
Ask HN: Admin girl wants to get into radio engineering - alicewales
tl;dr: I&#x27;m a low-paid public sector administrative worker with some unutilised technical skills. I want to pivot away from admin work and go into RF&#x2F;radio engineering, a field that I&#x27;ve had a long-standing interest in.<p>It&#x27;s not a field that&#x27;s totally unknown to me, otherwise I wouldn&#x27;t be considering it. I&#x27;ve had an amateur radio licence and been active since I was a teenager - a full UK licence, not the Foundation ones that they hand out now. I&#x27;ve designed my own antennas, built and repaired my own kit, organised DXpeditions, I&#x27;m experimenting with SDR. It&#x27;s something I have a genuine interest in.<p>I&#x27;m not the sort of person who considers any kind of work &#x27;beneath me&#x27; otherwise I wouldn&#x27;t be doing this in the first place. Work is work, a means to an end. I just don&#x27;t feel like insecure, non-technical, paper-shuffling public sector administrative work is really the best use of my skill set and aptitudes.<p>RF engineering seems like a field with a future and a bit more security. I mean, there&#x27;s very little these days that doesn&#x27;t have a radio of some kind inside it. I&#x27;m just not sure how to get into it as a professional career, what qualifications I&#x27;d need, that sort of thing. I have A-levels even though I have no degree, but my A-levels aren&#x27;t in the sciences because at 16 I was convinced I wanted to be a journalist. Is it something you need to go to university and get a degree to do, or are there more vocational qualifications or apprenticeships you can do instead? As far as I can tell, the degree route would require a three-year BSc in electrical engineering or similar, followed by an MSc to specialise in the radio side of things.<p>Is this a path anyone else here has taken? What routes are there into this kind of career? It really feels like the thing I want to do to feel more challenged, more fulfilled, in order to get out of being everyone&#x27;s assistant and into a role where I actually <i>am</i> something. Thanks all so much in advance for your help!
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brudgers
My take is that a university education is likely to be the simplest and most
high probability path to achieving _professional_ engineering competence. Sure
it's possible to autodidact anything. But doing so requires creating the
structure and metrics on top of just learning all the things a professional
ought to know at a time when a person lacks the knowledge to determine what a
professional ought to know.

To your advantage, unlike many people entering an engineering curriculum,
there's already an interest and some hands on practical experience and
knowledge. To your disadvantage, part of the motivation appears to be status
conferred by a title/degree [these don't directly translate into competence].
I suspect that the former outweights the latter, and that is a net positive.

In the end, vocational training tends to lead to vocational careers and
professional training tends to lead to professional careers.

Good luck.

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throwaway000002
If you want a professional career, unless you can demonstrate domain
knowledge, I'd imagine you'd need a university degree. Going (back) to
university is something I'd not be able to tolerate. If you're a hands-on kind
of person, perhaps a degree in something as close to radio engineering at a
polytechnic may be a better option.

It's really a hard call. I'd recommend getting in touch, as in writing a
letter, explaining your situation and motivation to the radio engineering
departments at, for example: Lime Microsystems, CSR, Neul, Imagination Tech,
ARM (wireless IP unit), the BBC, Nordic Semi, enOcean, Philips (wireless
lighting unit), Thinfilm ASA (printed NFC)...

The list is almost endless, and there is an immense range in activity from
blue-sky work, to out-in-the-field fixing stuff (like radios on oil fields).

Good luck, I'll be secretly cheering you on.

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AlDante2
Hi, I think its a great idea. I'm a software engineer, so I can't give you any
great insights, but what I would suggest is looking at online courses such as
this one: [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-
comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-
science/6-661-receivers-antennas-and-signals-spring-2003/)

That will give you an idea of what kind of skills you will need - I would
guess physics, maths and electronics would be good places to start.

This site has some links to job vacancies at the bottom - that would give you
some idea of what employers are looking for.

Good luck!

