- Takeaways from "Where to from Here?" and New Hire Panel presentation
- The main takeaway from the "Where to from Here?" brochure was the distinction of the three sectors within the industry; Research Targeted at Electronics, Electronics in Support of Industries, and Industry Applied Electronics. There are clear trade-offs of different professional aspects, such as soft-skills, technical skills, collaboration, time spent in a lab, and time spent outside of the office. Each sector is defined by a number of these aspects, which allows the individual to choose a professional sector based on his or her desire for each aspect. The brochure also made a distinction to map different professional roles based on technical skills, which allows an individual to choose a professional role within a sector based on his or her aptitude for technical skills. These distinctions also help an individual set on a particular career path to define what fundamental skills are required for that path.
- The New Hire Panel presentation presented several takeaways about what skills would provide an individual with an advantage in the field of electrical engineering.
- The first skill is an aptitude for critical thinking with regard to design challenges; many of the presenters felt they they would have benefited from more experience with case study projects. This is a shortcoming of the classroom, an engineering curriculum can only provide a certain amount of project experience; it is necessary for the student to look outside the classroom for hobbiest or other guided projects to gain this experience.
- Many of the skills that would often be considered managerial, such as skills in communication, making design decisions for a group, managing cross-disciplinary design, and defining timescale and budget for a project, were considered important by many of the presenters. While these skills are necessary for a manager or an engineer hoping to be promoted to a managerial position, they are also beneficial for an engineer who wants to be able to manage themselves without requiring constant input from a manager.
- The last skill is an aptitude for fundamentals. Each presenter listed a strong foundation in their area of expertise, as a strong foundation to build on top of their education.