Guide to doing an Electronics degree in UK

[coppice]

Thanks, i am not sure that the concensus is against the fact that the Chinese "dont" give software consultancy as much as they do SMPS design because Software consultancy is harder , generally.

You keep referring to one type of engineering being harder than another, but all engineering is hard. If you don't find it so, that's because you aren't taking it seriously, and competitors will eventually wipe you out. It might be hard because you are pushing high complexity, or esoteric maths, or just squeezing the last cent out of a high volume BOM, but it needs to be challenging the protagonists in some way if the business is to survive.

[tggzzz]

Thanks, i am not sure that the concensus is against the fact that the Chinese "dont" give software consultancy as much as they do SMPS design because Software consultancy is harder , generally.

You keep referring to one type of engineering being harder than another, but all engineering is hard. If you don't find it so, that's because you aren't taking it seriously, and competitors will eventually wipe you out.

There's truth in that.

Nonetheless, I don't think it will change the OP's attitudes, actions and opinions - since the alternatives are easier

[ocset]

Thankyou for your help. The following is the udated guide to doing a degree in Electronics in UK.
I have to say UK because i believe its very different in other countries (?)

https://massey276.wixsite.com/electronicsdegree

I think the salient point is that there is no other guide like this, anywhere on the web, and certainly, schoolkids dont get offered any kind of description of it  at all.

[ebastler]

https://massey276.wixsite.com/electronicsdegree

I don't want to restart the discussion of the content. But could you get rid of the spotty "mould" background on that page please? Makes it unnecessarily hard to read.

[tggzzz]

I think the salient point is that there is no other guide like this, anywhere on the web, and certainly, schoolkids dont get offered any kind of description of it  at all.

No and good, respectively.

I think you should keep the "mouldy" background and poor contrast text.

[Gyro]

Also, my free  Switch Mode  Power Supply course is available if you want it…

 

[KJDS]

I've read some rubbish in my life, some of which I've written myself, but that "guide" is very very very poor.

It's obviously been written by someone that hasn't spent decent time in a dozen or more UK university electronics departments. It's also obviously written by someone that can't write, and just wants to demonstrate that he's chosen a narrow field and failed to find useful employment in it.

I was in a Russell Group uni last month, chatting with an electronics prof and asked him if any of his undergrads would be looking to start work next Autumn. Every one of them already has decent work lined up, typically £35 to £40k salary or else is going on to do a Masters.

[ocset]

I've read some rubbish in my life, some of which I've written myself, but that "guide" is very very very poor.

Thanks, would you say that a (better) "Guide to doing an electronics degree" for sub 18 year olds actually exists anywhere?

I was in a Russell Group uni last month, chatting with an electronics prof and asked him if any of his undergrads would be looking to start work next Autumn. Every one of them already has decent work lined up, typically £35 to £40k salary or else is going on to do a Masters.

Thanks, how many British Domiciles graduate with an Electronics degree each year? (EG recently , ie 2013 2014  2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
..Please note, i already tried to pay the ONS for the figure, but they won't give it out...if they even know it.

Also, why do you suppose that the Dyson company has recently started its own Engineering University.
00:23 onwards of this...

[rstofer]

Thanks, i am not sure that the concensus is against the fact that the Chinese "dont" give software consultancy as much as they do SMPS design because Software consultancy is harder , generally.

You keep referring to one type of engineering being harder than another, but all engineering is hard. If you don't find it so, that's because you aren't taking it seriously, and competitors will eventually wipe you out. It might be hard because you are pushing high complexity, or esoteric maths, or just squeezing the last cent out of a high volume BOM, but it needs to be challenging the protagonists in some way if the business is to survive.

The problem with software consulting is that it is never finished.  The original requirement specs are trash, nobody has ever built a program like this and, even when the contract runs out, there will still be requirements unmet.

Power supplies, indeed most commercial electronics, are pretty easy to specify.  Volts in, volts out, current capability as well as standards compliance - standards that are actually published as opposed to "I don't like where you put the button on the screen!".

Software is always a "blue versus green" kind of deal.  I want it "blue" and the other guy wants it "green" and we spend all our time on nonsense.

[ocset]

Thankyou to rstofer and dmills on your sentiments...you are of course absolutely correct, and i can see this now.
All i can now say is that "in my opinion", general SMPS design is easier than general embedded software design.

But even  having said that, we had a software guy who was Italian...and he did us a perfectly satisfactory job....ok,  yes, we had to  go back to him a few times for mods, but generally that was fine....He never came to our UK office...admittedly , the software was just a DALI dimmable lamp...........any large embedded system, i admit, could be problematic when done from China to UK or wherever.

[KJDS]

Thanks, would you say that a (better) "Guide to doing an electronics degree" for sub 18 year olds actually exists anywhere?

I don't believe that those who will make good engineers need spoonfeeding.

[ocset]

But rather it is a guide, rather than a spoonfeed......they will still have to slog on after reading that guide.

Out of interest, how would you solve the shortage of engineers in UK for example?

[KJDS]

But rather it is a guide, rather than a spoonfeed......they will still have to slog on after reading that guide.

Out of interest, how would you solve the shortage of engineers in UK for example?

Dyson wants to create more engineers so he can pay them less.

I know plenty of people like me in their 50s who will work on interesting work, or highly paid work, but don't need to do either.

There isn't a shortage of good engineers, more a shortage of interesting work and companies willing to pay well.

[ocset]

Dyson wants to create more engineers so he can pay them less.

The cost of setting up and running  the Dyson University i think will be way more than just paying his engineers more instead.

There isn't a shortage of good engineers, more a shortage of interesting work and companies willing to pay well.

I think in the UK at least, there is a great need for much more of both engineers and engineering companies....i think more interesting and highly payed work would come through if those things increased.

I have ways of prooving that, and of solving it, but posting this here could arise problems due to being  deemed political....unless others want to hear of  it.

[coppice]

Thanks, i am not sure that the concensus is against the fact that the Chinese "dont" give software consultancy as much as they do SMPS design because Software consultancy is harder , generally.

You keep referring to one type of engineering being harder than another, but all engineering is hard. If you don't find it so, that's because you aren't taking it seriously, and competitors will eventually wipe you out. It might be hard because you are pushing high complexity, or esoteric maths, or just squeezing the last cent out of a high volume BOM, but it needs to be challenging the protagonists in some way if the business is to survive.

The problem with software consulting is that it is never finished.  The original requirement specs are trash, nobody has ever built a program like this and, even when the contract runs out, there will still be requirements unmet.

Power supplies, indeed most commercial electronics, are pretty easy to specify.  Volts in, volts out, current capability as well as standards compliance - standards that are actually published as opposed to "I don't like where you put the button on the screen!".

Software is always a "blue versus green" kind of deal.  I want it "blue" and the other guy wants it "green" and we spend all our time on nonsense.

The problem with hardware consulting is that it is never finished.  The original requirement specs are trash, nobody has ever built a device like this and, even when the contract runs out, there will still be requirements unmet.

Basic aspects of software, as with, say, a power supply, are pretty easy to specify. E.g. Volts in, volts out, current capability as well as standards compliance. The devil is in the details.

Equipment is always a "blue versus green" kind of deal.  I want it "blue" and the other guy wants it "green" and we spend all our time on nonsense.

[coppice]

But rather it is a guide, rather than a spoonfeed......they will still have to slog on after reading that guide.

Out of interest, how would you solve the shortage of engineers in UK for example?

Dyson wants to create more engineers so he can pay them less.

I know plenty of people like me in their 50s who will work on interesting work, or highly paid work, but don't need to do either.

There isn't a shortage of good engineers, more a shortage of interesting work and companies willing to pay well.

Well, of course there's a shortage of interesting work in the UK. People like Dyson moved it all to Asia years ago.

[coppice]

I was in a Russell Group uni last month, chatting with an electronics prof and asked him if any of his undergrads would be looking to start work next Autumn. Every one of them already has decent work lined up, typically £35 to £40k salary or else is going on to do a Masters.

I'm wondering how a professor would know this? When I was at college the faculty people had no clue where we stood with our job hunting. They gained some input later on, through surveys sent to graduates long after graduation.

Have most of these students found jobs in electronics in the UK?

[ebastler]

I was in a Russell Group uni last month, chatting with an electronics prof and asked him if any of his undergrads would be looking to start work next Autumn. Every one of them already has decent work lined up, typically £35 to £40k salary or else is going on to do a Masters.

I'm wondering how a professor would know this? When I was at college the faculty people had no clue where we stood with our job hunting.

Maybe it was just a polite way of saying that he did not want his students involved with KJDS.