Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Wherever your career leads you, employers will want to see evidence of the skills you have developed during your studies. These may include technical skills and academic knowledge if you’re seeking a job related to EEE and ‘transferable skills’ like problem-solving, resilience and intellectual curiosity that fit a broad range of roles within and outside of EEE-related roles.

The typical skills developed by Imperial EEE students during their degree are highly valued by employers, and include:

• Reasoning, analytical skills and problem-solving
• Computational knowledge (e.g. for use of tools like AutoCAD and MATLAB)
• Critical thinking
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Presentation skills

It’s good practice to reflect on your abilities and consider what skills you can evidence and which skills you may need to enhance. Use our self-reflection webpages to help understand and document your abilities.

During your degree you will have many opportunities to develop and learn new skills. Employers will want to see what you have been doing to develop your skills and knowledge outside your course while you have been a student. Experiences such as student societies, part-time work, volunteering and sports can develop your skills and will be valuable additions to your CV. Work experience can also help develop skills and help you decide what career direction you want to go in and become more competitive in future job or further study applications.

As an Imperial student you can participate, or take a leadership role, in a wide variety of Students’ Union activities where you’ll develop many skills. You also have free access to LinkedIn Learning and can use this to develop or improve your knowledge and abilities with software tools and skills through instructional videos taught by industry experts.

To develop skills required to successfully navigate the job or internship market, you can make use of Careers Service resources too. For example, you will need to know how to create a strong CV, write a good cover letter and perform well in interviews – start with the applications and interviews section of our website, and by attending our skills training and workshops.

When you understand your skills through self-reflection it’s a good idea to learn about the range of career areas that might be of interest. You could develop photovoltaic cell technology, advance smart electrical grid systems or apply analytical and computational skills to answer critical global issues. Our What Do Imperial Graduates Do? pages contain our Graduate Outcomes data which gives examples of employers and further study options of previous graduates. You can search the data to find out what EEE students went on to do immediately after graduation and you may also find it useful to explore Imperial College LinkedIn – “EEE” where you can explore the career paths of our EEE alumni as their careers develop over time. However, don’t feel limited by what others have done. Make sure you follow your own interests, using these tools for inspiration if that is helpful for you.

For EEE students it is helpful to consider whether you want to use your EEE knowledge in your job. If so, would you like to be working in a hands-on engineering role or doing something else? To help you begin we have listed some of the career areas that Imperial EEE students often go into, taken from our Graduate Outcomes data. Our exploring options resources can help you to learn more about these sectors including desirable skills, responsibilities, professional development and salary expectations across different roles and industries. You can also meet employers from many of these areas through Careers Service events and fairs which are advertised on JobsLive and in our weekly newsletter.

If you are interested in continuing to use your EEE knowledge you could consider some of these industries:

• Sustainable energy
• Water companies
• Oil and gas
• Technology companies
• Research and development

If you are interested in continuing to use your technical knowledge but not necessarily directly, you might like to explore some of these career areas:

• Technical consultancy
• Education
• Data science
• IT/technology
• Science communications/science writing

Here are some typical careers outside engineering that EEE students go into:

• Financial services, e.g. accountancy, actuarial, audit, tax
• Graduate management roles
• Banking
• Wholesale/Retail trade
• Consulting
• Civil service/government
• Project management

Through your research you’ll see that there’s a very wide range of options open to EEE graduates. Some of these are directly accessible from a first degree while others may require additional further study. This can create many questions that you’ll want to answer and speaking to a Careers Consultant through one of our one to one appointments may help after your initial research.

In addition to our resources you may also find the national resource Prospects – EEE to have a similar but alternative commentary to the resources we’ve specifically curated here for you.

A professional body, association or society seeks to further a particular profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession. The body maintains an oversight of the knowledge, skills, conduct and practice of that profession and can offer accreditation or chartership. You can often use professional bodies to access training or networking events and explore related career options.

Below are some links to professional bodies that deal with various areas related to EEE. Many offer student membership which can give you access to job listings and careers information while offering great networking opportunities. Some memberships may even allow you to register your CV to vacancy matching services or to be viewed by other members of the community.

• IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• IET – Institution of Engineering and Technology

There are many well-known Multinational Companies (MNCs) offering graduate level jobs but Small or Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), defined as organisations with fewer than 250 employees, also offer a wide range of interesting and unique graduate level roles. Due to a smaller marketing budget SMEs can be harder to find and they often rely on you approaching them speculatively to show motivation and interest. They will sometimes engage with universities through incubation hubs to help them grow skills and expertise. The Imperial Enterprise Lab often run events to help students understand and network with SME and start-up communities.

Below are useful websites to find SMEs relevant to EEE:

• The Association of Consulting & Engineering ‘find a consultant’ page allows you to search for engineering consultants by specialism.

• The British Automation & Robot Association can be used to find robot manufacturers and software organisations.

• The Design Directory can be used to find specialist design engineering companies.

• Space Careers UK contains a list of companies of all sizes, including SMEs, working in the space sector.

• Engineering and Tech jobs is primarily a jobs board but it allows you to search by discipline, sector and location to help you find a range of SMEs in relevant areas to you.

SMEs can also be found using Google Maps by running a search for a specific term (e.g. “Design Verification”) in geographic areas where you would like to work or where you know one organisation is. Often SMEs will cluster together geographically around a larger organisation related to their work from hospitals to transport hubs.

LinkedIn is also a good tool to discover SMEs. Explore the profiles of different people who have roles that you are interested in and scroll down their profile to see where they have worked. You may find SMEs and other interesting organisations that you did not know about. For further support with LinkedIn, attend a Careers Essentials: LinkedIn course.

Career planning often takes time and can sometimes feel overwhelming. It’s a good idea to set aside a small amount of time on a regular basis to maintain momentum. Below are some things to get you started:

• Sign up to the Imperial Careers Newsletter by checking the relevant box on your personal profile on JobsLive
• Learn about the timescales for applying for further study, work experience and graduate employment
• See our what's on pages to find out about the different types of events that we run, including: workshops, careers fairs, career talks  - and hear from alumni and employers about different types of work.
• Learn the skills that will help you succeed on the job market in the applications and interviews section of our website, and by attending our skills training and workshops

If you feel stuck with your career planning, you could book a one to one appointment to talk it through with a careers consultant. Jess Popplewell is the careers consultant for EEE but you can see any of our consultants for your first appointment.