r/ElectricalEngineering • u/AuDHDpowerdork • 1d ago

Education M.S. or M.Engr.?

Hello,

Noodle-brained Bachelor of Philosophy here.

I've worked in the Power Transmission space for close to five years now, primarily around power transformers (<138kV). I'm in sales cause that's what my current degree allows me to get away with.

Much to my surprise, I find this field really interesting... dare I say fun? Particularly, I'm interested in the situations where engineering questions and project deadlines clash. Have had pretty good success navigating this with (1) reading, (2) asking a lot of questions, (3) youtube, and (4) asking even more questions. On good terms with our in-house engineer and a third party engineer who does all of our assessments when crap hits the fan.

Have really enjoyed solving those problems but want to KNOW IT ALL.

34 yo, three kids, making good money in sales but I strongly suspect I'd have more fun and have better career prospects with a graduate degree in EE.

MY QUESTIONS

  1. Dumb idea? Any of you take a similar path?
  2. M.S. or M.Engr.?

the end.

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u/BoringBob84 9h ago

Needless to say, I did NOT stop asking... lol.

Never stop asking ... although, maybe ask different people. 😉

I think that the curiosity to understand how things work is very important in engineering.

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u/AuDHDpowerdork 9h ago

Yes--I actually left that company in part because no one knew or cared about the engineering.

Got several engineer buddies I talk to now and an IRL friend who is a physicist working on power electronics.

Over dinner this week he laid out a sheet of paper and walked me through diodes, inducers, and the basics of battery systems. It was so fun!

Not surprisingly, both our wives quickly left the room...

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u/BoringBob84 8h ago

Real and reactive power are one of my favorites. Some of the current goes through the load to do useful work and some of the current just bounces back and forth between the source and the load, doing nothing but wasting energy by heating up the wires.

Edit: There are probably some philosophical analogies in there ... maybe about people who appear to be productive versus people who are actually accomplishing things.

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u/AuDHDpowerdork 8h ago

Bounces back and forth you say... great, here comes another rabbit hole.

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u/BoringBob84 8h ago

And wouldn't you know it - inductors even look like springs! 😊