close to finishing EE undegrad, feeling voids in my knowledge, what now?  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Anthocyanina
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 07:29:03 am
content: So I'm very close to finishing my undergrad electronics engineering studies. I'm now only missing a core course (communications), graduation project, and 3 emphasis line courses (i went for the control line, so control 2, 3 and 4). I've completed all maths courses as well as all core electronics courses, but now that the end of my undergrad studies approaches, I'm feeling like there's a lot of stuff I still don't understand.Right now I work as a freelancer, not regularly, but still, doing repair and design work, and from the repair work, I've encountered so many very complex circuits that I don't think i would be able to design with what I know right now, so now I'm wondering if this is on me, maybe I didn't absorb all the knowledge the university provided? maybe the university i chose wasn't that good for an EE program? either way, I can't go back in time. Every semester my semester projects were the best, the faculty noticed and I got some benefits from that, teachers also noticed that I really wanted to learn, and I did really well in most of my classes, and still I'm missing a lot of stuff.So, what now? am I going to fail when going to work as an EE? should I take more courses online? does everyone finish their undergrad feeling like this? does an undergrad program just expose students to the very basics and we should learn the more complex stuff at a job, or on extra courses?I've been very anxious about this lately as the culmination of my undergrad approaches. I'd like to hear about your experiences.Thank you

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 07:51:47 am
content: Don't worry about it. When you leave college with your freshly minted degree, you are just at the beginning of your learning journey. Your undergraduate studies are called a formation (a beginning), not a completion. The amount you don't know at this point will be vastly more than what you do know.I am nearing retirement, having soaked up learning like a sponge for the last 40 or so years, and I still feel like I could spend another 40 years learning things.The most important thing to have when you leave college and start work is humility. Recognize that your colleagues will know vastly more than you, and learn from them.

author: ftg
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 07:59:04 am
content: Electronics is such a wide field that it's impossible to stuff everything about everything into such a short time.So at least for me it gave a good basic understanding that has then served me decently well.The learning never stops.As the field never stops advancing.If you are getting good grades and good feedback, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 08:47:23 am
content: I'm at the other end of my career, and I am still learning. There are vast swathes of things that I don't know. That'sgood, because there are more new things to explore. So,rejoicein your lack of understandingGiven that,importantquestions are "what do I need to know to do X? and "what do Inotwant to learn?".Don't bother learning "which button to push to floggle the splurdle or turn the widget blue". Such knowledge quickly becomes obsolete and worthless.Do bother to learn thefundamentalsthat will enable you to work out whether floggling a splurde can/cannot solve your problem, and whether floggles are the best technology, and whether blue is the right colour. Those fundamentals will be useful and valid for a lifetime - and hence are worth learning.You will come to understand that many new Xs are merely minor variations on existing Xs - and hence you can delay deciding to learn them until they actually do become relevant.An employer won't expect you to know everything and won't expect you to know about their products. They will want to see someone who is capable of learning and understanding new things.An employer will like it if you can show you chose to do more than required in your course. Bonus points if you chose something difficult but achievable, did it, made mistakes, and can articulate what you would do differently next time.Perfection is not required. The desire and ability to adapt, to learn, and to improve is important.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 08:57:22 am
content: If you're just finishing undergraduate studies, then you're at the beginning of your learning experience, not the end.This does come as a shock to the system; I felt the same. Your whole life up until now has revolved around learning more and more new stuff, and there's a feeling that by now you ought to know it all and be ready to go out into the world and invent cool stuff.But: what you have now are just the tools to get started. You now need to work alongside other engineers to start on real world, practical problems that aren't just hobby or academic projects. You're not expected to have the first clue how to design something that will be mass produced in 1M+ quantities, or subject to regulatory and legal scrutiny, or must be built using parts that are available ex-stock from an approved supplier by tomorrow. There'ssomuch more to learn that even trying to comprehend the vastness of it will make your head spin.What we all do is specialise. Learn core skills, as you've been doing, but also some that are relevant to the problem you need to solve for the job your are in today. Maybe you need to learn all about RF antenna design, but you'll never need to program an FPGA. You might end up on the standards body for the next iteration of CAN bus, or design the charging circuit that goes into a million smart phones, and yet never write a single line of code.Nobody knows everything, and right now you're not even expected to know enough to be commercially useful.This is OK. Enjoy the ride.

author: SteveThackery
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 10:54:54 am
content: Your feelings are totally normal. I've got a Master's in Audio Engineering, and I still feel I know nothing useful. Degrees prepare the ground, that's all. Everything useful you will learn through experience.You need that experience, and plenty of it. I strongly recommend getting into normal employment doing electronic engineering for at least a decade. There's no realistic way of gaining that knowledge otherwise. Certainly, don't think of trying to be freelance yet. That is possible, but a long way down the track.I used to lecture to degree students, and I was acutely aware of how little we taught was of direct value in the workplace.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 12:06:26 pm
content: Quote from: SteveThackery on July 02, 2025, 10:54:54 amNot "everything useful".Without the theoretical knowledge that should have been gained at university, you engineering will be no better than alchemy.Theory supports practice. Practice makes theory useful. Both arenecessary, neither issufficient.QuoteThe things I was taught at university have been invaluable throughout my career.University did not teach me everything useful during my career. How could it, since everybody's career will be very different!Much of the stuff I learned during my career has been only useful for one project or a couple of years - and then became obsolete. Such transient crapshouldn'tbe taught at university; having to learn such should be paid for by the employer!

author: Geoff-AU
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2025, 11:59:01 pm
content: The more you know, the more you realise there is to know.One of your career choices is to decide whether you want a broad knowledge (jack of all trades) but with a bit less depth, or really dig in and specialise in one area you find interesting. Both options come with different pros and cons, risks and rewards.

author: KE5FX
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 12:20:18 am
content: Quote from: Anthocyanina on July 02, 2025, 07:29:03 amRelax. You haven't taken the ride yet. You just bought the ticket.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 12:21:35 am
content: Quote from: Anthocyanina on July 02, 2025, 07:29:03 amPretty much. Everyone I've known at least. This is my argument for doing internships during school to get a head start on actually being useful

author: Buriedcode
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 12:21:58 am
content: I enjoyed my degree - most just did it for better job prospects but I studied it out of interest. I struggled to find work related to my degree, but when I did I probably learned more in a couple of weeks than I did in a term.I don't think I ever made a conscious effeort to study a particular area - rather I had to do my research when part of a project required it, and I realised I was pretty clueless. The more diverse the work/projects, the more "blanks" you'll fill in. Some of it is much harder (microwave design is something I have little experience in, so perhaps I think its difficult out of ignorance), and some of it is rather mundane, like designing for redundancy, servicing, or keeping adequate documentation. And some things are really quite narrow, like getting to know the quirks of a certain microcontrollers peripheral.Its all picked up along the way, and despite what some older engineers might think - nothing wrong with googling. After all, much of education is to show employers you knowhowto find out things, and capable of learning and picking things up than the actual specifics.Whilst I don't have as much experience as many here, my advice is, if you have a job relating to your degree, then I'm sure you'll learn on the way. If not, and you want to "keep going" as you have in university: pick a project that interests you, something you'll actually use (novelty projects are great, but generally just gather dust) and has areas you don't have much experience in, be it analogue, microcontrollers, DSP, optoelectronics etc.. That'll make you google things as you go. And hopefully when its more or less done you'll have a device/project that you'll use and can show potential employers.Its the same deal with learning an instrument, pick a piece thats challenging, and keep going till you're satisfied with it, Then.. pick another.. and you'll pick it up along teh way.

author: Anthocyanina
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 04:32:19 am
content: Thank you all!While removing the anxiety around this will take some time, it does feel good to know it's normal to feel like this, and to actually have big voids in knowledge at this stage.I love electronics, and have since i was a child, so I've always been eager to learn more about it.I'd like to get better at analog electronics since that's what I've enjoyed the most, so if anyone's got some good resources on op amps and amplifiers and what not, I'd appreciate it if you'd share those. I've heard a lot about "The Art of Electronics" so maybe it's time I get a copy and start going through it.

author: KE5FX
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 05:31:38 am
content: As Buriedcode suggests, start with an application that interests you. Barrie Gilbert didn't want to learn about amplifiers, he wanted to build a TV set. Woz didn't go to school to learn logic design, he was too busy building computers. Heisenberg didn't set out to study linear algebra, but he was pretty good at it by the time he gave his Nobel lecture. Etc., etc.Some good sources of inspiration are the two Jim Williams "Analog Design: Art, Science, and Personalities" volumes. AoE3 is great too, but at the end of the day it's more like another textbook, and it doesn't sound like that's what you're after.