What skills should a good electrical engineer develop?

Tom Crosley, B.S. Electrical Engineering, Iowa State University

Answered Nov 26 ·
Upvoted by Ashutosh Jain, M.S Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University and Ege
Korkan, Masters Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Munich (2017)

Number one: know Ohm’s law. Be able to work out in your head the values for voltage, current,
resistance, and power for simple circuits (i.e. know instinctively 10 volts across a 499 Ω resistor
is going to result in a current around 20 mA, and not 2A or 2 mA).

Understand the use of basic components: resistors, capacitors, inductors, transformers, relays,
diodes (regular, Zener, Schottky, LED, etc.), crystals, transistors (bipolar, MOSFET etc.), SCRs,
op-amps, comparators, voltage regulators and so on.

Know how to read datasheets.

Know basic analog circuits: be able to draw an inverting amp, non-inverting amp, integrator and
differentiator using an op-amp from memory (not necessarily all the component values, but at
least the basic circuits).

Understand filters, both passive and active, including poles and zeroes, low-pass, high-pass,
band-pass, Bode plots, etc.

Know the difference between linear and switching power supplies, and when to use which type.

Know something about batteries; primary and rechargeable (NiCad, NiMH, Li-ion), and types of
charging circuits for each.

Know basic logic circuits: NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR, XOR, multiplexors, demultiplexors,
encoders, decoders, flip-flops, counters, shift registers, etc. Bonus if you know Boolean algebra
and De Morgan’s Laws by heart and can work with Karnaugh maps.

Understand the difference between different kinds of memory: SRAM, DRAM, EEPROM, Flash
etc.

Understand some RF, including use of cell modems, Bluetooth/BLE, Wi-fi, ZigBee, and ISM
and various modulations schemes (AM, FM, SSB etc.)

Understand some basic information theory and signal processing (encoding, decoding,
cryptography etc.) along with popular formats such as MP3, AAC, FLAC, MP4, AVI, etc.

Understand basic control theory. Bonus if you know how to design and tune a PID system.
Be able to design a system using a microcontroller, using protocols such as USB, SPI, I²C, I²S.
Plus other microcontroller features such as UARTs, DMA, timers, watchdog etc. Be able to
program said microcontroller system in C and/or assembly.

Understand what a DSP is, and how it can be used. Know something about FFTs.

Be able to draw a schematic by hand, and also with a CAD program (e.g. EAGLE or Altium).

Be able to lay out a 2 or 4-layer PCB using the same tools.

Be able to generate a BOM (bill of materials) for a schematic, suitable for production (with part
#’s and sources for all parts).

Be able to solder well, and to repair circuit boards.

Be able to build a prototype circuit using a wireless breadboard or a vectorboard.

Be able to test a new board or circuit without it going up in smoke.

Be able to use an oscilloscope, digital multimeter, spectrum analyzer, logic analyzer and other
tools.

Good communications skills, both verbal and written (thanks Hal Harari for suggesting this). Be
able to write concise specifications, along with more detailed theory of operation documentation.
If the device has a user interface, may need to write a user manual.

That’s all I can think of. It’s based on my skill set developed over 48 years as an EE (and another
12 years before that; I started building electronic kits when I was 10). I’ve worked with all of the
above at one time or another.

I’ve deliberately left off power generation, transmission, and distribution; although I had classes
in that, I’ve never had to use any of it so I’m not really in a good position to comment on that
area. It is pretty much separate from the rest of EE.