What is life as an electrical engineer?

[Bullet]

Good day, I am an electrical engineering student in my second year, second semester. I am suppose to take an internship in June 2023. I feel like I have known nothing so far as an electrical engineering student. All the labs and practicals conducted in school, I was able to ace them but it seems once I am done with a semester, I kinda forget most things we covered but I still have an idea of how it works and now I have this imposter syndrome feeling like if I get out there to the world or for my forthcoming internship, I might underperform. I need advice about this. Do I get live experience from the internships cause it feels like everything I am being taught in school just gives me an idea , tons of equations like am I meant to remember all of these equations? Please I need to detailed reply . Thank you

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Don't panic! Once you start working on a particular project or activity, you can home-in on which areas of your existing knowledge are going to be most useful. You might want to revise them and/or pursue additional areas of study, but you'll have the underlying general resources and familiarity in your mental toolkit already. Depending on what area you are working in, you might find it all very easy.

My first proper engineering job used barely 1% of what I had learned at university and actually very little maths. What was more important was judgement; I needed to be able to say "I have a new and better approach to solving this problem," or "let's review this policy because it doesn't seem to be cost-effective." It was not until a later, different job that I actually had to start crunching numbers and equations.

 

[Bullet]

Don't panic! Once you start working on a particular project or activity, you can home-in on which areas of your existing knowledge are going to be most useful. You might want to revise them and/or pursue additional areas of study, but you'll have the underlying general resources and familiarity in your mental toolkit already. Depending on what area you are working in, you might find it all very easy.

My first proper engineering job used barely 1% of what I had learned at university and actually very little maths. What was more important was judgement; I needed to be able to say "I have a new and better approach to solving this problem," or "let's review this policy because it doesn't seem to be cost-effective." It was not until a later, different job that I actually had to start crunching numbers and equations

Don't panic! Once you start working on a particular project or activity, you can home-in on which areas of your existing knowledge are going to be most useful. You might want to revise them and/or pursue additional areas of study, but you'll have the underlying general resources and familiarity in your mental toolkit already. Depending on what area you are working in, you might find it all very easy.

My first proper engineering job used barely 1% of what I had learned at university and actually very little maths. What was more important was judgement; I needed to be able to say "I have a new and better approach to solving this problem," or "let's review this policy because it doesn't seem to be cost-effective." It was not until a later, different job that I actually had to start crunching numbers and equations.

Thank you for sharing this. I now have a better understanding.

 

[Bullet]

Don't panic! Once you start working on a particular project or activity, you can home-in on which areas of your existing knowledge are going to be most useful. You might want to revise them and/or pursue additional areas of study, but you'll have the underlying general resources and familiarity in your mental toolkit already. Depending on what area you are working in, you might find it all very easy.

My first proper engineering job used barely 1% of what I had learned at university and actually very little maths. What was more important was judgement; I needed to be able to say "I have a new and better approach to solving this problem," or "let's review this policy because it doesn't seem to be cost-effective." It was not until a later, different job that I actually had to start crunching numbers and equations

Don't panic! Once you start working on a particular project or activity, you can home-in on which areas of your existing knowledge are going to be most useful. You might want to revise them and/or pursue additional areas of study, but you'll have the underlying general resources and familiarity in your mental toolkit already. Depending on what area you are working in, you might find it all very easy.

My first proper engineering job used barely 1% of what I had learned at university and actually very little maths. What was more important was judgement; I needed to be able to say "I have a new and better approach to solving this problem," or "let's review this policy because it doesn't seem to be cost-effective." It was not until a later, different job that I actually had to start crunching numbers and equations.

Thank you for sharing this. I now have a better understanding.

 

[James]

As above, you are learning the underlying physics and theory behind how all this electrical engineering stuff works.

Later on you will learn the "on the job" stuff.

when presented with a problem, it is not so much important to be able to answer or design a solution right their on the spot, more that you have the underpinning knowledge to know straight away what sort of solution you need to be considering.

deciding on what sort of design will ultimately be successful
finally figuring out exactly what is required is something you have time to figure out and refer back to your notes if required.

I still have to look up a formulae every now and then, especially if someone starts discussing power factor correction!!