The Job in Computer Engineering

Computer Engineering is a very precise and decently hard career to pursue.  Computer Engineering deals with the design of products for electronic computation and communication. These people who pursue this career focus on the creation and processing of electronic information. I chose this job because of how much I enjoy playing on computers and looking into the hardware of computers and figuring out what does what is pretty interesting. In this paper, I am going to talk about the work conditions, the career history, skills and traits, education and training which includes colleges, and Employment.

Computer Engineers have many responsibilities. They work in virtually all industries. They make and build computers for at home or for work places. They also make new computer hardware format which means that they make new stuff for computers that they can work on and so other people that use them can work with. Some computer engineers revise and improve software, like coding for the computer system. Their work environment can be at schools, office buildings, hospitals, or even at home. Computer engineers usually work with other computer engineers to combine thoughts and ideas. Computer engineers obviously should have a high-tech computer of some sort to work on to do work related things. They should have specialized computer software to work on and high-tech electrical testing and repairing tools. A typical day for a computer engineer is pretty self-explanatory, they test computer systems and work on computers that need to be fixed with hardware issues. Other things that they do are as follows,  “Diagnose and troubleshoot failed rotational media and solid state storage devices”, “Analyze user needs and recommend appropriate hardware”, “Modify hardware to either enable forensic analysis of the media or to change the functionality of the hardware for other purposes”, “Participate in the design and development of electronic circuits and assemblies”, “Conduct technical exploitation and examination of high priority digital media”, and “Test and peer review for technical accuracy, standards and compliance to the design”. (McKay). Those are all examples of what computer engineers can do or will do in a day or in days to come. Also, there is things that employees will expect from you, they will expect strong customer focused attitude, strong sense of responsibility, commitment to quality and achieving deadlines, “Must be highly motivated, self-reliant and goal-driven to participate as a member of a cross-functional team”, “Demonstrate critical attention to detail and deadlines, and are self-motivated”, and the Willingness to embrace new development techniques and design aids (Mckay).  

Computer Engineering has changed so much over the years. Computers really didn’t get popular until the late 1900’s because that’s really when they were invented. As the years went on computers started to advance so computer engineering started to advance as well seeing how new things were getting added to computers so the engineers had to learn the new things about computers. This job today is very complex seeing how advanced our computers are today.

Computer engineers have to have a decent amount of skills and traits to become one. They have to have critical thinking, if you compare many solutions to problems it will allow you to solve the best solution to the problem. Computer engineers have to be able to handle reading a lot, they have to be able to read to keep up with current technology and ways to solve problems with the computers. Communication skills is a huge skill of becoming one of these, since computer engineers work in teams most of the time, communication skills and listening skills are an essential to becoming one. And finally, you have creativity. You should have this to come up with ways to solve problems relating to the computers you are working with, and designs for new builds of computers.

Education and training for this job is quite simple. If you want to become one then you would need a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. Some jobs will let you in with a degree in computer science since it’s basically the same degree. But most will require a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering (McKay). After college, you really don’t have to take any course or anything before being hired, college gives you basically everything you need to be ready. Most colleges offer this degree, or there are schools dedicated to just technical engineering so you can get a degree in that. Those schools work just like colleges. Then we have employment, employment is projected to rise 5% from 2016 to 2026 according to McKay (McKay). That is about average for most occupations. “A limited number of engineers will be needed to meet the demand for new computer hardware because more technological innovation takes place with software than with hardware” (McKay from the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Advancement in computer engineering employment will increase only if computers advance themselves because if computers are advancing you are going to need to employ more people to figure out and work on these new parts of computers. The yearly wage for most Computer Engineers are $115,000, and that’s about $55 an hour. That’s a good amount of money for only a 4-year degree. Jobs are basically around all of the U.S, In Colorado they can make up to $150,000 a year. It just depends on which state you live in, some states make more than others. Also, which city you live in can be a huge part of how much money you make a year. Some cities around New York make more money than others and it’s a big difference. The number of jobs as of 2016 is $73,600 (McKay from the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Therefore, Computers Engineering can be a decently hard job to pursue because of all the things they have to design, work with, and fix new hardware that comes out on computers. They make a decent amount of money for only being a 4-year degree. And the employment is growing as the years go on. Computer engineering a good job to pursue because of the technology advancement that is moving up as the years go on and on. Computer Engineers will have a lot of a harder job in the future because as fast as hardware is moving up in computers, the harder the job is going to be.

Works Cited

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