On a day to day basis what does an electrical engineer do?

Hi Tyler,

What a great question, thank you for asking!

EE, like many careers, is very broad.  What an engineer does depends on the nature of the employer's business and the assigned role of the particular person.  Some jobs are people oriented, other jobs are not.  Some jobs involve working hands-on with circuits, other jobs just require writing software.  

Day-to-day work at a job in building construction or at the power company will be significantly different than day-to-day work at a company that uses micro-electronics to control machines, for example.

Many jobs are project-based.  Let's use an example of making a new product.  There will be a starting phase where engineers from all disciplines (not just the EEs) are involved in the planning and breaking the project down into components.  Then there is a development phase, an integration + testing phase (bringing components together) and, finally, there will be the phase to build a smaller quantity at the factory before full production (a pilot phase).

The day-to-day work is different throughout the phases, but if you ask any engineer, the most satisfying part is when testing the first prototype and it finally works for the first time.

Working with people is common in the earlier and later phases of product design, but there are also people-oriented jobs you can be hired for at the start of your career.  For example, an Application Engineer at a company that makes components will work in the Sales Department and will answer emails, take customer calls, etc. while also using the components herself to ensure she is knows them very well in order to be capable of answering customers' questions.

Whenever you interview for a position, it is important to ask what you will do on a day-to-day basis because it can vary significantly.  You would not want to assume it will be something you enjoy only to find out it is much different than you expected after you start.