hey lads, im thinking of going into electrical engineering at uni, atm im doing my hsc whereafter ill probly deffer for a year and then start my degree...

the only problem i have is that im doing physics and biology as science and only general maths, as i didnt even think abotu doing naything engineery lol...

so im gonna have to take bridging courses in both extension 1 maths and physics, have any of you had to take this path before?? if so was it easy to get the hang of??

also for anyone currently doing the electrical engineering degree, what would u rate the difficulty of mathematics and physics you need to apply??

cheers lads

I'm an Electrical Draftsman and basically we do all the good work that Electrical Engineer's want to do. From my experience engineer's are project manager's these days and do a lot of supervising of contractors and project management stuff. And not a lot of engineery type stuff. If you like typing out lots of monotonous documents and signing off on electrical designs that other people (that are generally less qualified than you then you will love it. If you like designing installations and speccing gear then you might want to try something else.

Money for drafties is fairly similar to normal engineer's, senior engineer's get a bit more than us.

Go do a trade and make some big money in WA while the boom is on. Or you could struggle through a degree at uni, then spend another 4 year's post grad, and then start making less money than your average tradie...

yeh i was actually thinking of doing an electrical apprenticeship, but i dont really wanan work my ass off for 4 years straight for crap all pay. or move to WA lol

im more interested in the construction of circuits, and designing pwoer stations and relays and all that sort of stuff..

Electrical Engineering is a whole range of fields these days...

I specialise in Industrial Measurement and Control (very broad - covers physics, chem, mech., electronics and I.T.).

With a bit of Acoustics thrown in, makes for a busy brain.
Unless you become a consultant, there's more money in industrial electrician. Electrical Mechanic - A-Grade, apprenticeship pay suxorz, but once qualified, then you go up to $80k+ within a couple of years.

Edit: My speeling sucks

Yep, I've gone the industrial electrician route and planning on continuing with my Electronic Engineering also

is an industrial electrician a traddie?? or is it a different degrree

its a trade foremost, but includes a cert IV Electrical Mechanic. You need the cert IV, the 4 years experience, and pass the LEM exam.

so if i do an apprenticeship thats industrial electrician...

if you get an industrial electrician apprenticeship (as opposed to domestic) yes.

domestic do mostly houses, with industrial you get to use bigger cables and really get to know more about the electrical side of things, even moreso in petrochem industry.

you can do extra modules also - for things that interest you, such as electrochem technology - mmmm, 12V DC@2000Amps for plating shop

christ!!! sounds dangerous haha, so if i was more interested in designing and building circuits and designing power stations etc, what kind of degree would i be looking at?

There is another option - a traineeship which is between an apprenticeship and an engineering degree where you do an advanced diploma at a TAFE. Such as this one in Vic Advanced Diploma
Usually you would do the traineeship with one of the electricty companies eg Country Energy in NSW where there is a mixture of school and on the job training.

I did a similar course several years ago with the SEC in Vic and ended up as a Senior Protection & Control Tester. From your comments above, this role sounds like what interests you. Basically you take the draftsmans drawings and the Protection Engineer's relay setting files and then test and commission the protection schemes. This involves loading the setting files into a relay via a laptop and then testing that the relay inputs and outputs operate correctly individually, and as part of its protection scheme. It is a fairly challenging role where there is a lot of problem solving and a lot of variation in the day to day work

The sort of jobs I have been involved with are things such as Testing and Commissioning
- a new 66 / 22 kV Zone Substation (includes 66kV Lines, Transformers, 22 Feeders etc )
- 66kV Line Protection Schemes
- 66 / 22 kV Transformers
- 22 kV Feeders
- 22 kV Co Generation Plants
- New Equipment at HV Customers Installations such as ESSO BHP etc

I have now progressed into SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition ) this may also be a field of interest to you. This is basically where remote stations are monitored for alarms and metering data and controls can be sent remotely. For example you would have a control room somewhere is Sydney that is monitoring numerous suburban zone substations and can see the AC currents and MW loadings on the lines while checking for alarms and possibly opening a high voltage circuit breaker if required. This is more of an I.T. based role and is also very interesting and challenging

hmmm that does sound very interesting... whats the pay like if u dont mind me asking

small DC power (designing and building circuits for electronic devices) falls under Electronic Engineering
Large DC power and AC power falls under Electrical Engineering (designing Power Stations etc.)

Two different units there. Other thing to is, 99.9% of 'Power Stations' were designed 100 years ago. As an Engineer, you'd simply be taking the design off the shelf, and putting into your model. Same with a lot of things these days. You want to design? Get into R&D or drafting work.

And pay? A lot in the right Areas. My uncle graduated Electrical Engineering, and went into Oil & Gas as a Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineering. Quarter of a million annual salary 7 years out of uni.

ahhh of course, lol... ive bin getting mixed up... but i have been meaning electrical engineering...

Well its not just the pay to look at, when I was a Prot & Control Tester it included a 9 day fortnight (worth a lot!)
and a company car with private use for $20 per week. Also there is usually a lot of paid overtime as most outages and commissioning is on weekends. The pay including overtime was in the high 70's + super three years ago.

Now because I wanted a change in direction and new challenges its more but I have lost the car and lost the 9 day fortnight

I was in a bit of a rush when I posted earlier.
I'm doing my apprenticeship through Ford, and also doing a Diploma in Electro technology, or something to the equivalent. It was a Cert 4 in Electro technology previously but they have changed the name.
The company does also offer traineeships at times to get to the engineering level. Doing things such as designing all the circuits for control cabinets for robots, press', and other machinery for example. As well as the much larger jobs.

9 day fortnight FTW!!!!
paid overtime FTW!!!!

Working under an Electrical Contracting EBA will be your quickest way to money. If you want further study - go for it at night, or work a few years, then go to back to uni if you still want to.

hmmm, so your saying the best option would be to do an apprenticeship first and then when im qualified go back and do a diploma or degree??

By robot control circuits do you mean the P.L.C. system ?
Thats what I do I'm a level 3 cert. P.L.C. programer by day and a pin monkey at AMF by night lol
Generaly tho if you what to become a P.L.C. programer you need to have your A grade sparky's ticket first

P.L.C. = Programable Logic Circuitry

Nah not programming them, I mean designing all the circuitry to interface the PLC's to everything else, etc

That's what I do, the engineer's just throw a PLC at you and say "make it work." I love Electrical Drafting. I did a trade and then moved into a company that specializes in drafting work. Now I work for BHPBilliton and do a lot of their small design (larger stuff normally goes out to larger contracting companies). I haven't done any extra schooling since I finished my tafe stuff from my apprenticeship. You just have to have a willingness to learn and show people that you are good at design.