term career goals for a while.
I think long term, the defense job sounds right for me, but curious to see what people think. I’m worried about living so far away from the only place I’ve ever known, when I currently work so closely from home (which to many people is a privilege ). I’m terrified of the lonely weekends and knowing nobody. But I also feel like I’m quietly suffocating inside a velvet cage. I have very few friends here, a lacking social life, no relationship. No familial obligations. That said, I currently reside in a (different) major metropolitan area, and I’m sure I could fix this if I really tried. But maybe what I really need is a new start. What do you think? I’ve read many horror stories here about people making a similar decision and ultimately regretting it. I’m happy to provide more context if needed.
Entering my second year of community college (finishing general subjects: calc, physics, chem, java + python classes, etc.) and have not taken any ee classes yet. I plan to transfer next year to a bachelor’s program and hope to find at least one or two internships before I graduate. I basically have no experience or knowledge with ee besides ohm’s law and have an unused arduino kit. What kind of projects/videos/textbooks I should do/read? Any other advice too would be helpful!
In case this helps: my goal is to work in the power/telecomms industry
Hi all, I am starting my mathematics and physics degree at the OU this September, obsessed with studying and learning as much as I can about the subjects that interest me the most. Something that has been fascinating me is electronics, hardware, robotics – tech in general, really.
If I'm honest, I don't fully know yet what specific area I want to focus on. I just know I'm drawn to this whole space and want to explore it properly before narrowing down. If anyone has thoughts on how to figure out which direction might suit someone in my position, I'd really appreciate it.
What I'm looking for really is genuinely all and any resources anyone can recommend to me as a brand new beginner, with no prior knowledge. All I have is the willingness to learn and suck for a very long time. I want more than just to memorise things – I want to DEEPLY and intuitively understand things.
I found these videos and I have been planning to go through it (no clue if it's any good at all! – wanted to get some second opinions before committing to them both).
Here they are:
Anything from videos, free courses, random books etc. would be amazing – whether it's electronics, robotics, computer architecture, or something adjacent I haven't even thought of yet!
like this would be keeping in mind the fact that you would need to learn the language and stuff (i mainly speak english) and the adjustment stuff
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I am taking a simple example to understand this concept.
- Memory address is of 16 bits.
- Block size is 16 words.
- Number of Main Memory blocks is 4K
- Number of Cache Memory lines is 64
Here is the exclusive part that I do not understand:
> In figure 10.8, we have chosen four cache lines per set. Hence, for the above example there are 16 sets of cache lines.
I think they could simply do number of sets=(number of cache blocks)/(n of n-way) and say it is a 4-way with 16 sets of cache lines.
> Let us number them from 0 to 15. dividing the 4096 memory blocks equally among these 16 sets, we find that 256 memory blocks can be mapped into one set of cache lines.
Things get rusty for me from just above. One set can get 256 memory blocks...makes sense but keep reading.
> Figure 10.8 shows that those memory blocks that are mapped into set 0, namely, 0,16,32,48,64,80,...,4080. In this sense, the mapping resembles direct mapping. But the 256 memory blocks that are mapped into set 0 can be placed into any of the four cache lines within the set 0, namely CL0, CL1, CL2, or CL3 indicated in the figure. In this way it resembles the associative mapping.
Nothing makese sense in this. How did we arrive at the number 0,16,32......What is the mapping formula being used here?
Figure 10.8 shows those
Hi everyone !
So i had a interview call with TI and after that NVIDIA had approached me ... considering the job market i wanted to give it for both cause i was thinking nothing would happen [ low self confidence lol] but then i did not get a response formal reply from the hr regarding the offer letter just the recruiter had reached out telling me that it was a positive feedback . Within this time frame i had given an interview with nvidia and now i have a offer letter coming from TI and nvidia says it will get back in a week's time . I really want to get into nvidia but do not want to lose out on TI if i dont get nvidia . And i dont know why but in both the companies when asked if i had been attending any interviews i had said just that i dont have a offer in hand with any of the company because i did not have one and i loed saying no i have not sat for any interviews . What should i do now how do i go forward. I have 60 days notice period and i am thinking of cases where anyone could land up to different companies that suit them well within a notice period provided they have a offer in hand right? Or is it just me ? . But i am at a beginner stage so i really need help in this please share your experiences if any and help me out thankyouuu
Hey everyone, Im trying to design a circuit that will be able to drive both a solenoid valve and a steel ball valve each at a time. The current that they normally pull is around 2.5A. I'd like to know your opinion about this circuit. Thanks a lot.
Hey guys I am designing this low noise pre-amplifier which has two stages(instrumentation amplifier + low pass filter). The output of this amplifier will go to an ADC which takes input of 0-5V. But my amplifier output has negative values too. So there must be some dc offset. What modifications can I make so that I can feed the output to the ADC?
Currently I am in a waiting list for one of the colleges and I want to study ece ( still in waiting)as my subject but I have got VLSI people are saying that VLSI is a course in ece. But as everyone right now is more inclined towards the ECE subject please anyone with a knowledge please tell me what should I take ,is VLSI having a future and where would I be after completing the course.
I am a hardware engineer with experience in RF, wireless systems, PCB design, embedded IoT, and hardware validation. Currently full time at a semiconductor company but looking to start my own consulting as a side hustle, supporting early stage hardware startups that need technical help.
The challenge I am running into is that I have the technical background but no existing client network outside my current employer. I have started sending cold emails to relevant startups but responses are slow as expected.
How did you get started? What actually worked?
When parallel in...notes are showing Q0 Q1 Q2 as 011 for input 011. Q0 is a LSB...
I came into this engineering internship excited to learn and contribute. Instead, I left disappointed by what I experienced.
There was virtually no onboarding, no structured training, and no clear technical ownership of my projects. I repeatedly asked for documentation, architecture overviews, or any material that would help me understand the products I was working on, but I was largely told to Google datasheets or find answers on my own.
My manager was new to the technology I was working on, so many of my technical questions couldn’t be answered directly and I was frequently redirected to other engineers. This left me trying to piece together information from different people, many of whom weren’t familiar with my project’s overall goals. Even one week when everyone left for an event , my manger told me to wait until next week when the rest came back to answer my questions. My manger has no experience in the area we are in and seemed to get hired based on knowing a powerful person in group. Add to that people quitting due to the toxic culture and their work getting dumped on the ones left.
My projects had no well-defined specifications or success criteria. Every time I got close to finishing, the scope changed again. It often felt like I was expected to deliver without anyone agreeing on what “done” actually meant.
I consistently asked for feedback because I wanted to improve. Instead, I rarely received direct technical guidance or constructive coaching. I was often left feeling dismissed rather than supported, and some interactions came across to me as intimidating rather than encouraging. That’s not an environment where interns can develop confidence or learn effectively.
Knowledge sharing was inconsistent, and collaboration often felt discouraged. Instead of engineers taking the time to explain design decisions or walk through their reasoning, conversations frequently ended with “that’s wrong” without explaining why. That teaches very little.
This wasn’t my first internship and I am doing my masters, so I have a basis for comparison. In my previous internship, I had clear mentorship, supportive technical leadership, and received two full-time offers after my final presentation. That experience showed me how much good leadership and a healthy engineering culture matter. Looking back , I regret turning down all my other offers for this.
The technology was exciting, but an internship is about more than the product. It’s about mentorship, accountability, communication, and helping the next generation of engineers succeed. Unfortunately, I did not experience those things here.
Hey everyone,
I’m an ECE student planning out some new portfolio projects. Not looking to form a formal team, just want to connect with people to brainstorm architectures, discuss hardware/firmware design, and bounce implementation ideas off each other.
My main focus areas right now:
Embedded Systems: Microcontrollers, automation, or EV-related tech applications.
Digital Logic / VLSI: Verilog/VHDL design and circuit simulation.
Software Integration: Combining hardware with C, Python, or Java.
If you’re working on something cool, trying to figure out a design layout, or just want to discuss how to take a project from theory to actual hardware, drop a comment or hit me up!
I'm a 24F who recently graduated with an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and currently live in Southern California.
I recently received an offer for a Level II RF Engineer position with an aerospace/defense company in the Greater Boston area. The offer is $100K, no sign-on bonus, with a small relocation package.
For the past year, I've been working as a contract engineering technician in the semiconductor industry making 40/hr (~83k/year). At the time it is difficult to transition into an Engineering role due to business needs.
The difficult part is that my partner and I have been together for three years, and we both currently live in Southern California. We both live with our parents and are able to save and invest a decent amount.
I'd be moving across the country by myself if I accepted the offer. On the other hand, SoCal is where I eventually hope to build my career, and I'm wondering if I should stay, continue searching for an engineering role here, and live at home in the meantime.
For those who have been in a similar situation, would you take the job and relocate for the experience, or stay in Southern California and keep searching for something local?
It's really a tough choice
I'm a student in an engineering school , I have to choose what field I will have to complete my study on it and I am really in tough choice between electric or computer science, I did a LOT of search and the two have advantage and disadvantage I will give a breif conclusion of all my search :
For computer science:
It a big market and it has a lot of flexibility but the problem is the entrance to that field shrink with the unknown economy that will come after the Ai hype , because the field will completly change after the Ai stabilize and the economy rebuild itself around it , and also it's getting saturated , there is a lot of competition, I don't mean I will not work on my self but I am afraid even my work will not pay off , it's just it will be a big heart breaking thing if I work really hard with a no guarantee if it will pay off
+ I really watch all the update on Ai in all the world from china and usa and its really going somewhere it's getting more efficient amd for a 5 years we can't know how economy change with that fast development of Ai
For electrical engineering:
It's a stable field with a LOT of branches, it's really big but the problem is the Morocco job market (am from Morocco for clarification) , it's small and even the intersting part like embedded systems are not existing for jonior, If it's not the market it will be a good choice , I was thinking to do electrical engineering and at the same time develop my self on computer science so I become hybrid, but am afraid that will make switching to computer science hard because I just learn it by my self .
I really don't have problem with any of these fields , so choose what I feel comfortable with isn't a solution for me
