Electronic engineering or software development?

bwhite

Hi. I'm unemployed 28 years old and have decided to go back to full time education. I'm doing a home study electronic engineering course with city and guilds and I've 2 thirds of it done. It's starting to get difficult at this stage. I'm hearing from a lot of sources that electronic engineering has a huge workload in college and it's more difficult than most courses. Has anyone any feedback on how true this? Would it have a much larger workload as say computer applications or something in that field? I know I can't be sure on what I'd like or be able for but I obviously wouldn't like to waste a year doing something that might be too tough to handle. Has anyone got any advice for me? I got about 300 points in my leaving cert and an A2 in pass maths. Any help would be appreciated.

InvisibleBadger

Hi, I'm a mature student in 3rd year Electronic Engineering. I can confirm that the workload is pretty big and that the first two years are very maths intensive.
Some points:

Have you tried any programming? Some people love it whilst others despise it.

Some IT(information technology) courses don't have to do maths that is as hard as the engineering courses, but some unis have support centres for maths that will help you out if you decide to go for engineering.

You may be able to swap to IT from Engineering if it you feel you would be prefer IT.

Maybe try undenominated engineering, which would allow you to make your mind up after 1st year.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, and definitely contact the department you are thinking of applying to, and query them on your dilemma, they can give you a far better idea of your options.
Good luck, it's tough going at times, but hopefully it should pay off.

biZrb

I got an A2 in pass Maths in my LC and I have an Computer Engineering degree. But I really like Maths, so I always enjoyed my 3 hour Maths lectures!

I think you should be capable to do an Engineering degree with your level of maths, it might just be hard at first, trying to remember how to do integration and such.

The workload is heavy, theres a lot of hours of lectures and labs, plus the time spent on lab assignments and study on top of that.

Electronics can be though, but I did a diploma in Computer and Electronic Engineering, and that was a good balance between computer/IT/programming/electronics stuff to keep me interested and some parts were easier than others, so the workload could be spread out a bit.

The option of doing undenominated engineering is a good one as it'll give you an idea of what you like and what you don't like.

ishvalian

Hi, I completed a 4 year EE degree in DCU and to be honest is was tough going at times but nothing that couldn't be overcome by a bit of hard work.

To give a rough idea of my experience, The First two years were not too bad, there is a lot of coursework (Lectures, Labs and assignments) to get through but it is not all that difficult, just requires some persistance to get through it (i still had time for a bit of socialising etc..). 3rd year was difficult as coursework was compressed into 1 1/2 semesters instead of 2 due to work experience although i think the work experience works differently now. There was a lot of work in 4th year, but this is probably true of most courses in one way or another. Don't expect to socialise much in 4th regardless of what course you choose.

I would give a rough estimate of about 45-50 hours a week including all assignments and labwork without independent study. You then have 4-6 weeks a year of intense cramming before exams.

I don't think the workload is that much different between software courses and engineering courses. I think there is just a wider variation in subjects in engineering which requires a broader knowledge base. For example, if you are good at maths and programming, you will get on well at Software, and reasonbly ok at Engineering. In the case of engineering though, you will also benefit from having some experience with Physics and some Chemistry but they are not requirements by any means.

As corny as it sounds, it comes down to what you want to do once you finish, do you want to be an Engineer or a software developer?

As for Maths, If you don't like maths, don't do engineering. If you are just weak at maths, then you can, with a bit of work, understand most of the maths in an undergrad engineering course. Calculus, trigonometry, probability, vectors, matrices, complex numbers and probably a bunch more i have forgotten are all required.

I'm not sure about the maths requirements for the likes of CA, i know there is quite a bit of it but i'm not sure what type of maths is required tbh.

Also, i thought i would point out that there are other Engineering Degree's other than pure Electronic Engineering that you could look at. Digital Media Engineering and Telecommunications Engineering are two that spring to mind. They have a lot of subjects in Common with Electronic Engineering especially in the first 2 year but are more directed towards their namesake in years 3 & 4.

smilerxxx

Hi there,

I am a 27 year old girl and when I left school I went to an institute of technology and entered the national cert in electronic and computer engineering. It was math's intensive and programming intensive but I loved maths so I absolutely loved the course. I got a merit grade 1 and sailed into 3rd year.

I went on to the Diploma in Electronic Engineering, it would be classed as Level 7 degree now. The tone changed and became more Math based but just as enjoyable. I have to mirror the previous posters, we had at least 40 hours scheduled on our timetable, and this didn't include any time for assignments or extra study. If I remember correctly we had a 2 hour slot to work on our projects but obviously you would spend more time outside your timetable on that. I worked as an eng tech for 2 years but being the girly girl I am it wasn't for me. So I'm now back at uni studying for a degree in nursing.

I didn't do honours maths in my leaving cert, but I did love maths so i feel this is the key.

I hope this has helped you a bit. If the blonde girly girl can manage it :D I bet you can too.