Computer engineering career

[stranger706]

Anybody in this field? I'm going back to school in the spring and have been considering a computer engineering degree. I've been an aircraft mechanic for the past 9 years and about fed up with that industry.

From my research it appears to be a good paying career and demand over the next 10 years is projected to be high.

I would love to hear any input from people working in this field.

 

[stockrex]

focus on some niche area,

 

[cat843]

I have been involved with mainframe computers since 1976. I have almost always been on the system side not the application side. Many (most) companies do their application work in India so I would stay away from application programming. If there are certifications in the area that you want to go into, work on getting certified.

 

[millerbl00]

I disagree with the previous post. I have been doing IT Tech for 25 years. Tech is over. Go into programming.

 

[MolaKule]

I have worked with many computer engineers and they usually do programming and systems engineering.

Here is a flowchart and the courses you will be taking,

http://www.ece.iastate.edu/files/2011/08/2009-11-computer-engineering-flowchart.pdf

and the overall program:

http://www.ece.iastate.edu/academics/courses/

I applaud your wanting to get more education.

 

[AlaskaMike]

System administration (Windows, Unix, etc) and Network administration (Cisco, Juniper, etc) are probably the two big areas where there's always demand. Every organization has servers and IP networks.

Other areas/technologies that are good: Storage (SAN, NAS, iSCSI), Virtualization (VMware, MS HyperV). Virtualization is one that seems to be particularly hot at the moment. A good VM admin will require a solid System Admin background.

 

[javacontour]

The concerns about outsourcing are real in this industry. There are many who will take your "done on a keyboard" job and send it to Bangalore.

Not saying you can't find good jobs in the industry. I think many smaller shops will stay here for a while longer as well as government/military data centers are unlikely to be sent overseas.

It's not doom and gloom, but it is something to consider when entering the field.

 

[KGMtech]

If you take a long-term view, spend some time considering what jobs have the potential to be out-sourced to low cost nations.

Then think about what can't:
-Plumber
-Carpenter
-Electrician
-Welder
-Bricklayer
-Truck Driver
-Politician

That last one might be tough to swallow...only consider if you are really, really egotistical and would be willing to give yourself a lobotomy first.

 

[stockrex]

india experience:
ask someone at hallmark cards in Kansas city, if they will every try to do dev in india again?
co I worked for bought a 16 story building in Bangalore, hired 400 plus engineers a month, hired couple of hundred Certification analyst,
their logic, they can so software dev in India at 1/10 the cost.
Well, in the first 11 months, the hundreds of people in India ran less than a dozen test scripts

back on topic,
if you learn mumps and get some experience you can make $90k
you can get aix/unix certified and manage servers database, $100k
but the problem is job security and finding a job,
most of these opening are limited

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Computer engineering seems to sound like making the circuit boards, etc go ... that's a bit specific and may not find you a good job.

 

[opus1]

I have to go with the "expect your IT job to go to Bangalore" crowd. I was in IT for 25 years. Too many upper-management types see the cost-savings in going to India despite the pitfalls. In fact, the last job that I was a bona-fide IT professional, our company's Help Desk went to India first, going from Help Desk to Helpless Desk. Complaints were many, and upper management said "that's the way it's going to be so learn to live with it." Eventually my Systems-DBA job went to India as well.

 

[Dave Hess]

javacontour,

After hours tech support for our patient monitoring / telemetry systems is in India. They are very professional and knowledgable but I can barely understand Vinesh give me tech support.

The OP needs a job the can't be outsourced. What is so bad about aircraft maintenance ?

 

[javacontour]

There is a reason I still touch the hardware.

In a former life, I taught Java, Solaris, Networking, etc for Sun. Now, most get trained on-line. There are few instructor lead training opportunities.

Moved over to be a Systems Support Engineer, installing and maintaining for Sun/Oracle.

We'll see how the Cloud pans out. Not sure how many are willing to let go of their data. It's one thing to have your help/administrators offshore. It's another to host your enterprise in someone's data center.

 

[javacontour]

Some are. I realize it's a gross generalization, but many are unwilling to admit they don't know what they are doing.

I have a customer who spent hundreds of thousands to migrate data to new storage only to have an off-shore administrator wipe ALL the data. So restart from scratch on that data migration.

I understand the rationale behind not admitting you don't know. There are a billion people (almost literally) in line for your job if you can't do it.

But managers who make the choice don't consider this. They are sold on how knowledgeable they are. Except, not all are.

Not saying a local cowboy on the keyboard couldn't do the same thing. But it seems you have a little more recourse and more oversight into the situation.

I'm am no longer shocked by how companies put their key information in the hands of those with dubious skills to manage it, be they local or off-shore people.

Seems with the off-shore service provider, there is a contract and it's harder to get out. If you have a local idiot, they can be fired or reassigned to a safe place until you can get them out. But few if any care about my experiences. I just document, document, document. That way, if they try to blame me because they lost their data, I can show them the e-mail where I advised against their course of action, or tried to warn them so-and-so didn't know what they were doing, etc.

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
javacontour,

After hours tech support for out patient monitoring / telemetry systems is in India. They are very professional and knowledgable but I can barely understand Vinesh give me tech support.

The OP needs a job the can't be outsourced.

 

[cptbarkey]

I have done quite well in IT without a degree. Why wait?

 

[OneEyeJack]

There's big money in fixing applications programmed in India especially if you know how to spell and can speak English.

 

[stranger706]

I know what outsourcing feels like, I was laid off in June from my aviation job because we lost a huge airline contract to South America. Myself and 100 other guys were laid off with no warning. Management even told us "we can't compete with their wages". I've been working temp jobs out of state and that got old quick with a family at home. Not worth the money or my health. Wife has a good career going here at home and all our family and friends are here. So I moved home and decided to change careers.

Anyways, I was looking to go into the computer side of the banking industry. There is an enormous banking complex going up here that will need 5000 additional workers over the next 5 years and I was hoping to be part of that.

 

[raytseng]

You cannot just get into computers and be just because you decide to do it and it looks good.

You need to have some natural logical thinking and see if this new career will fits your natural talents. Think Neo in the Matrix.
This doesn't mean you can't do it by sheer will and brute force; however the less natural fit you have, the more it will be torture to you. Especially if you're late in the game.
Even the people who are naturally good at it, sometimes feel jobs in this field are frustrating and torture.

I would say go do an online course (find a free one) to get an idea of what it entails, and see if it is something really like and/or are good at. If you can't even sit down for a couple hours to make it through an online course, then you know it's not right for you.
If on the other hand you get super jazzed and it all makes sense and you want to learn more then go for it.
This becomes semantics of what the term means.
Typically Computer Engineering in the official degree means you can engineer/architect and build computer.
This is a DEEP field, meaning you need a deep set of coursework through before you can produce something useful in the workforce. Obviously, one can't just design the next generation of computers without knowing how all of it works.
(Exception for Computer Software engineers which can bootstrap to the latest things much more quickly).

However, if the term is more related to the associates or trade degree for system adminstration or IT type work that takes care or puts together computer and computer related things, but doesn't actually design or create a new thing; then this is just a series of courses/certifications at community/junior colleges.

 

[MolaKule]

Quote:
Typically Computer Engineering in the official degree means you can engineer/architect and build computer.


Which is why I mentioned Systems Engineering above.

Many Computer Engineers find employment as Systems Engineers working in the avionics field developing Navigation and Communications systems.

 

[Kool1]

I've dealt with numerous aircraft mechanics and all of them have been guys who work hard and are very detail oriented. I understand that leaving a tool in an aircraft after a job is finished can lead to devastating consequences. The quality of a repair to an aircraft must be proper. I'm sure you will be well respected in any industry once people hear that you were an aircraft mechanic.