<p>1 comp hardware
2 comp software
3 controls
4 circuits and devices
5 fields and waves
6 signal processing and communications
7 solid state and photonics</p>
<p>i hear that 1 2 and 4 are prty competitive? is that right? what about the others? thanks!</p>
<p>On two, I don’t think that software would fall under EE…</p>
<p>Anyways, I would guess that 1, 4, maybe 7 are tougher.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “competitive”? If you mean salary, it can vary. It also varies by what school you go to. </p>
<p>From what I’ve seen at UIUC, undergraduates with backgrounds in (1), (2) tend to be in greater demand by companies like Google and Microsoft that tend to compensate well. </p>
<p>For the rest, it’s more necessary to have a graduate background to do cutting edge work. Grad students with backgrounds in (3) and (6) get recruited as quant analysts at financial firms (lots of $ there), because of their strength in mathematics. </p>
<p>There’s a lot of overlap between (4), (5), and (7)–if you can design analog ICs, you’re gonna get hounded by companies as there is a shortage of EEs with analog skills.</p>
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<p>i don’t know it seems like everybody and his brother in the EE dept. are studying signal processing and control systems. </p>
<p>the circuits and device dudes seem to be rarer</p>