Applying for Jobs - Better to have electrical over software engineering degree?

[Little Dragon]

So a little background information. I'm currently entering my 3rd year of school at the UofC and am majoring in software engineering.

I'm applying to various internships right now and have noticed a common trend among the "requirements" for positions that interest me. A lot of them list that students applying must currently be majoring in "electrical engineering".

For those of you in the industry, I am just wondering if this is a very strict requirement? I have called in and emailed some companies but were given vague explanations. Some said yes, some said no, others say doesn't matter as long as you have relevant experience.
I should add that I interned this past summer at an IT company that does SCADA systems for O&G companies, so I have some experience.

Right now, I can technically switch over to electrical quite easily (a few courses carry over) but I cringe at the thought of some of the electrical courses I have to take so I'd like some second opinions.

Would you recommend me to switch over to an electrical engineering degree over a software engineering degree?
Or does it not matter too much?

While I'm here, any companies that you all would recommend for a software guy like myself?
I have been compiling a list and want to make sure I don't miss out on any good companies to work for!

Thanks in advance!

-TL

[revelations]

if I had to choose, it would definitely be software. The market is huge for guys who can PROPERLY code C++, Java, etc.

If you prefer hands-on - electrical might be better however.

I used to work for a small mapping company and we had both degrees of people in the office...so thats my small sample group

[samo147]

I don't think people hiring would care too much what type of degree you have if you already have relevant experience.

Did you intern at telvent? They hire lots of comp and software engineers to do scada systems

I know a guy doing electrical engineering with a mechanical engg degree. It's all up to the guy doing the hiring

[XylathaneGTR]

For your internship, I don't think it really matters that much. Impress them and convince them you'll do a good job, and you're probably in. (ex. we had a civil intern in a straight up mech position at the company I interned with).
For the company I ended up working with, I didn't hold the exact degree requirements either, but I ended up working there anyway and stuck around part-time after my internship, eventually receiving an offer for full-time after graduation.

Career wise, I'm not really in a position to comment. It's probably worth stating that we have electricals, civils and mechies, biosystems engineers, etc. all doing the same type of work at the company I currently work for. Some of the people in this role hold MSc's as well.

[sabad66]

I'd say it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to work for a google/apple/microsoft type of company? Or do you want to stay in Calgary and work for an O&G company?

I think Electrical may open a FEW more doors in Calgary, but if you want to do s/w only without any focus on h/w then software will be a better bet.

In the end I wouldn't worry too much if you have the experience and the interviewer likes you.

[turbotrip]

if you want to work in oil and gas or stay in alberta, then Electrical is wayyyy better than Software

[sputnik]

If you wanted to be a programmer why did you get an Engineering degree?

I have been in the IT industry for 15+ years now and have yet to see any need for an engineer to stamp anything. I see tons of guys with pinkie rings, however none of them maintain their P.Eng designation.

At the end of the day it will come down to your experience and programming ability.

So unless you are actually wanting to physically design and build hardware, the title your university gives you will be pretty irrelevant in a year or two.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by turbotrip
if you want to work in oil and gas or stay in alberta, then Electrical is wayyyy better than Software

This.

Also, take into consideration WHO you are applying at. Large corporations are almost ALWAYS stricter on their application leniency when it comes to things like that.

In fact, their electronic systems probably toss your resume out before a human even sees it (if you want to actually call HR people humans vs wastes of skin) if you are applying for electrical engineering positions and don't have the words electrical engineer(ing) somewhere in your resume.

[Mibz]

But he's not applying for EE positions, he'll be applying for SE/dev/coding positions. I agree with Sputnik, but if you have to get a degree then I'd stick with SE.

I imagine you see a lot of EE requirements because SE is relatively new and a lot of the mega-nerds used to come out of EE. Or they've got a really old guy in charge who graduated from EE and thinks his education is still the best that money can buy.

[googe]

He didn't say he's applying for coding jobs. He said jobs he likes want EE.

So switch to EE.

If you want to write code, keep SE. Better yet, switch to CS. SE seems like the worst of both worlds. It's not really code and it's not really hardware, so you'll be a second class citizen on either side. No one considers software engineers to be real engineers, but they're allowed to get the goofy ring if they want.

To answer your question, job requirements are never strict, but it could affect the difficulty with which you get interviews when starting out.

[sillysod]

I say electrical because it is something that is going to be relevant and mostly unchanged 30 years down the road.

Software changes every year, for all you know in 30 years you can wipe your ass with that degree.

I don't know many software engineers and the ones I do know do OK, but not anywhere near as well as the electrical engineers I know.

[hampstor]

Two of my friends with SE degrees wish they had done an EE degree instead.

As new graduates, they found themselves often competing for jobs with the many CPSC graduates out there.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by Little Dragon

Would you recommend me to switch over to an electrical engineering degree over a software engineering degree?

Yes.

[Little Dragon]

Thanks for the advice all.
I'm still back and forth about it inside my own head. I have time to decide so I'm not in a big rush.

On one hand I like programming and all the courses I have seem to be interesting and maybe almost fun to me. I am genuinely excited to take them. However, I feel that most of the content in these courses can be easily learned on my free time through the internet or books. I don't think electrical would be as easy.

On the other hand, I realize the benefits to EE over SE in that it may open more doors. To be honest, the only thing stopping me is that some EE courses do not interest me at all, currently. I think I am just scared I will get rocked in the EE courses as they are quite difficult from what I have seen.
Some one told me "Bottom line is, electrical engineers can do what software engineers can do. But software engineers can't do what electrical engineers do."
Do most of you in the relevant fields agree with that statement?

Keep the comments coming.
They help me out a lot to see pros/cons of both sides.

[Xtrema]

EE

Coding is cheap. I can always offshore that shit.

Some one told me "Bottom line is, electrical engineers can do what software engineers can do. But software engineers can't do what electrical engineers do."

Bingo.

Especially if you want to progress to get your P.Eng. I don't think anyone would even care about P.Eng on a SE.

I think on valuation on P.Eng, the more people you can potentially injure or kill, the more the title is worth.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by Little Dragon

Some one told me "Bottom line is, electrical engineers can do what software engineers can do. But software engineers can't do what electrical engineers do."
Do most of you in the relevant fields agree with that statement?

Kinda, but not really. Depends what courses you take in EE. High voltage, low voltage, programming.. Whatever.

I think that's what people mean by that. A software engineer does not have those choices. You do.

It's not like an EE who took mostly power courses can program well like a software engineer can.

[Thomas Gabriel]

If you want to program switch to CPSC. EEs out of school don't know how to program unless they learned how on their own. SEs are ok but never learn the truly hard level programming that CPSC guys do. Instead they learn the higher level process of software development. A good software developer would really need skills from both degrees.

The other thing to consider is that if you want to work in O&G, the CE/MEs will probably be less douchey if you have EE over SE. And in O&G your programming skills won't matter anyways.

[googe]

The best advice is to pick what you enjoy doing. As far as employability goes, the difference between these two will be negligible in the long run, so don't even worry about it.

[Feruk]

Hands down Electrical Engineering. Computer engineering = barely a real engg degree.

[DRKM]

Originally posted by Little Dragon
Thanks for the advice all.
I'm still back and forth about it inside my own head. I have time to decide so I'm not in a big rush.

On one hand I like programming and all the courses I have seem to be interesting and maybe almost fun to me. I am genuinely excited to take them. However, I feel that most of the content in these courses can be easily learned on my free time through the internet or books. I don't think electrical would be as easy.

On the other hand, I realize the benefits to EE over SE in that it may open more doors. To be honest, the only thing stopping me is that some EE courses do not interest me at all, currently. I think I am just scared I will get rocked in the EE courses as they are quite difficult from what I have seen.
Some one told me "Bottom line is, electrical engineers can do what software engineers can do. But software engineers can't do what electrical engineers do."
Do most of you in the relevant fields agree with that statement?

Keep the comments coming.
They help me out a lot to see pros/cons of both sides.

I am coming kinda from the outside of this as a physicist doing embedded/firmware.

For those saying that EE's can do all that SE can do, it simply is not true.

Times have changed substantially and a large part of what used to be in the hands of the hardware guys is now being done in software. While languages may change the fundamentals such as data structuring and knowledge of design patterns will remain true.

Sure a lot of EE's can code in C and Assembly for relatively simple projects, but I always find that the code lacks scale-ability and maintainability.

Its fine when you have to toggle a few I/O's or some signal processing, but whenever there is a "business side" to maintain or any kind of real time complex system the lack of programming experience shows.

Not to mention, in low power applications understanding the architecture of the processor makes much more efficient processes.

(By no means am I saying that a EE can not program as well as a SE or anything like that)

Basically if you love programming, stick to programming. Going into EE will allow you to interact/design hardware, if that does not interest you then stick with SE.

Dont focus too much on getting a job right now, there are alot of positions all over for both EE's and SE's.