5 Technical Skills to excel as an Electronics Engineer
The most important skills for electronics engineers are those related to quality control, assurance, troubleshooting and test engineering. A balance of technical and leadership skills can be valuable to electronics engineers such as proficiency in C, C++ and project management. Government agencies, military organizations, security contractors, and aerospace manufacturing companies commonly hire electronics engineers.
Here are 5 core skills an electronics engineer should work on:
Project Management
Engineering Design
Troubleshooting
Testing
Embedded system and VHDL and HDL Programming Languages
1. Project Management
The most important factor determining career growth for electronics engineers is project management. Both electronics and electrical engineers in management find this skill helpful for career advancement, which illustrates the value of this skill to both engineers. A manager may oversee entire product life cycles, identify areas for process improvement, and map the scope of product development. The use of Lean Six Sigma enables aerospace and manufacturing companies to ensure a team is as efficient and productive as possible through process improvement.
2. Engineering Design
A modest increase in salary can be seen in electronics engineers with engineering design skills when compared to electronics engineers in general. The specific design methodologies used by electronics engineers are determined by the organization and industry where they work. By becoming familiar with an engineering design model on a basic level, you can become more versatile. As a result, electronics engineers can focus on acquiring in-depth expertise once they have found a suitable workplace, and develop the skills that will help them in their careers.
3. Troubleshooting
According to PayScale data, the most popular skill among electronics engineers is electronic troubleshooting. Depending on the complexity of the devices, this skill can be difficult or easy. For example, with televisions and computers, engineers have to test each component individually in order to ensure that they are all working correctly.
4. Testing
A quality assurance engineer/test engineer combines skills from quality control and quality assurance by implementing processes to ensure quality and looking for ways to increase efficiency during these processes. Despite the modest increase compared to other factors, electronics engineers also have this skill among their top five skills, and the average increase for having this skill can be amplified by acquiring and highlighting the others. Both project management and test engineering have a positive impact on electronics engineers’ salaries.
5. Embedded system and VHDL and HDL Programming Languages
The growing field of integrated circuits and embedded electronics makes programming knowledge beneficial to engineers across many disciplines. A wide range of electronics engineering disciplines require the use of hardware description language (HDL) as it helps determine the behavior of circuits. Most embedded systems are written in C, while HDL is vital for determining the behavior of circuits.
Among IEEE Spectrum’s top programming languages of 2021, C and C++ were both among the top five, both in terms of their overall ranking and how in-demand they are among employers.
