electrical engineering in cork uni

Umiq88

Thinking of doing this course would like a bit of feedback from people that have done the course about what its like is it very difficult and other stuff like that also any electrical engineers out there whats a typical day like is it office work or on site whats the pay like etc etc

whatalanger

I presume that you are doing the Leaving Cert this year. If so, don't be fooled by the CAO points requirements as this course is probably one of the more difficult engineering courses here in UCC. I wouldn't recommend doing this course if you're not doing higher level Maths for the leaving as a lot of the subjects covered require a good aptitude for maths. However, the broad range of subjects covered in the four years of the course will give you very good career prospects. If you want any more information, the departments website is http://www.ucc.ie/eleceng

Umiq88

im doing higher maths physic applied maths and td and im fairly ok in all subjects i can get my head around everything ok its just doing a bit of work and learning it all

what im really interested in is people who have careers in electrical engineering and what exactly it involves

daveirl

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Umiq88

i more interested in specialising in electrical engineering i taught that was some to do with like designing curcuit layouts for big buildings or something or a control panel for machines or whatever im not really interested in "micro" electronics

daveirl

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Umiq88

yeah i was hoping to find a good course that just specialises in that area but i guess that would be an IT course

dudara

Well, the glory of the UCC course is that it is "Electrical and Electronic Engineering". That means that you'll learn about a wide range of stuff from the big scale (power systems, generators) all the way down to the small scale (integrated circuits). In 4th year, you'll select subjects in the areas you're most interested in.

Umiq88

yea but well i dont know exactly but im nearly certain im not interested in the small scale stuff but then again i might like it

points are kinda ridiculous because it means i have to do no work for leaving which will suit me but is bad if i get a b in td a c in maths im set and can get a d in everything else

dudara

As someone else previously said, you'll need to be a A1 or A2 quality candidate in Maths and Physics to be able for the course. The points reflect the demand for the course, not the quality, which is fairly high.

Umiq88

its that hard well im grand with maths and physics its not that i cant understand any of it its just getting down to it and doing the work

is there any other courses like this that arent as hard

dudara

OK, I'm probably making it sound harder than it is, but you will need B-grades at least, to be able to make a good go of the course.

Have you looked at the courses available in the CIT?

iceman_2001_ie

I'm working as an automation engineer in Little Island - plenty of time in factories and manufacturing plants.

There are loads of jobs available for Grads from Elec Eng, but most people that I knew, got blinded by the big guns - Intel, Citibank, Analogue etc - and couldn't see employment opportunities beyond those. Saying that, quite a few people do end up working for these companies.

Being completely honest, stop worrying about job prospects now, these things will fall into place from about third year on, depending on what takes your fancy.

However, if you really want to know about future jobs and money -

1. Investment banks - grads earning 50k starting - but this is IT based, and predominantly in the U.K.

2. Electrical design for big projects (which I understand is what you are interested in) is done by electrical consultants now - that means another 4 years of experience and 4 years of exams after you graduate, to become a chartered engineer.

3. The opportunites for electrical engineers abroad are immense - working in Saudi, you could potentially earn €40k p.a. Working in Iraq (a contractor colleague had a brother out there) you could earn anything up to $250k p.a. In the U.S., grad engineers earn anything up to $70k, but if you really want to go to the U.S., you are better off doing BIS because that departments has fantastic contacts.