ELECTRICAL ENGINEER IN A GLANCE...

1. Being an electrical engineer for over 8 years now, it tells me that working as a technical person is very much indeed demanding.

2. You have to be the subject matter expert or else other people will refer you as an office engineer, carrying the title without any mean.

3. The easiest and fastest way to earn your knowledge is to get down to earth, do it, log it and you'd remember. In fact skills are obtained only from doing it.

4. You need to find a good colleague and mentor in order to counter check your knowledge levels.

5. Apart from that, Engineers must not neglect the economic aspect of the business. You must know what the operations are doing and how is the overall performance of the company.

6. Ability to present and vocalized your opinion are equally important. Remain in silence will show incompetence and you may be regarded as less-knowledgable engineer.

7. When problems arised with regard to electrical, you are the brain to solve it. Technicians will do whatever instructed & recommended with responsibilities mainly on the engineer's shoulder.

8. Most electrical engineers are not competent in doing electrical switching and hence requires the presence and authorisation from a competent person.

9. To further enhance our credibility, we need to either continue our study to the Masters level or pursue the Professional & Competent Engineer status from the regulating body. (ie BEM and IEM for Malaysia)

10. All in all, most local Engineers are quite underpaid unless you are working with a well known overseas project or consultant companies.

11. Being a good Engineer is one thing, but appearing good is more important. Having both is the best.

12. Since technology evolves without stop, technical competency needs to be continually improve from time to time. Learning process is endless indeed.

13. The best way to retain your knowledge is to do it, apart from continuous reading and giving trainings to the younger engineers.

14. If you are an electrical engineering student, you made a good decision as electrical offers plenty of job opportunities around the globe.

15. Once you work, have a vision and complete all the missions. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

In summary:

I do believe that financial freedom is still the ultimate vision. Whatever job that I am doing now is simply a platform to bring me closer to that vision. Perhaps I could retire by 35 (if not 40).