Let me ask you guys something about degree's in this field. I just finished my career diploma, non-degree ET program, but i did earn 18 credits. I am going to take those credits to a state college in my state. I am pretty sure I am going to take an AAS Electrical/mechanical systems and maintenance program. With CLEP tests, and other earned credits, plus my 18 ET credits I should only need around 20 more credits for that degree. My other option is to go get my ASAST which is Associate in science is applied science and technology. Kind of a weird name but that is what it is. Mind you this is a full state school so its fully accredited and has a good rep. Anyway what type of jobs can you get with an Associates in electronic engineering technology? What would i be looking at in terms of job opportunities and salary? I am in NJ by the way if that helps. Thanks for the help guys, as always I appreciate the help.

 

I don't know how far you want to go, but if you ever want to get into engineering, I would suggest you look at the AS degree in pre engineering or engineering science (AES). Many schools will allow transfer of credits into an engineering program, but you need to ask the right questions.

 

OK, thanks. I'm surprised no one else has anything to say.

 

Most companies want at least the equivalent of a B.S. degree for engineering jobs. An associate degree would likely be more suited to non-engineering technical work such as maintenance or installation of electronic systems or perhaps laboratory technician. I don't know what type of salary those jobs provide.

 

When I started in electronics in New Jersey during 1960 you did not need a degree to become an engineer. The associates degree was not a recognized degree at that time, but you could start as a tech and work your way up the ladder. Degreed engineers always made more money than non-degreed engineers because they have more mobility.
Now, engineers are plentiful because the number of electronics firms have decreased, immigrant engineers are plentiful and cheap, and a lot of engineering work is done offshore. Look at this site; most of the questions come from offshore. If you want to become an electrical engineer assume that you will need a BSEE, and furthermore, your GPA will have to be excellent to get a good job. Companies will lobby congress for more immigrant engineers before they pay US citizens a living wage.
Consider this:silver has increased by a ratio of 32/1.29 or 24.8/1, that means that a graduate today should get 24.8 times the $9000/year I got. How many new grads are getting $223,000 today?
Sorry for the rant, but I thought that you might want the big picture.

 

You can look for maintenance management job or project management i guess.. A.S is a little less from engineering but you can't opt for engineering department right away.

 

Well that was enlightening. Interesting discussion. I am stuck between going for my AAS degree in Electrical/mechanical systems and maintenance or the above degree. I kinda want to work on factory or manufacturing plant equipment which is more suited for the Electrical/mechanical systems and maintenance degree. I just thought I'd ask about the Engineering degree. Oh i have one other question that I don't get. My school, a state school by the way, the degrees they offer are Electronics engineering technology degrees. What is the difference between that and a Electronics engineer degree? Is it just another way of saying engineering degree or its completely different? Thanks again guys for all the info, appreciate it much.

 

The Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) degree is different than the Electrical Enginering (EE) degree. In general the EET focuses on more practical skills than EE. In particular the EET degree tends to have less math courses, and may skip or abreviate advanced electromagnetics courses.

There is some bias in some places against the EET in favor of the EE degree. But not always. I've worked with plenty of both and I can tell you this ... a good engineer is a good engineer, makes no difference where he graduated from or which program he took. I worked at a large defense contractor that designed missle systems. In the EE group of 60 engineers we had an almost even split of 50% EE's and 50% EET's. You could not tell what degree people had from the work they did.

BUT, if you plan on getting an advanced degree (MS or PhD) or want to work in research, you need the EE.

 

Thanks JMac3108, appreciate the info. Now I know the distinction.

 

When I started in electronics in New Jersey during 1960 you did not need a degree to become an engineer. The associates degree was not a recognized degree at that time, but you could start as a tech and work your way up the ladder. Degreed engineers always made more money than non-degreed engineers because they have more mobility.
Now, engineers are plentiful because the number of electronics firms have decreased, immigrant engineers are plentiful and cheap, and a lot of engineering work is done offshore. Look at this site; most of the questions come from offshore. If you want to become an electrical engineer assume that you will need a BSEE, and furthermore, your GPA will have to be excellent to get a good job. Companies will lobby congress for more immigrant engineers before they pay US citizens a living wage.
Consider this:silver has increased by a ratio of 32/1.29 or 24.8/1, that means that a graduate today should get 24.8 times the $9000/year I got. How many new grads are getting $223,000 today?
Sorry for the rant, but I thought that you might want the big picture.

But how about a big picture that use the distorted Fun House glass?

The company I worked for hired a number of Hi-B visa engineers and it most certainly wasn't because they were in any way cheap. Each time, we went through the process because we couldn't find any U.S. citizens that we were willing to hire (based on their clear lack of competence). Now, we were a small company and when we had a position it was for someone that could start working within a month, not at the end of the school year, so our candidate pool was pretty well culled over by the time we got to them. None-the-less, when a good fraction of your engineering applicants can't design a simple resistive voltage ladder, good things aren't being thought about the quality of what is being turned out these days. So, to hire a foreign engineer via an H1-B, we had to fill out tons of paper work, pay tons of fees (a few thousand dollars each time) and prove that we had exhausted our options to hire a U.S. citizen. Then we were required to pay the foreign person we hired at least the market rate in our area for that job position and we had to post the salary survey prominantly in the workplace. We could pay a U.S. citizen less and that would have been perfectly legal, but not a foreign worker and that was specifically to make it more expensive to hire a foreign worker over a U.S. citizen. Then, on top of that, we had to show ongoing efforts to find and hire a U.S. citizen and were required to rreplace the foreign worker with the first U.S. citizen that met the minimum standards required by the job postings (including adequate performance on the interview) even if the foreign worker was significantly better qualified and we were completely satisfied with their work. We ended up spending a considerable amount of time running ads and conducting interviews and documenting why each person was not acceptable when, in reality, we were quite satisified with the set of employees we had and didn't have any desire to bring anyone else in (and didn't have the work for another person) because we had an amazingly rare group of engineers that got along very well.

And using the exaggerated, and almost certainly temporary, runnup in a particular outlier commodity like silver as your basis for determining what a comparable salary would be is more than a bit disingenuous, don't you think? Use the price of gasoline, instead, and you would get a much smaller number since gasoline has done a lousy job of keeping up with inflation over the long run.

In Jan 1960 the Consumer Price Index was 29.3 and in Nov 2012 it was 230.221. So $9000 in 1960 would by about the same as $70,700 today. While, around here (which has a much lower cost of living than NJ, but I don't know about 1960 NJ) that is on the high end of job offers for new grads, it is certainly far from unheard of.

 

Thanks guys, I think I'm gonna stick to my original plan to go for my AAS is Electrical/mechanical systems and maintenance. I just don't feel like dealing with the math in the engineering program. College algebra is just something I don't feel like tangling with. Thanks for all the help.

 

Hmmm ... I think your AAS program will probably require something equivalent to college algebra. You need it to be able to do anything beyond the most basic of electronics.

Its calculus and differential equations that the engineering program adds.

 

The AAS degree that I described just says "college math" required. Its a lesser math than the in the "Engineering technology" which says "college algebra or above".
And Calculus just scares the hell out of me. Man that stuff looks like gibberish! Engineers deserve every dollar they make. That is crazy stuff to go through.

 

Nah ... calculus is no big deal . Its just the way its usually taught that puts people off. It's just a way of solving problems that can't be solved with algebra.

Good luck in whatever program you choose.

Once piece of advice though. No matter what degree you get or what job you end up in, learn to program. The lines between hardware and software are so blurred these days. You really limit yourself if you can't write software at all. If your degree program doesn't cover it, buy yourself a cheap micro-controller development kit (I'd suggest MSP430 or PIC) and learn to program it in C.

 

Thanks for the info. It just seems like too much for me. I wish I could get through it, but I'm not gonna get into it. I'm gonna stick with the degree that only requires College mathematics. Maintenance mechanics make good money.

 

Thanks for the info. It just seems like too much for me. I wish I could get through it, but I'm not gonna get into it. I'm gonna stick with the degree that only requires College mathematics. Maintenance mechanics make good money.

Hi.Both the Electronics Tech and the Maintenance degree's are 60 credit programs. I don't know which courses you have completed so far but I would assume an associates program in either field would deal with motors and the basics of electronics. Both subjects are pretty abstract. If you can complete those core subjects i think it would be a disservice not to go for the algebra course.

 

Yeah I'm not sure exactly what to do I just know I want to do something. Its always hard I guess figuring out what program to take. Thanks for the info.