Jean Betances
Profesor Ellis
English 1101
11/8/15
My name is Jean Betances and I am a student at New York City College of Technology, majoring in Electrical Engineering Technology. I am in the program for an associates in this field, which would make me an electrical technician and then I will pursue a degree in a four year institution in electrical engineering. I am excited about this career because it’s something I have wanted to do ever since I was a child. Technology has always been something that intrigued me and that I wanted to find out about more. I wanted to see how it worked on the inside, what makes it run the way it does and what tells it to do the things that they do. It has always been something that has captured my attention so it seemed natural to choose a career that deals with technology.
For a long time I thought about mechanical engineering but later on I discovered I was more interested in the electrical side to things. I think I was drawn to the electrical aspect of things because I realized that without it the whole operation would be pointless and not operational. It seemed to me that the electricity portion was the most important aspect of any technological piece. I wanted to know how every machine around us and the houses we live in are powered and how to fix any electrical problem that I may encounter. Another reason I chose this career is because a lot of people in my family are engineers themselves. For example my two of my cousins, my uncle, and my aunt back in the Dominican Republic. In this essay I will address what is the role of an electrical technician and what is expected of his position. I will also further explain my reasoning for choosing this particular major.
An electrical technician, when working in research and development, may be needed to construct breadboard layouts of electronic devices and experimental chassis and cabinets of prototype equipment. (College Catalog, 243) A breadboard in electronics is a circuit assembled on an insulating surface, often with solderless contacts, in which components can easily be replaced for circuit alteration and experimentation. In drafting a cabinet is designating a method of projection in which a three-dimensional object is represented by a drawing having all vertical and horizontal lines drawn to exact scale, with oblique lines reduced to about half scale so as to offset the appearance of distortion. They may also have to design and construct test fixtures and apparatus, plot graphs of test results and write reports, and inspect and calibrate test equipment. The main responsibility of electrical technicians is mostly in maintenance and control of installed equipment. However they are often put in teams with electrical engineers, other engineering technicians, and draftsmen. In a group the electric technician may suggest positions of electronic components on a panel or chassis, they may suggest modifications and perform design calculations for engineers. They could also prepare specifications for certain materials and parts, estimate the cost of alternate design possibilities and help write use and technical manuals for electronic equipment users. Employers for this career include companies like Con Edison, IBM, ITT, Avaya, USPS, NYPD, MTA, JPMorgan Chase and Verizon. Electrical engineering technicians work in offices, laboratories, and factories because the job requires both engineering theory and assembly-line production.
Electrical engineering Technician’s pay median is $57,850 per year which is $27.81 per hour while the bottom 10 percent of the technicians make $34,560 and the top 10 percent make $83,120. The work schedule usually follows the same time as production workers in the industry in which the Electrical engineering technicians work in. For example, if you work for the federal government you follow their standard workweek schedule or if you work in a manufacturing industry you would follow theirs, although sometimes overtime might be required. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Electrical Engineering Technology)
A man named Erik at which is a part of the Energy Programme is a post-secondary teacher in Sweden. Erik teaches Energy Technology but before becoming a teacher like his father he was a plumber for 15 years. In an interview Erik stated that when he was a plumber he just turned screws but the never understood what it was that he was doing or how the whole thing worked. I realized that this was a warning for the future. I need to learn in City Tech the Engineering Theory before I can do anything in the real world. I might learn on the job but having an understanding of the big picture makes the job a whole lot easier. (Reasons for choosing a technically oriented education: an interview study within the fields of pipefitting and industry, 382)
Technology has always been interesting to me ever since I was a kid. One day years ago my parents got both me and my sister a virtual pet toy called Tamagotchi, which were very popular at the time. From playing with it so much I must have broken something on the inside of my toy because it stopped working. I decided to replace the inside screen with my sister’s Tamagotchi instead of just asking my parents for another one. I got a set of screws that my father got for me earlier in the year and I took apart both my sister’s and my own Tamagotchi. I took out my broken screen and replaced it with hers, then I put the hardware back together and to my surprise the toy worked just like new. I found it shocking that I was able to do that successfully. After that I tried to fix everything that was broken electronically around the house. One time after that day I tried to fix the vibrating mechanism on my PlayStation 2 controller. Although I failed to fix that, I found the inside of these things very intriguing and wanted to learn more about it. That was when the interest for engineering truly sparked for me and I started to look more into an engineering career. In high school I wanted to learn more about how engineering worked so I joined a robotics club and we worked on a robot to enter the First Robotics Competition. This furthered my interest and helped me decide what I wanted to become. In the program I learned the different things between the mechanical aspect of the robot and the electrical. I leaned toward the electrical side a little bit more than the mechanical. This always felt like the right career and it was the one that I always had in mind. If not this career, I’m not really sure what I would do instead. Another big reason I chose this career is because I want to see my work become something real and be able to say that I helped design whatever it may be. I want to be able to point out exactly what I did and see how I contributed to the final product.
What I want to get out of my time at City Tech is a working knowledge of how the real world of engineering works and knowledge that I could apply on the job. Just like teacher Erik stated I want to understand the big idea before I get to the details of my career. In the future I plan to have a comfortable career as an Electrical Engineer on a firm. I plan to live right here in New York City but travel around the world with the opportunities I get in my career. I also want to use my knowledge from City Tech to in my everyday life. I want to learn things that could help me in day to day situations.
Works Cited:
New York City College of Technology College catalog 2015-2016 (City Tech) New York: NewYork City Technology, 2015.PDF.
“Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technicians.” Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
de Camargo Ribeiro, Luis Roberto. “Electrical Engineering Students Evaluate Problem-Based Learning (PBL).” International Journal Of Electrical Engineering Education 45.2 (2008): 152-312. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
