Electronics Engineer

Electronics Engineers design, create, and test electronic gadgets, which can include anything from a GPS system to an Ipod. Your job is pretty close to that of an Electrical Engineer, and in fact, the titles are often used interchangeably in the U.S. The only major difference is specialization—while Electrical Engineers take care of entire electrical systems, Electronics Engineers are more concerned with the system’s smaller parts, like individual computers and circuit boards. Also, Electronics Engineers have a different use for electricity—it’s for processing information rather than transmitting energy.

It all starts with an idea for a new product. Your company or its client asks you to use your knowledge of science, math, and electronics to bring this idea to life. Say, for example, they put you in charge of creating a new music storage system. You look at what was used before, and decide if updating that model would create a better system. Alternatively, you just start completely from scratch and design a system yourself.

Once you’ve created a prototype, you test it in every possible way. In fact, you test it to the brink of destruction. The idea is to find its flaws, because you need to know the ways your new invention can fail. This way, you can keep changing it until you come up with the best product possible.

Throughout the creation process, you want to keep in mind things like ease of use, compatibility with other equipment, and budget. Giving your company’s clients exactly what they want is important. But you wouldn’t want your company to lose a fortune in the process, would you?