I am gonna graduate in may with a 2 year degree which would make me a Electronics tech. I already was offered a job with Intell and i plan to work there while i get my bachlor. Is there i difference in the 2? and also Intell offered me 52k to start as a tech, is that good? and how much can i expect to make once i get my 4 year degree? thx
A tech is somebody who wants to be an engineer.they know what a resistor is but do not know why there is resistancethey know what an op-amp is but not why it has its typical operation. An engineer does the complicated work and tells the tech to solder on the parts. Truth is though most EEs do not even understand EEyou can ask them QA on simple EM topics and they cant answer them.
There really isn't a great deal of difference. In common usage 'Electrical Engineering' tends to imply high power systems while 'Electronics Engineering' implies lower power (signal processing) levels. But they're really about the same. And 52K is a fairly good salary. The average young engineer out of college makes about 50K to 60K. I believe the median for EE's today is around 70K to 90K. Doug
Electronics is more typically used for a technical/2-year degree for a tech trained to work with electronics lab equipment like oscilloscopes, benchtop power supplies, etc. The title of electrical engineer ( a degree in electrical engineering) is most often given to the graduate of a 4 or 5 year accredited degree program dealing with a wide variety of theory and technology related to applications of electricity and magnetism. In the industry, electrical by itself would more often refer to household or automotive wiring, often higher power, as Doug mentions, whereas electronics refers more to devices like computers, cell phones, etc. And yes, $52k is probably a pretty good salary for a tech straight out of school -- but you might want to get the employer name right :) Intel only has one L.
