How to Become a Computer Engineer: in Simple Steps

Computers have become so important. We can’t even fathom a time when we didn’t have these things. Our phones ? are tiny computers as well!

Who has made these, though? And who has been improving their designs so steadily? They are people called Computer Engineers. They are the ones who have worked hard and made it possible to hold computers in our hands so easily now.

If you are a computer engineering enthusiast, then I think you should take some time to give this article a read. I promise a lot of queries ❓ will get solved.

Who is a Computer Engineer?

A computer engineer is someone who works in the field of engineering and works on computers ?️. This means that they are someone who is an engineer, and engineers are supposed to make things; they are supposed to build things ?.

So, if you think about it carefully, we will understand that computer engineers are people who focus on making things related to computers.

These things can be hardware and software, too. They have the responsibility to design and build such things. And if need be, they will also maintain this stuff.

This is an up-and-emerging field because computer engineers focus on building robotics ?, networks, and all sorts of things.

All of these are things that are in great demand as of now. Just a few months back, we got to know about the rise of artificial intelligence. So we know that this is something that is not ever going to be on a decline.

Working as a computer engineer is interesting but also requires you to work very hard ?.

How much can a Computer Engineer earn?

Computer engineers are in demand right now. It’s an ever-growing field, and you will be able to find a very good job ⭐ if you work on your skills.

The average salary for a computer engineer in the United States is $85,116 per year. This is the average base pay, which means that a lot of places offer even more ?.

You can also get a lot of extra benefits from companies that consider you a good enough catch. These extra benefits can be in the form of insurance, tips, bonuses, and commissions.

Some of the biggest recruiters for computer engineers in the United States are Apple ?, Intel Corporation, Northrop Grumman, and the Serco Group. If you are a computer engineer in Houston, Pittsburgh, and Warren, then you are one of the highest-paid computer engineers in the United States.

This is because these places pay up to $52 per hour. If we were to look at the hourly ⌛ salary for computer engineers, it would be $43.53 per hour as of now.

These are statistically proven salary trends, and I have made sure that I update them according to the latest stats so that you get fresh information. ?

How to Become a Computer Engineer? (More Tips)

To become a computer engineer, you will have to be immensely dedicated to your goals ?. I say this because you will have to invest a lot of your time as well as your money to gain that skill set that will get you employed. So buckle up and try to understand all of the steps that I have mentioned below. ?

Finish your degrees

Getting a relevant bachelor’s degree ? and then a master’s degree is the way to go. I say relevant because there are tons of computer science or engineering degrees there, but you will have to choose the one that suits you and your ambitions the most.

Try to build a base as well. This base will be made when you pick the right courses for yourself when in school.

So try to look at all of the options available for you when you are looking for programs and colleges ?. Choose the subject which is the most suitable fun for you.

Some of your options are systems programming, control systems, introduction to software engineering, microprocessors, and artificial intelligence, among others.

Work on your experience

Getting experience is always better for your CV/resume ?. This shows your future employees that you are capable of doing the work that is assigned to you because you have already worked on your skills before.

There are a lot of ways in which you can get experience while you are still in college or even school ?.

You can start by finding internships. It would be great if you get paid ones, but don’t mind if you get unpaid ones as well because they will help out with experience at the end of the day.

Try to interact more and more with your professors, too. They might hand out advice or tips if you perform well enough.

Get a license and some certifications

At a point in time when you try to go for higher positions, it might be so that they require you to have some sort of professional license. So, it’s good if you start looking up licensing opportunities to make it easier for yourself later on in the future.

Some of the requirements for becoming licensed as a computer engineer degree are four years of professional experience and passing scores on the fundamentals of engineering exam and professional engineering exam.

You might also want to try to get some professional certifications that can help make your CV look more credible. You will be able to find a lot of such certifications online ?.

Building networks

Lastly, it’s time for you to make a strong professional network ? for yourself. This will help out in lots of ways.

Firstly, you will be able to understand what skills are required in the market because of your network ?. Secondly, you will be able to make your mark in the field, and more and more people will get to know about you and your work. And thirdly, you will be able to help out more people and get help in return as well.

See, very useful, are they not?

Top Computer Engineer Courses in the United States

For jobs like these, online resources can help quite a lot. The reason why I say so is because you need a vast skill set. You need to know how to code, and you need to understand certain things such as machine learning; you need to understand software as well as hardware, etc.

This can be a lot, and hence, online courses can help you increase your skill set by a significant amount easily ?.

Computer System Design

The first course on this list is available on edX. EdX is a leading online educational platform that is associated with a lot of top universities such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc.

This course is going to be taught to you by instructors from the Chalmers University of Technology. You are going to be learning about the execution of programs on the microprocessor level, models that analyze program execution, anatomies of computers, and advanced design concepts in modern computers.

The course is self-paced, which means that you can complete it at your comfort ?. The duration of the course can go on for four months if you decide to follow the set schedule, and it will take you about 4 to 6 hours per week to finish the course.

Data Structures Using C

Ekeeda is another education platform that offers a lot of engineering courses online.

You can also choose to have a counseling session with experts to understand which course would be the best for you. ? The resources also include catalogs, libraries, and a blog to help you out.

This course that we are talking about is going to teach you everything about the C programming language. Topics include control structures, functions, character handling, math operators, stacks, binary trees, and much more.

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been on the rise lately, and anyone who might choose to major in it can earn quite a hefty salary in the future. This course is all about AI ?.

The distributor is simply learning, which is going to provide a completion certificate as well after completing this course.

This is a two-hour course, and the platform will give you at least 90 days of access to brush up on the content whenever you want to.

Some of the skills that you will be learning are fundamentals of machine learning, workflow, and performance metrics.

Crash Course: Build a Full-Stack Web App in a Weekend!

Udemy is the distributor of the last course that we talked about on this list. The instructor for the scores is going to be Jonas Schmedtmann. Jonas is a web developer as well as a designer, and he has been teaching students about his field for quite a while.

This course is divided into eight sections. There are seventy lectures in all of these total eight sections, and it will take you approximately thirteen hours ⌛ to complete this course.

Since this is a full-stack trash course, he will be learning about more than one programming language. These include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and Deployment.

Top Computer Engineer Schools in the World

Becoming a computer engineer requires you to learn a lot of things. While you can learn using online resources as well, offline degrees are always better. Why so? It’s because an offline degree ensures that you have learned the programs and the skills via offline methods, which are hands-on training programs, etc.

It increases the credibility of your skill set. ?

Stanford University

According to the most recent stats, Stanford University stands at a position in the list of topmost universities in the world and North America when it comes to quality education. With an acceptance rate of just 4%, Stanford promises quality education ⭐ that will yield excellent results.

You will need an average SAT score of 1520 and an average ACT score of 35 if you want to enroll in this college. Keep in mind that it’s a private and not-for-profit University, and it will cost you about $14,402 per year to attend it ?.

It is highly recommended for students who are interested and want to become computer engineers because they have tons of programs for students interested in computer science as well as engineering.

University of California – Berkeley

The University of California – Berkeley is also one of the top ones ? in the world and promises a good engineering program on its premises. It has an acceptance rate of 14%, and the highest degree that this college offers is a doctor’s degree.

It’s a public University, and the male-to-female ratio is such that the females are more in comparison to the males. The tuition structure has been divided according to the domicile of the students.

If you are someone who is in that district, the tuition in-district is $11,442. If you are in that state, then the tuition in-state is also $11,442. If you are an out-of-state student, then your tuition fee is $41,196. These are the few structures for the undergraduate programs there.

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University might not be as high on the lists as the previous ones that we were talking about, but it offers one more course, which is known as computational linguistics. And it is the top college ? that offers it.

This college also has an acceptance rate of only 14%, and you would need to pay at least $37,450 per year to attend it. The average SAT score required for admission is 1520, and the average ACT score is 34.

The college has a very, very good plan for students who are interested in engineering because they offer about 20 courses just for engineering enthusiasts.

Tsinghua University

Tsinghua University is the top one in China and a very high-ranking holder in all of Asia. It is a non-profit but public-private partnership University that teaches in the languages Chinese as well as English.

The highest degree that the offer is a bachelor’s only, and the acceptance rate to this university is 30%. Famous alumni from this university include the current President of China, Xi Jinping, and also some other very high-ranking politicians and scientists.

The University offers a plethora of courses for its students and has a special focus on science ?‍? subjects.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I think everyone knows about MIT and its excellence when it comes to engineering courses. It is also a private and not-for-profit University, and the highest degree that they offers is a doctoral degree.

The acceptance rate of this university is 4%, and it would cost you an average of $30,958 per year if you want to attend it ?.

The university offers about 1,027 bachelor’s degrees in 32 subjects. It also offers 1,803 master’s degrees in 35 subjects and 568 Doctoral degrees in 36 subjects. Most of these subjects are engineering and sciences, but they also have extra subjects such as journalism, regional planning, etc.

Where to find Computer Engineer job opportunities online?

Becoming a computer engineer is not as easy as it seems. And getting a job can also be tricky. However, due to the recent rise in online job platforms, we can find a lot of job options while sitting in the comfort of our homes.

I have compiled a list of the top online job opportunities options that you can explore. All of these require very little access to the resources available on their sites. So try to be active on all of these if you want to find a job in time ⏲️.

Merck

Merck is a job platform ?‍? that is dedicated to helping people find jobs. It’s similar to the other big sites on the Internet.

The user interface is a bit different but is quite easy to understand in the end. You just have to sign in as an applicant, and then you can start looking for jobs. Some of the career options that they support are scientists, post-doctoral research fellows, specialists in engineering, and more.

These are not your conventional job opportunities, but Merck makes sure that you get a job regardless of your educational qualifications.

Freelancing sites

Freelancing is a method of earning money that has become popular recently. Almost everyone tries to freelance along with their already existing job on the side or try to become a freelancer only.

This is because freelancers have the freedom to choose whenever they want to work ?. This doesn’t mean that you dictate the terms of the agreement with your client. It simply means that until the deadline comes, you can do the work according to your terms and time management.

It’s a good job option for you if you are a computer engineer because your job is going to be in demand all the time.

You can try to set up accounts on Fiverr and Upwork, which are two freelancing sites on the rise. Making the account is completely free of cost, which helps you access and get connected to other individuals on the platform who might need your services.

LinkedIn is a website that is a job hunting platform but is a bit different from all of the other options on the internet. While a lot of websites will help you a lot with job hunting just with the use of filters and its email reminder features ?, LinkedIn is a website that helps you connect with other people, too.

This is different from other sites in the sense that you become able to set up a profile that you can personalize and update from time to time again as you achieve more and more. So, if you suddenly get a new diploma or more job experience, you can put it up on your profile.

This will be visible to all of the people on the site. And hence, anyone interested in you and your experience can then reach out to you. You can also look up other people’s profiles in a similar fashion.

This is how you can connect and build a network with almost everyone on the site.

Indeed

Indeed is a very popular job-hunting platform and is preferred by a lot of people. This is because of its user-friendly interface and how it is very active when it comes to providing opportunities for both employers and employees.

Thousands of job openings are posted on the site every day, every week. ?Those who actively look for job openings on this platform are sure to not be disappointed.

You don’t need to gain expertise so that you become able to use it. You just have to make yourself a free account, put up some of your details, and then you can start applying for jobs easily.

What’s even better is that you can find all types of jobs on Indeed. You will be able to find full-time jobs for sure and part-time ones as well. You can also find a lot of remote job options if you look carefully.

Conclusion

We have already discussed the difficulties on the road to becoming a Computer Engineer. You have to keep on learning and advancing your skill set.

You have to maintain a network so that you can understand what it’s like in the market right now. And you would have to advertise and talk about your skills so that people know what you’re doing.

Even after all of this, a lot of people still choose to become computer engineers. This is because of the salary, yes. But it’s also about the return rate of the comfort and ease that compels them.

It seems like a good bargain, does it not? ?