What jobs can you do with an electronic engineering

degree?
Careers for electronic engineering graduates can be found in a whole host of
industries, from automotive to utilities.

An electronic engineering degree appears to lead in some fairly obvious directions to the
electronics industry, for example. However, the options are much broader than this, both
within the engineering industry and outside it.
Engineering industries that accept electronic engineering graduates

Electronic engineering graduates are typically accepted into the following industries.
However, different employers will have different requirements, so do check out companies
individually.

Aerospace industry

Automotive industry

Construction industry

Defence industry

Electronics industry

Fast moving consumer goods industry

Marine industry

Oil and gas industry

Pharmaceuticals industry

Power generation industry

Rail industry

Telecoms

Utilities industry

An electronic engineers job in different industries

Electronics is now an important part of the automotive industry, for example

for engine control units, dashboard indicators, air-conditioning, safety systems,
braking systems and info-tainment systems.

If you join the defence industry, expect to expand your knowledge of

different engineering disciplines. BAE Systems enterprise integration manager
Paul Jones comments: At BAE systems and at most other defence companies
engineers today mainly work at system level. Defence systems are now so
integrated that engineers need to operate cross-discipline, for example using a
mixture of mechanical, electronic and electrical engineering knowledge.
In the electronics sector you could work in roles such as design engineering
(designing a product or component prior to launch) or applications engineering
(supporting a product for its entire life).
Electronic engineering graduates are very welcome in the fast moving
consumer goods industry. In this sector they will often develop a broad
engineering skill set rather than focusing solely on electronic engineering
issues. Chris Traynor, careers adviser and former engineer and engineering
recruiter, explains: Almost all the graduate roles are in one of two areas:
manufacturing/engineering or supply network operations/logistics. And for
both of these areas graduates from different disciplines would be doing similar
jobs as each other. Graduates will pick up skills from other disciplines as they
go through their training and career.
Paul Clarke, an asset developer at EDF Energy Energy Sourcing & Customer
Supply, outlines typical roles in the power generation industry. He explains:
Electronic engineers are often involved in maintaining control and
instrumentation plant items (SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition),
DCS (distributed control system), instruments, telephony, data networks, etc).
In the rail engineering sector, Electronic engineers could be involved with
signalling and advanced railway control systems, as well as telecoms, says
Jerry England, group asset management director at Network Rail. He adds: It
may be worth noting that we own and operate the third largest telecoms
network in the UK.
Neil Pullen, head of business planning for the transmission construction
division at National Grid, describes roles for electronic engineers in the
utilities sector. He comments: Electronic engineers can find many roles in
telecoms. There are also many roles for them in energy, for example designing
and running complex control systems eg those needed to run the National
Grid or to control a nuclear power station.

In a related vein, electronic engineers are often welcome to apply to technical roles in the
IT industry dont assume that only computer scientists or software engineers are sought.
Non-engineering jobs for electronic engineering graduates

Professor Patrick McNally from the School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University,
is keen to encourage electronic engineering students to think beyond the obvious career
options.
He comments: Graduates are well positioned to gain employment in a range of fields that
rely on their analytical and solutions-orientated training. Over the past years we have seen
our graduates gain employment in companies involved in consulting, legal practice
(especially patent related), finance, logistics and education.

If youre keen to explore career paths outside engineering, start by reading What can I do
with an engineering degree, apart from being an engineer? for ideas of non-engineering
careers that relate to the engineering sector. You can then explore your options further at
targetjobs.co.uk.
In particular, you might like to consider options such as consulting, law (eg intellectual
property law), financial services, sales and pre-sales, IT and education, which are areas in
which you can put your analytical skills and high levels of numeracy to good use.

Chartered engineers (CEng) have the greatest level of responsibility for complete engineering
projects. They develop solutions to problems using new or existing technologies in a strategic role.

Incorporated engineers (IEng) take responsibility for specific aspects of a project and day to
day operations. They maintain and manage applications of current and developing technology.