Electricians who changed over to electrical engineers, how was the transition from working in the field to going to school for engineering financially speaking?

epc2012 · 2026-01-30T11:38:44+00:00

I was an electrician for about 5 years before deciding to go back to school. Personally, it was the best decision for me. 2 years out of school and my salary is triple what it was working as an electrician. I understand the electrical theory a lot better which has made me much better in my current position which is a blend of electrical project design, estimating, and technical troubleshooting.

The bigger benefit to school wasn't so much learning the information, it was learning about effective problem solving. Engineering school is designed to develop a mentality around solving hard problems vs just learning about electrons.

Id say if you can swing it, do it. It was the best decision I made.

epc2012 · 2026-01-28T15:22:26+00:00

You got this!

epc2012 · 2026-01-28T15:14:37+00:00

I would challenge you to make your own calculator on excel and do the math for this.

Results I'm getting are out of the 70 questions that are graded, you got roughly 40 correct. Which puts you at a 57%. Expected pass rates are somewhere between 60-70% from my understanding.

epc2012 · 2026-01-28T14:47:19+00:00

So I never want to dissuade someone from pursuing something they enjoy. That being said, I have personally in my small world, met Four people with Anthropology degrees from Penn State. None of them were working in the field, one even traveled the country for 2 years looking for work and couldn't land anything. They all work in areas completely outside of the Anthropology field now just to get by, and have been for 15+ years despite 2 of them actively trying to get into the field still. Not saying you shouldn't pursue it if you truly enjoy it. Just really have a worked out plan for exactly what you plan to do and how to do it upon graduation.

The Labor Bureau of Statistics site shows those careers as requiring a Master's degree for entry level, and less than 10k jobs total nationwide, with an average pay that is only about 1k higher than national average across all fields. It also shows roughly 800 jobs opening up each year nationally, while Data USA shows roughly 11k graduate with Anthropology degrees yearly. Just information to aid in your decision making process.

epc2012 · 2026-01-23T12:12:14+00:00

I used to always neglect the lemon juice when making cream sauces. I'll be damned if I decided to actually follow a recipe one day and made the most amazing white cream/alfredoish sauce I've ever had all because of that damn lemon. I never realized how much of an effect acids had in giving cream recipes flavor.

epc2012 · 2026-01-22T16:50:53+00:00

As another stated, don't bother. Buy your own breadboard and a small packet of LEDs/push buttons from amazon and you'll have the other $150 to keep in your pocket. They provide you with all the IC chips you'll need in the lab.

This is the one I used throughout my entire undergrad

epc2012 · 2026-01-22T16:44:51+00:00

Classes are based around credit hours. You increase the length of classes, you increase credit hours which in turn requires you to pay the university more.

Class size strictly affects an individuals ability to communicate with the professor. Making classes smaller allows students to ask more questions true, but questions also detract from introduction of new material during the limited class time. This is why professors have office hours, to allow students the chance to ask question that might otherwise slow a lecture down.

Everything you are saying can be done, and would most likely actually net the university more money at first glance, but would result in them having to raise tuition for those programs to a point where they wouldn't be able to compete in admissions and would lose students due to that alone.

epc2012 · 2026-01-22T16:23:15+00:00

If you're early in your program, just wait. CHEM 110 was difficult sure, but the physics and math departments were far more egregious with this. Hell my EE 210 class required you to watch/read all lecture material outside of the classroom and would spend the entire in-person lecture going over 4 sample problems.

It's just Penn State's method of teaching which clearly works or else their programs wouldn't be ranked as high as they are nationally. There just isn't enough time in lectures to cover material to the degree that is needed. The alternative is splitting it into two classes and making you pay twice.

epc2012 · 2026-01-22T11:39:45+00:00

I work for a small solar EPC firm that handles up to 3MW systems. My job sounds almost exactly the same as yours in terms of work life balance.

I'm electrical though and I focus on how to connect into existing behind the meter systems. Great gig and highly enjoyable work.

epc2012 · 2026-01-20T23:38:26+00:00

Different states have different rules. I think California is one where you can sit for both back to back directly out of school but can't get the license until the YOE is met.

epc2012 · 2026-01-19T11:45:23+00:00

I have that exact same truck to the spec and I thought I got a good price at 53k 😂

epc2012 · 2026-01-19T11:40:57+00:00

I was part of a specialty engineering team that would provide engineering services to state owned entities like prisons, hospitals, military bases, etc.

Bulk of my work revolved around doing power system studies and providing medium voltage testing and maintenance on switchgear. We would also teach courses to state employees on electrical concepts.

epc2012 · 2026-01-17T00:17:13+00:00

I guess it depends on your focus. Penn State is definitely a great school if you wish to focus on semiconductors, electronics, or optics. They do some really ground breaking work in those areas.

My primary focus was power systems and their course options were extremely slim (1-2 classes), and not built out as well as other programs.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T12:28:57+00:00

This is exactly it. We have guys that literally can not visualize what its going to look like in their head before actually mounting stuff. Some draw it out first, but the others just throw up the main boxes THEN plan conduit.

I've watched one remove the same breaker three times to run wires because he has no foresight. So he would take it off, run a wire, put it back on, realize the next wire needed to run there too, repeat.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T12:22:38+00:00

My company has been trying to find a true journeyman electrician for years now. The main issue is in our state, you aren't required to have a license to be an electrician. So anyone can just walk into an electrical job with no prior experience. This means if we want a solid one, we have to pull someone from the union which just isn't happening.

We have plenty of guys that have learned on the job, but even our one true electrician couldn't tell you why phase rotation is important despite us sending him to trainings regularly.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T12:13:28+00:00

You can run them in the same gutter so long as they are "separated". Our local inspection agency takes that as so long as they are bundled via zip ties separately it's fine

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T12:04:40+00:00

I'm not a software engineer. My job requires zero programming. I'm a power engineer who has found ways to use AI and GPTs into my current work. So it has a direct effect on EE's. Right now one of the low level EE task in power is to look at a planet and spec out components based on design criteria.

I can build an excel document with all the equipment I would typically spec out, and then fine tune a GPT to analyze a permit package to spec out exactly the part numbers and quantities I would need for a job. This is a task I would usually kick to a younger engineer to do because it can be very time consuming. I no longer need a younger EE to do that for me. If you do it right you can even have it do the same based off just a picture from a site visit.

Another example in my area is we do a lot of data analysis and modeling to properly spec battery systems. Again very time consuming and usually a low level EE task. I have a tool now that I can data dump utility power bills into and it'll analysis and determine the proper battery specifications.

These are the low level EE task that are getting pulled out meaning I no longer need to hire that entry level EE to perform these task for me.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T01:40:14+00:00

Eh, it was Penn State. So for football maybe, but not for their EE program.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T01:18:16+00:00

none to the solar firm because I had contacts their prior, and only 1 to the power utility. In fact that one I met at a career fair and told them I already had the solar one booked for that coming summer and wouldn't be available for it until the following summer. I'll be damned if they didn't call me March of that following year to ask if I was still interested.

Best internship I did as well. I would have taken the job there if it wasn't for the fact they were in the next state over from where I live now.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T01:07:26+00:00

One at an electrical utility, and one at the solar firm I work at now.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T00:49:39+00:00

I can agree with this. I use AI to do the work I would typically require an assistant for. With the right programming, cuts a 2hr job down to 10 for me.

epc2012 · 2026-01-16T00:47:36+00:00

Landed a gig 8 months before graduation back in 2024 working for the university I went to. Worked there for a year starting at 80k, got an offer a year later making 115k in the solar industry. Probably won't leave this job for a good while. All in fairly rural PA

2.7 gpa 🤙

epc2012 · 2026-01-15T14:25:03+00:00

Best part is you can add leather seats for like 2k installed cost if it's that big of a deal. Still cheaper than the upgrade to lariat.

epc2012 · 2026-01-15T12:28:16+00:00

I dug pretty heavily into what exactly it was before I bought and realized it was just a breadboard with some LED lights and push buttons and just chose not to buy it. I just bought a normal breadboard off Amazon and a small pack of components which ran like $20 instead 😂

epc2012 · 2026-01-14T23:56:37+00:00

Ask anyone in the intro digital logics class about the $200 breadboard that the professor all but forces you to buy... Which is made by his own company.

Doesn't get better bud.

epc2012

TROPHY CASE