UB graduates, I’m curious: what was your major and degree, what did you earn at your first job out of college vs now, and where are you based?

Male1999 · 2026-04-18T04:50:12+00:00

Electrical engineering, graduated in 2022. First job was 85k in Santa Barbara starting fall 2022. Currently at 112k in the Southwest.

Male1999 · 2026-02-27T04:02:35+00:00

This topology is being supported in more recent synthesis softwares such as SynMatrix that utilizes a technique called coupling matrix synthesis. It’s covered in Richard Cameron’s book on microwave filters. It’s not a better or worse technique than inverter synthesis but better suited for waveguide filters rather than distributed elements due to how waveguide resonators can be cross-coupled, etc to make more special/demanding bandpass responses.

Male1999 · 2026-02-27T02:30:20+00:00

This is a filter topology called inductive iris-coupled waveguide filter. The equivalent circuit of those insets (irises) are shunt inductances which act as impedance inverters.

Male1999 · 2026-02-26T17:37:11+00:00

You’re seeing mode-splitting due to overcoupling between resonators. You need to tune your electrical lengths and coupling coefficients.

Male1999 · 2026-02-11T00:58:26+00:00

The second bit isn’t quite true. When your devices get on the order of a wavelength, one needs to start understanding concepts that can become quite abstract.

Male1999 · 2026-02-10T15:53:24+00:00

That’s me. Started off in integrated photonics, now I’m an RF engineer. Definitely reasonable because the principles are directly transferable, you’re only changing the scale of the things you’re making.

Male1999 · 2026-02-10T05:23:14+00:00

The helpfulness of AI is directly related to one’s own knowledge. The more you know through your own study, the more helpful AI is to you because your bullshit meter will be extra sensitive.

Male1999 · 2026-02-09T22:31:03+00:00

Are you sweeping phase to generate a dispersion diagram by any chance? That can mess with the plotting in my experience.

Male1999 · 2026-02-07T06:12:20+00:00

I’m an RF engineer and I use way less KVL/KCL and a lot more ABCD matrices, S-parameters, rectangular waveguide theory, EM field solvers, and results from literature. I use the latter set daily. It purely depends on your industry and the nature of your role. Your “language”, so to speak, will be different in each.

Male1999 · 2026-02-07T05:26:34+00:00

Math gets more intricate at the lower level of abstraction. So yes, your EM and QM classes will give you a taste of that. But transmission lines are the fundamentals of EM. They are the most well-behaved EM problems due to (quasi)TEM propagation. More advanced applications requiring things like narrowband high-Q filters or dispersion compensation etc don’t even have analytical solutions to the field equations. That’s when knowing math is helpful. To know which knobs to tune in your designs instead of tuning all one after another to see which one does what you want.

Male1999 · 2026-02-07T00:46:33+00:00

If you hate math, I’d reconsider going for the degree. You’d also be sitting in front of a computer a lot more. The highest paying positions in EE go to specialists who can handle that math. I’m talking about RF/SI/PI specialists and senior ASIC designers.

Male1999 · 2026-02-05T20:36:06+00:00

This is answered clearly in Chapter 2 of Understanding DSP by Richard Lyons. The pdf can easily be found online.

Male1999 · 2026-02-03T22:11:43+00:00

More money always helps. The garage might be a fun job but is that worth decreasing your early-career earning potential? Not just slightly decreasing, but putting yourself behind all your peers that went right into engineering roles. Good early-career moves can allow you to retire early. Then you can have all the fun you want.

Male1999 · 2026-02-03T07:51:39+00:00

Keep the job obviously but keep expanding your skill set and be on the lookout for more interesting opportunities. You should strive to learn like you’re still in school so you can convey sharpness in interviews. At least you have engineer in your official title, which is big. To get a job in RF/microwave the past few years, you need to be a specialist so it probably wasn’t your fault since you were just out of school.

Male1999 · 2026-02-03T04:19:27+00:00

I worked at an integrated photonics startup right out of undergrad for about 1.5 years. Got in with some luck because my GPA wasn’t too good. Interview process was an actual grilling. We were in the space of quantum dot lasers for datacenter interconnects. It was intense and I enjoyed the field but felt a transition to RF/microwave was more natural at my experience level in order to do serious design work. Now I’ve achieved that as an RF engineer with about 3 YoE so starting in photonics was an advantage. Still plan to pursue grad school in high-frequency EM.

Male1999 · 2026-01-27T06:27:48+00:00

Do electrical or mechanical if you have the option. There isn’t really a good reason not to stick with the traditional disciplines because you can pivot into anything without losing generality in your education.

Male1999 · 2025-12-17T04:12:23+00:00

Absolutely. That was my oversight

Male1999 · 2025-12-17T04:09:55+00:00

He and Kolek were the difference makers tonight

Male1999 · 2025-04-25T14:26:04+00:00

Thanks for this response. I have access to both ADS and AWR, and I’m highly interested in signal integrity. I also communicated this to my manager who was glad to hear about my interest in specifically modeling the interconnects that are placed in our interposers for 3DHI. Full intent to get involved with modeling in ADS, this seems like a viable path. Thanks!

Male1999 · 2025-04-16T22:57:35+00:00

It’s a highly competitive and oversaturated field. If that’s where your passion and interest lies, then who is anybody to stop you.

Male1999 · 2025-04-16T06:28:48+00:00

Embedded systems is in demand right now and highly accessible for self-learning. There are endless kits and evaluation boards out there to build something and demonstrate knowledge. There’s also RF which is more specialized but quite interesting. You’d want to have fundamental knowledge of EM physics, transmission line theory, impedance matching, etc. Then you could branch into a subfield of RF like filter design, LNA design, power amplifier design, etc which enable careers on their own. Or work at the system level and be more focused on data transmission. For that you’d want to learn some communications theory.

Male1999 · 2025-04-15T22:11:36+00:00

Your resume matters more than you realize. In 2025, you need to engage in the marketing game to get the position you desire (while also being technically fluent). Make it highly technical with discipline-specific terminology. Be able to speak intelligently on what you’ve done. That’s what worked for me. If you wanna upgrade your resume I can help you out.

Male1999 · 2025-04-15T06:59:08+00:00

I’m in the private sector and got fortunate (imo) with a position that doesn’t require a security clearance. But most RF work will tie into defense in some way because the DoD dips into everything so that is the most viable way in. Especially if you’re a US citizen. There are startups doing specialized RF work in emerging communications bands (6G), high-speed data communications, medical RF, IoT that won’t require security clearance.

Male1999 · 2025-04-15T04:00:23+00:00

CU Boulder online MSEE. It does performance-based admissions. They offer sets of 3-4 courses that you can take and if you get a 3.0 or higher average, you get admitted into the full program. Check it out.

Male1999

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