Most electrical engineers, like most workers in other professions, make modest impacts on the world. An engineer might be one of the thousands who work for a computer maker, auto companies, or satellite developer. But these team members all contribute to larger goals, bringing the resources of the Internet to millions, saving lives with vehicle safety systems, making it possible to explore life on other planets, or simply getting more TV channels into the home.
Jobs in the field are extremely varied. Though the designer of a new microprocessor for next generation PCs and the designer of the control module for a Navy radar system both have degrees in electrical engineering, their jobs are fairly dissimilar. To understand what electrical engineers do, perhaps it's easiest to first explain what they don't do.
Other types of engineers work in vastly different realms. Civil engineers, for example, design bridges, roads and some structures. Mechanical engineers design physical products, from the plastic body of a cell phone to an auto body to the factory equipment that makes locomotive engines and train cars.
What It's Not
Many people think that electrical engineers are involved in software, but that's not their primary role. They do typically design the hardware; the semiconductors, circuit boards and systems, that run the software. Software specialists, who often graduate with computer science degrees, write the programs that run on that hardware. The insides of an X-box are an example of hardware that would be designed by an electrical engineer, while the games themselves are written by software specialists. That said, hardware and software are so intertwined that workers in both fields have to understand the basics of the other, even though they won't usually get involved in the more complex aspects of the other discipline.
Another common misconception is that electric and electronic are identical. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but there are differences. Electrical engineers deal with high voltages and large systems, like routing power from generators out to homes and businesses. Some electrical engineers deal with huge equipment that requires further heavy equipment to move and install. Much of an electrical engineer's job is designing systems that provide electrical power, such as the power distribution scheme in a train station or airport.
In contrast, electronic engineers often work with very small components and subsystems that fit inside cell phones, CD players and computers. Electronics is a subset of the electrical field, using the controlled flow of electrons to accomplish a task such as solving an equation or sending voice patterns from one spot to another.
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