Which EE field is the hottest? Forum

[townizm]

Hi, I'm studying EE and I'm in senior year. I wanna go law school after 2-3 years of work.

If I were seeking a job as a patent attorney, which of these areas of specialization is most sought after by those hiring patent attorneys with a EE degree?

1. Semiconductor + circuit
2. Software + embedded
3. Telecommunication + network

Thank you.

[Abbie Doobie]

specializing within EE probably won't help much from a hiring standpoint. most firms will look to see if you check the EE box and that is it.

it can help marketing yourself within a firm once you get hired. for example, if your firm has a telecom client, you probably will have an easier time convincing the partner and the client to put you on the client's work if you can show that you have a specialized background in telecom.

you have the right idea getting some work experience before going to law school. industry experience can help in the hiring process, plus it gives you some perspective on working in the real world before moving to a more intense/distilled version of it. hell, you may even find out after a few years that you would rather stay working as an engineer than go to law school.



oh yeah, one final thing...harumph this forum isn't for 0L's harumph

[Future Ex-Engineer]

MS in EE (telecom/networks graduate focus) here.

IANAL yet, but strictly from a job perspective for the 2-3 years you're interested in before law school, either go software or telecom.

Jobs are plentiful for both. Pay typically starts higher for telecom, but the software/embedded jobs ramp up payscale faster (if you're good). Granted, 2-3 years probably won't make much of a difference either way. Basically pick whichever you like more - embedded/software or telecom/nets. I'd stay away from semiconductor/physical unless you're interested in high level academia (most 'good' jobs there are research intensive requiring a graduate degree).

Also, there are no hotties in EE. Should look at nursing or elementary ed if that's what you're interested in. /s

[Anonymous User]

It probably only matters for patent prosecution. For law, semiconductor + circuits. For engineering, probably software + embedded.

The semiconductor and circuits stuff is difficult for people to learn as a lawyer. The other EE technical fields tend to be a lot easier to pick up as a lawyer. A lot of that other stuff is more higher level from a patent attorney perspective.

[elendinel]

I think the list you made is pretty much the ranking I'd give them, if you're graduating with an EE degree and looking to get into patent law. There's no way you're going to learn enough about computer science in an EE program to justify spending time learning software/etc. (and most of what you, as an EE major, may get, if you get any software work, won't really require a whole lot of specialized knowledge), and networks/telecommunications are fairly easy to learn on the job, too (and less useful as a focus than the other two).

Learning the hardware stuff will also give you an edge when some random client comes up with some semiconductor-focused patents out of the blue and no one has the science background to understand what's going on.

[gogu]

EE patent attorney here. All three of those are important (I would add signal processing to the list), but make sure you get a good understanding of semiconductors in college because that is the one that will most benefit from a professor's explanations. In some ways it is intuitive but a deep understanding of semiconductors is surprisingly nuanced. In my experience, having top notch semiconductor knowledge will really set you apart and get you some projects (prosecution and litigation) that others can't do.