Countries to immigrate to as an engineer?

Why is electrical engineering so glamorous to study in SA ?

You must be kicking yourself so hard for not studying civil engineering.
On 2nd thought go kick your guidance councillor, your dad or whoever suggested it.
 
skimread said:
Why is electrical engineering so glamorous to study in SA ?

You must be kicking yourself so hard for not studying civil engineering.
On 2nd thought go kick your guidance councillor, your dad or whoever suggested it.
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I don't think it's glamour, more about interest. Chemical Eng. is the hardest to study followed by electronic eng. Civil is relatively easy in comparison and probably brings in way more $$$. I was just never interested in civil stuff.
 
lol no one suggested it, it was a choice between medicine or engineering. Dad and sister are doctors etc so i thought i'd go the engineering route, 2nd worst decision i ever made. Engineering/electrical engineering is quite popular for people that are very logical. I was thinking India too but depending where they place you it can be very dodgy. Essentially I was thinking 3rd world countries where telecoms is still being pushed so that leaves MEA + South America + Asia(parts).

With regards to local vendors it's harder since 2008. Last time i applied a friend told me there were over 80 applications and a lot of people have MSc, in fact quite often that is the entrance requirement and then the job is so basic you want to kill yourself. The thing that annoys me a lot is that i kinda am stuck in limbo, i can't do IT because I don't have the experience needed and even then the salary they pushing is less than my dad pays his receptionist lol. Last year I gave that a try, worked my ass off day and night for nothing(Lesson #2 Never bother with proprietary languages in development unless with sufficient market following). The scary thing I find in IT especially in cpt is this.. people are lazy and useless which makes me looks awesome even though I swear I am not a good developer. It's just when you compare someone that put in effort vs someone that doesn't bother its easy to come out looking fantastic :P

Whats it like in Namibia? The thing about getting work visa for temp work periods is this.. you need a reliable agency to go through. I've been caught 2yrs ago and lost something like 3k :( it sucks but desperate times etc
 
krycor said:
Engineering/electrical engineering is quite popular for people that are very logical.
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It's only logical when you study digital electronics, when it comes to implementing analog/radio/radar etc it's no longer logical and contains a element of black magic. i'm sure you know what I mean.
 
You should get into any country that's on the Washington Accord/ Sydney Accord.

Sadly, experience is a serious issue, and not enough companies want uni graduates unless they forced to. I think it's is way Universities now make the engineers do Vac Work.
 
Seriously I you want to move overseas you need to do it as soon as possible after graduation as there is opportunities for science graduates overseas so don't make the time gap too big too big otherwise that will close for you as well and it looks like you have to go into IT. You could also identify a country that you could do your masters in and in that country try get a job after varsity.

From my experience there are some many electrical engineers, or people who studied engineering but didn't finish who are in IT.
Since IT changes so often, all the info is public knowledge all you need to get in is the attitude and willing to spend time on it.
 
ponder said:
It's only logical when you study digital electronics, when it comes to implementing analog/radio/radar etc it's no longer logical and contains a element of black magic. i'm sure you know what I mean.
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This is so true! It’s an analogue world. People are analogue beings. Everyone is so enamoured with digital that there is a dearth of analogue engineers. Expertise in interfacing analogue to digital is a good option IMO.
 
Palimino said:
This is so true! It’s an analogue world. People are analogue beings. Everyone is so enamoured with digital that there is a dearth of analogue engineers. Expertise in interfacing analogue to digital is a good option IMO.
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Digital stuff you design on paper and it works. Analog stuff you design and it should work but it does no always when you build it, then you start tweaking. Not my cup of tea.
 
ponder said:
It's only logical when you study digital electronics, when it comes to implementing analog/radio/radar etc it's no longer logical and contains a element of black magic. i'm sure you know what I mean.
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There is a heavy digital presence in Radar. Designing antennas is only one part of the system. A radar system is made of a wide range of sub systems.
 
nfbs said:
Seriously I you want to move overseas you need to do it as soon as possible after graduation as there is opportunities for science graduates overseas so don't make the time gap too big too big otherwise that will close for you as well and it looks like you have to go into IT. You could also identify a country that you could do your masters in and in that country try get a job after varsity.

From my experience there are some many electrical engineers, or people who studied engineering but didn't finish who are in IT.
Since IT changes so often, all the info is public knowledge all you need to get in is the attitude and willing to spend time on it.
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I am one of those, I finished elec engineering, ended up doing PLC stuff and wanted to slit my wrists.
Moved to IT, and whilst i still feel i should be doing something different (from teaching to medical), i enjoy most of my job and find it challenging enough.

ponder said:
Digital stuff you design on paper and it works. Analog stuff you design and it should work but it does no always when you build it, then you start tweaking. Not my cup of tea.
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Agreed. I hated analog stuff, I knew i hated it after my first practical. I loved digital systems and i loved working with pics and micros. Sadly, PLC's is what the industry seemed to want, and the work was not challenging enough.
 
ratty said:
There is a heavy digital presence in Radar. Designing antennas is only one part of the system. A radar system is made of a wide range of sub systems.
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You don't say. I was specifically referring to analogue stuff, be it as a entire system or as a sub component.
 
nfbs said:
So what is your worst?
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Tough one.. but looking only at the last 4 yrs since graduating i'd say the worst was back in 2009.. i got to the final round of dimension data graduate intake interviews and the IT company i worked at made a laughable offer to work in IT development on a proprietary system. I wasn't keen on it but my dad was like you i've been unemployed long, take the IT job and from there you can move on to something else.. hah so much for that.

I have learnt a hell of a lot from it though but not technically related to the work done. One of my major faults I had when at university was I lacked a hell of a lot of self discipline, project management and sheer will power to do documentation. <-- kinda why doing a thesis sucks ;) So after graduating and stuff back in 2007/8 I decided never again.. as soon as I get involved in anything work related I will work my butt off to fix it and improve on the above too. So me doing well at work is a no brainer because I put in as much effort as possible(which became harder as time went on and it became obvious to me everyone else didn't give a crap hence i left). I still don't get it right when people give me a handful things to toggle between with the highest priority lol but i try. I hate IT though and since i have no non-proprietary work experience i dnt fit in in the SA scheme of things. Maybe thats a good thing

One thing I liked though was this.. software engineering models resemble system engineering models but in a simplistic manner. I am keen to do a MSc but i cant justify a 2 year commitment when i have zero assurance i will be employable after.. i mean then i'm just another unemployed msc person and i knew a few of these too. Anyways getting that right and past experience of going wrong with my thesis i can easily see the **** hit the fan before it switches on.
 
guys wth! Engineers are gold in this country! You can walk into any role being an engineer. I started of with Accenture (got raped), then went of to FNB to work on cellphone banking for a few years. Now i'm on the business side at one of the local operators. Whilst with FNB I travelled extensively through Africa and being an electronic engineer, negotiations with the operators was a breeze. You'll be amazed at how powerful your knowledge as an engineer is once you step into the business realm of a technology company. Engineering opens your mind (and doors) to a myriad of opportunities. However, if you are a purist and R&D gets you wet, then look at the vendors (as mentioned in another post) - especially in the telecoms space. ZTE, NSN, Huawei, etc. are doing tons of work here, and language is a massive barrier so local employees are a must for them in the majority of their firms. Also try consulting/outsourcing houses like Paracon, as they partner with the likes of these vendors when it comes to sourcing local talent.

PM me if you're interested in telecoms roles, i'll fwd your details/CV to the relevant HR administrator.

Good luck.
 
Theres lots of travel perks and the net salary was great, but timelines were insane and because I started of as an analyst of their grad programme, I often found myself working through weekends as well as 16-18 hours work days during the week. Reward always went to the managers and often the efforts of the lowly anaylst were overlooked! I've had much better experiences elsewhere so far. Perhaps when im senior I'll take a stab with a consulting house again, but then it will be the likes of McKinsey/BCG/Baine/etc.. where the rewards match the amount of work you put in. Also, prestigious consulting houses like those offer perks such as Harvard/Princeton/Yale MBA's... Just my 2cents anyways...
 
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