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What is the difference between becoming an Electrical Engineer and becoming an Electrician

#electrical-engineering #engineer #electrian

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Lisa’s Answer

An electrician is a skilled laborer. An electrical engineer is a professional with a 4 year college degree. To become an electrician, you'll need to take some courses at a trade school or community college to learn basic skills needed by an electrician. You'll then find a company to take you on as an apprentice. Once you have enough knowledge and on-the-job training (about 4 years) , you apply to become an electrician through your state's licensing board and become a journeyman electrician. To become an electrical engineer, you'll go to college and take to earn your Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. After graduation, you'll look for a job as an electrical engineer in industry, or continue on with your education and earn a Masters or PhD.

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Annette’s Answer

Love all the answers so far, but I would like to add that Electricians generally work on large voltage equipment i.e. home electrical installations repairs, building or large machinery. There can be some design work also but usually involves large voltages. Electrical Engineers work on smaller voltages such as computers, switch rooms, etc. Again there can be design work but it is generally limited to the lower voltages.
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Ed’s Answer

Lisa's answer is spot on here. I wanted to just add some color to this.
An electrician's career will largely be working with installs, repairs, etc. within building or homes.
An engineer's career can very quite substantially depending on the sub-specialty within an EE degree. For example, they might be a design engineer on power circuitry for various electronic boards, cars, buildings, etc. Or, they could take Computer engineering courses with the EE degree and become a software programmer. Or, you could focus on digital logic and became an ASIC/FPGA engineer. Another EE might focus on the analog world and design circuits or systems around sensing and/or creating those types of analog signals.
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