What is it like to be an electrical engineer?

Probably the two most important things to being an engineer (and not just an electrical engineer, but any engineer) is knowing how to be a leader and how to manage your time effectively.

As an electrical engineer, I spend probably 50% of my time coordinating electricians and working with mechanical/chemical/civil engineers. If you don't have good management skills then deadlines will be missed, work will go undone and small problems will turn into disasters. Not only that, but if you don't have the respect of the people around you, then you will find that work will go undone and people won't take you seriously. Don't know how to be a leader? There are plenty of books, seminars and workshops that will teach you how to be one. If that fails, join the military...

You also need excellent time management skills. Engineers are in short supply, and have been, as far back as I can remember. Nobody wants to be an engineer these days, because it seems too hard. There is a huge difference between the number of positions available and the number of people to fill those positions. This means that the working engineers have to take up the slack. Having good time management skills means you will get a lot more work done in the same time period as someone else. This will reduce your stress level and make you worth your weight in gold to your employers.

Job Function
Every day can be completely different, and that is what I like the most about my job. It never gets boring or tedious. One day I will be writing computer code to automate a machine, the next day I will be designing electrical circuits, and the next day I will be commissioning equipment. Because I am a very technical person, I enjoy anything to do with technology. It's perfect because I spend all day working with gadgets and figuring out new ways to do things.

However, there is the occasional time when things can get very repetitive. Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you have to commission 20 pieces of factory floor equipment - and each one is exactly the same. Sometimes these jobs can last for a few weeks. Sometimes if you are unlucky you will get stuck doing jobs like that for a few months.
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Lifestyle
It's all work, period. It might be different in other countries or industries, but in my world, it is uncommon to work less than 55 hours a week. In fact, I've been working an average of 60 hours a week for the last 2 years. Each day I work a minimum of 12 hours. It is not uncommon to be on a roster where you will work for 3 weeks straight and then have a week off. I have had one week off in 2 years and I don't expect to take any time off in the next year.

The hours are long, so the only way you can really survive is if you genuinely find the work satisfying. That way, you are enjoying what you are doing all day long anyway. You really need to be a bit of a workaholic to be a good electrical engineer. You will also find your hours can be very flexible-but not in the good way. Expect to do the occasional 18 hour day, work weekends or do a week or two of night shifts.

There are heaps of opportunities to travel, both within the country and overseas. Projects are always starting in strange places that need electrical engineers. I find I move to a new town every 6 months or so (because I do project work), but you can just as easily settle down somewhere if you choose to. You can basically get a job wherever there is industry.

Additional Information
Being a good engineer is not at all about being a genius. I have had friends who would make Einstein look like an idiot but who are very average engineers. Likewise, I have friends who scraped through university but are absolutely top notch engineers. It's all about leading people, good time management and being prepared to put your heart and soul into your job.

Source(s):
http://www.theu.com/career_reviews_view/electrical_engineer/my_life_as_an_electrical_engineer_149

It really depends on which company you work for. You'd be surprised how little of actual engineering you end up doing.

In your private life, it's really tough explaining just what it is you do. This is due to both the general ignorance around what engineers do, and to whatever intellectual property constraints you have.

I'd change the "what my boss thinks I do" picture to a picture of somebody sitting around doing nothing.

In your work life, dealing with office politics is frustrating. My coworkers and I often have great ideas that we want to work on that will likely generate ROI, improve market share and make our products overall better. Sometimes we want to try something that would put us into a related market that we aren't currently in but could easily edge into. We start to work on it, then our product managers or other "superiors" decide something else is more important, kill our projects and assign us to other projects. We start working on the project only to find that it is an ugly baby that needs to be killed, and it ends up being worthless anyway. Several weeks later, the project managers decide to let us work on the ideas we suggested long ago, pretending it was their idea.

In terms of the actual engineering, it's frustrating because it is very uncommon for what you make to "just work" the first time. It's really exciting when it finally works, and then you discover a hundred different ways that it can break. You spend time on the fixes, but each fix comes with more ways it can break it, or worse, the fix makes the thing not work as well as it used to. The best approach is usually to scrap it and start over with something new, but the people over you tend to want to "stick to what works" and make you work on fixing the bugs in something that you consider a bug in and of itself.

But at the same time, it's quite rewarding. If you enjoy learning, you learn a ton of things. One of the first things you learn is how and when to call BS on people who pretend to be smart, and that's a lot of fun. You learn a lot about how the systems you work with work, why they work, and myriad ways they could work for applications outside of your line of work. Sometimes you can take some of it home. Engineers doing things like that are the reason we have so many of the conveniences we have today. For example, a Raytheon engineer in WWII discovered that the radar signal would melt a chocolate bar in his pocket, so he took the concept home and invented the microwave oven.

The pay is also fantastic for new graduates when compared to new graduates in other fields. That is, if you're okay putting in 50-hour weeks when you're not on hourly pay.

You will need to focus on stress and time management. In order to manage stress you have to manage your time wisely. <span style="background-color: transparent;">You have to set a routine for yourself and stick to it for the most part. Once you get into the groove of a routine it will be much easier for you to manage your time and have enough time for everything you need to do (including relaxing). Make yourself to-do lists on a weekly basis, use Google calendar or a planner to keep track of events, deadlines, and due dates. In addition to setting a routine and sticking to it, plan out relaxing activities into your day. Or set aside a time, after everything is done for the day, that you can have "me" time. I have also personally found it essential to not only find time for myself but also make use of that time in a way that is best for me and my holistic wellness. I have found the HeadSpace app to be an essential tool in helping me relax and generally feel more relaxed throughout the day, Guided meditation, even if you have a busy schedule, will make you feel more at ease and relaxed throughout the day as a whole (not just when you have the time to relax and focus on that "me" time).</span>

<span style="background-color: transparent;">Set a routine.Use Google Calendar.Set aside Me TimeWrite weekly to-do lists and use a planner.Find a peaceful and restful activity that will help you feel relaxed.</span>