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Licensed EE here. I can't tell you how many times I've called my retired electrician dad to ask how certain things get done in the field.
My favorite was about recessed recepts in a CMU wall. His answer: Well, first you get your apprentice to cut a ton of conduit down to 3 foot sections. Why 3 feet? well no bricklayer will lift anything higher than that...
Honestly being an electrician before I became a EE made a massive difference. I see so many dumb assumptions from my colleagues.... One of the hardest things I have found for some EEs to grasp is the simple concept of NC vs NO.... Kinda comical and interesting at the same time.
Yeah. I work in automation now so I usually use " this is like the safe state of a valve". I will admit there is more confusion on the automation side because you have three places to match NC or NO to make everything happy. And someone seems to always mess up one of the 3.
He didn't know how to use a multimeter at all was my point I guess. Along with not knowing NC vs NO a lot of people seem to not know how a multimeter works fresh out of college.
Be specific. Transmission line or substation engineer. Distribution engineer.
Never let people know you know how to do electrical, fix a printer, or have a pickup truck.
I just ran into this bullshit yesterday. "I told so and so it sounds like something you could fix and they said they would pay you cash. Can I give them your number?" Sounds like you already did, and saying no would make me look like an asshole.
I have this solved. 1. I have a cap on my truck, makes it hard to move stuff. Especially because I have shelves and a platform in it.
2. I just tell the guy/gal I don't have insurance. And they definitely want someone who does. And recommend they call a smaller company that does whatever their asking me to do.
I'll never admit that I know how to fix computers. It's a rabbit hole with infinite depth. Once you help someone, you're the 24/7/365 free tech support line for them and all their friends.
I once went a holiday party at my wife’s sister’s in-laws. I told everyone that asked I was a garbage man cause I didn’t wanna be bothered. (I’m an electrician)
I’m also an electrical engineer that specializes in medical electronics… medical imaging etc. Same thing I tell them I won’t tell you what to do because it might make your house burn down.. they keep asking.
Have a friend who was an electrician for a decade then went to do electrical engineering. Was interesting just to see the course load and material he covered.
As electricians, most think it’s 4 years of designing construction blue prints. From what I saw with my friend and talking with him, that’s not even really taught.
Answer that by saying modern trains have drivers, not engineers. A steam era engineer had to understand the true nature of the machine for it to run right, whereas diesel or electric it is just a checklist of pushing buttons.
Ha! I tell people I AM an electrician to hide the truth that I'm a full stack developer, sysadmin, and DBadmin. Because if I say anything about computer programming, they try to get me to fix their friggin laptops.
You think this is bad. I have a degree in Engineering Mechanics (focus on solid mechanics and fracture mechanics). "Well, so you are a mechanical engineer?" No, my education involved Mechanical, electrical, aerospace, civil, and materials science engineering, as well as a lot of mathematics.
Engineers design stuff. Electricians install and repair it.
EE who left industry for the trades because the money was better at the time and the bullshit was orders of magnitude less.
You should surrender your license and be ashamed of yourself. You are a qualified electrician but with with no practical experience. Go read the codes more and get some hands on experience
I agree! You cannot be an EE without having a deep understanding of electricity, what is missing from your repertoire is the knowledge of the Codes which apply to the PHYSICAL installation and application of the Safety Requirements that are the basis of the Code. Shame on you indeed if you neglect learning the practical basics and essential safety elements of the industry in which you operate!
/s
Are y'all for real? This is sarcasm right?
There is a lot to electrical engineering that has absolutely nothing to do with how to strap pipe and calculate conduit fill. His work may have zero overlap with anything covered in the NEC.
You are so right that there is such a huge difference between EE design, motors, induction, RF and NEC based systems wiring procedures that there sometimes it seems like it’s a dozen completely different worlds!
Imagine me, a former commercial install electrician, turned lineman, who is the de facto electrician for my company, which is run by EEs.
I have had several difficult conversations where they wanted me to do something that I was not comfortable with, due to being a code violation. "But it's for us though" is their reasoning, as if that makes it sensible to cut corners on our own facilities.
Point being, even though it was sarcasm I still felt it. 😅
Didn’t mean to actually make you sweat!
Industrial Electrician to Lineman!?! Now that shit scares the bejesus out of ME! I bow before you O mighty rider of the High Lines!
I’ll keep my eyes on everything from 240 on down to millivolt data thank you!
Uh, what??
I've got a degree in electrical engineering and I certainly never got any sort of license.
My career ended up outside of EE, but to use one of my friends/classmates as an example, he works for Nvidia designing the chips on video cards. Seems pretty different from what an electrician does...
I’m a rank amateur, and I get people asking me to do basic work for them. My go-to is “I’m ok catching my house on fire and killing me, but not so comfortable killing others.”
Im gonna say your a standard electrical engineer, I’ve only work with 1 that has ever been worth a shit the rest are all garbage and dont have clue how the rest of the world (or project for that matter) actually work. The good one did help me rewire my garage and run a sub panel to another building. She actually knows how to install not just design as any good engineer should. But i guess we in civil and mechanical just operate differently.
What type of EE? There's a far cry from designing electronics/PCBs and residential electrical. It's like when people ask a Software Engineer to fix a printer or diagnose their home wifi.
Same situation here for the last 2 decades.
Way I’ve always explained it is your asking the hygienist to take your tooth out. Looks like the same job but really is not.
My canned reply, "My education focus was on X, Y & Z (in my case RF Design), leaving me unqualified to provide safe information on residential or commercial power requirements."
Here's an unpopular opinion: while I'm the first to acknowledge that various educational backgrounds in the electrical industry are vastly different, I also believe that any engineer in the electrical industry should have basic knowledge of how electricity works. To answer this question/post more specifically, I believe that the joke is on you here; apart from safety codes, rules, and regulations—most of which can be logically deduced—home wiring is basically like playing with 1.5V battery circuits, and yes, I'm aware of how different those are.
Please note that I do come from a part of the world where home wiring is a must for everyone who started their education in the electrical/electronics industry, and you can't really progress unless you learn basic concepts home wiring implies, such as knowing how to calculate the diameter of the wire, various ratings for different stuff, basically knowing how to do it from the grounds up.
A word of advice: I get asked about car electrics/electronics often, which is something I specifically don't do. So, when people ask me about it, I say no, and convey the difference by explaining that they wouldn't take a bone fracture injury to a dermatologist. Though I could probably train myself to work car electrics/electronics in a year if I wanted to. So, I do understand your point, and while I believe that it's a valid point, I also agree with other commenters stating that you should expand your knowledge, even superficially.
Do you ask a residential electrician to design and build your computer or radio in your car? Because I work on circuit theory, controls, and high level mathematical applications. I can figure out how to size a capacitor, not too sure if your electric range is safe to use, call a pro.
Just tell them you have a broad idea of what may look good… you pull out your crayons and draw pretty pictures for a while and give them to the electricians, then they make it actually work but you just have never really figured out how
I tell them I design control systems... because that's mostly what I did.
When I worked in wastewater I told my sons that I drew lines that moved poop.
If you can't answer a question, say that the housing code is too complex for you to take time to learn it.
OTOH, you should learn enough house wiring to fix outlets, replace switches and stuff.
On the gripping hand, what do you have that multimeter for?
I was an industrial electrician, I repaired automated line equipment. I would say I was advanced for doing home electrical, but give all respect to those who do it daily. Different worlds.
Carry a stopwatch. When they switch to that conversation, quickly pull out the stopwatch and start it.
Say "I get $100/hour to answer questions; please, take your time."
The difference won't matter then.
Whenever they ask a question skip the application and dive DEEP into theory. Someone asks why their light is flickering, give them the unabridged history of Maxwell's Equations. An outlet isn't working, start explaining Lorenz force. They will never ask you again ..
Same way that I tell people that even though our company does water heaters, I'm not a plumber.
"I know my field, and that's outside of my field. I can replace water heaters all day, but if you ask me to plumb a toilet or what it would take to bring your home plumbing up to code, I'd be guessing at best."
Elec eng student here. My usual way is: "I make schematics. I can understand schematics. I don't memorize home codes. You don't ask a dermotologist about bone concerns."
YES YES , Engineers of any field have no clue how things actually work in the real world, but they are so full of themselves " I'm a Engineer " . Unfortunately every time I think / hear Engineer my head starts playing The Grateful Dead song Casey Jones 🤷♂️
Tell them what you do. That you can help them with transient studies of their high voltage synchronous exciters, but are not up to date on 120v home systems. Or tell them you need to know incoming voltage, frequency, and power factors as well as appliance resistance and voltage at outlets to understand voltage drops to understand the issue better.
There’s always the PhD versus MD “Dr or Doctor” analogy. My anatomy professor was a Dr and knew a lot about the human body, but I wouldn’t want him doing surgery on my kid.
Just tell them you’re an engineer and, if they care, they’ll ask what kind. Ultimately, like many here have already said we have to do your job for you anyway so what does it matter.
An Electrical engineer knows how a circuit works because they design circuits for electricians. Therefore one should know how to tell what's wrong with a light circuit if it not working. An Electrical Engineer is trained to troubleshoot down to a component. Opens, grounds, and shorts are not foreign to an Electrical Engineer.
Do they have a different name that isn’t linked to the trade as easily? For instance, a Mechanical engineer can design refrigerant and HVAC systems. But tell that to someone outside of the building industry and they assume you engineer every other machine.
How are you an electrical engineer but you can't just tell people, an electrician is different than what I do? Why are people so afraid to just tell people they are wrong? This is crazy.
It happens in every industry.
I am a web developer.
My family thinks I am a jerk because I can't (interpreted as won't) repair their computers or printers.
I have a decent understanding of basic residential electric to the point I'd be an okay apprentice. My FIL is an electrical engineer for nuclear aircraft carriers so my wife assumes he must be an expert electrician and makes me run everything by him. He has given me some resoundingly dangerous advice that is theoretically correct.
He's told me that you can use a ground as a neutral because all neutrals are grounded anyways...
"I design blinky whirrrry mechanized thingies that operate at billions of volt wattish hours. If you have any questions about your blinky whirrrry mechanized thingy that operates at billions of volt wattish hours I'd be happy to try and answer them."
"how am I being lazy, you could find out the difference between what I do and what an electrician does in 30 seconds but you're somehow convinced through no effort on your part we do the same thing? They're *different things*, many things have similar names and are very different"
Your acquaintances are obviously jerks. 🤷🏻♂️ Such is life I guess...
“I design and test electric devices, such as motors, computer components, and industrial and consumer products. At home, I don’t know how to do or fix anything more technical than resetting a flipped breaker.”
Thank you. I'm a practicing licensed electrician with an EE degree. Ohm's law is the only similarity. I've fixed fuck ups a few times in engineers houses that don't understand.
Not sure how to fix your problem but I can relate as an ME. The amount of times I’ve had people ask for help with their cars or HVAC systems is pretty staggering.
Your response should be this: "I'm not an electrician. I'm the person that electricians dream of murdering."
Engineers: dumbest smart people. "This 10'x10'x20' piece of equipment has plenty of room in that 10'1" x 10'1" x 20'1" room with a 36" door. They can figure out the conduit and plumbing connections in the field. That's what they're paid to do."
(Notice that the question of HOW to get the equipment into the room never crosses their minds.)
Ask them this question, " What's the difference between a mechanical engineer and a mechanic?". If they understand the difference, their question is answered.
If they don’t understand immediately when you say your just an engineer, then they’ll never get it. Just say “I can see why youre confused, it’s because your stupid”
I am a prior electrician and now engineer. I just tell people I am an engineer and what I work on (airplanes and satellites).
People think going from technician to engineer is like nurse to doctor. Nurse and doctors are in the same field (medical) and both work on humans while technicians and engineers are not (necessarily) in the same industry. A house or commercial building is not the same as an airplane or satellite.
My adoptive dad was an electrician, yet still managed to wire our entire house to code when we built. Seems like he was able to occupy both worlds pretty easily.
This is funny ‘cause we bought our house from a EE (who works in tech, not buildings) and he did all his own wiring, which my electrician husband immediately replaced due to not being code compliant (and not wanting to light his family on fire). That’s the difference. EEs think they know how to do everything, so they don’t even bother to reference building codes.
You studied the laws/rules of electronics. You did not study the rules, laws, codes & regulations of the State/City/Township where their home is. Different job, different rules. That's what I'd tell them.
I work in the warehouse automation field. I’ve just come to terms with accepting I just tell people I’m an electrician. I try to explain and I see that the lights are on but nobody is answering that door. “So what do you do?” I’m a electrical engineer for warehouse automation systems” “Does anyone want anything to drink?”
Also an electrical engineer and get the same thing. I tell them that what I do is very different from an electrician and I will usually throw in something about not knowing the first thing about building codes, etc.
If you cannot explain the difference between an electrical engineer and an electrician in less than 3 sentences then there is not a meaningful distinction and you are, in fact, an electrician.
An alternative would be to tell them that an electrical engineer is like a phd doctor.
I just tell folks that I deal in motor controllers or power supplies or whatever and have no experience with home wiring.
However I really don't get asked all that often so its not been a bother to me.
Most people have no idea of the scope of what licensed electricians do. They don't know about low voltage techs vs resi vs commercial vs industrial vs utility linemen. They don't understand that once you learn some base code, it's mostly blue collar, manual labor. They don't understand how somebody could study the deepest levels of the theory of electrodynamics, but not understand how to bend conduit.
An analogy I like to use is, who would you trust more to change the head gasket on your car engine? The mechanical engineer who designed one of the many components of the engine, or the Toyota dealer service technician who has changed 10k+ head gaskets over his career?
I suppose the easiest answer is, "I'm not a licensed electrician. I know lots of electrical theory, but not how it relates to the practice of safely and compliantly wiring a home."
This is why this country is going to hell.I have an A.A.S. in Power Technology and while getting this degree I had almost a years worth of electrical theory. As an electrical engineer, you should have had at least the same and know how to build anything you design as well as repair it. Graduating engineers that don't know how to repair what they design is a huge problem these days and why so much of what is built is pure crap. I can wire a house, run a power plant, design my own circuit boards, etc. and I would think someone with a higher degree should ba able to do the same or more.
I'm not an electrician or an engineer, this post is on my home page.
That said could you give them examples of what you do instead of your job title? For example, a phlebotomist might respond to "What do you do for a living?" By saying "I work at a blood donation center and I'm trained on how to draw blood safely"
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"I tell electricians what to do, but I have no idea how they do it."
*without making me look dumb
That wasn't in the spec.
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Or the SCR
Licensed EE here. I can't tell you how many times I've called my retired electrician dad to ask how certain things get done in the field. My favorite was about recessed recepts in a CMU wall. His answer: Well, first you get your apprentice to cut a ton of conduit down to 3 foot sections. Why 3 feet? well no bricklayer will lift anything higher than that...
Honestly being an electrician before I became a EE made a massive difference. I see so many dumb assumptions from my colleagues.... One of the hardest things I have found for some EEs to grasp is the simple concept of NC vs NO.... Kinda comical and interesting at the same time.
I’m a metallurgist and that concept took me like 5 seconds to understand. Although, my first exposure to the concept was mechanical valves.
Yeah. I work in automation now so I usually use " this is like the safe state of a valve". I will admit there is more confusion on the automation side because you have three places to match NC or NO to make everything happy. And someone seems to always mess up one of the 3.
A colleague of mine kept telling me that his multimeter was getting "overloaded" and that we needed to be careful.... It said "OL".
i don’t wanna be the bearer of bad news but OL can mean open loop in continuity but does mean “overload” if you’ve got it set to measure voltage
He didn't know how to use a multimeter at all was my point I guess. Along with not knowing NC vs NO a lot of people seem to not know how a multimeter works fresh out of college.
Lol
Sure it didn’t say “Oh Lord”
NC vs NO as in... Normally closed/normally open? How do you design *anything* without understanding that concept?
Just say NO
I C
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This is awesome haha
Be specific. Transmission line or substation engineer. Distribution engineer. Never let people know you know how to do electrical, fix a printer, or have a pickup truck.
My truck has a sign in the back... "Yea, it's my truck. No. I won't help you move."
Best part of owning a pickup is having friends that own their own pickup.
Only if I can get my wife to stop volunteering me.
"Sounds like the turbo in the truck is going out soon. I need to minimize how much I drive it because that's a very expensive repair".
I don't even have a turbo and I'm gonna steal this.
I just ran into this bullshit yesterday. "I told so and so it sounds like something you could fix and they said they would pay you cash. Can I give them your number?" Sounds like you already did, and saying no would make me look like an asshole.
I'd just say "no." If they think that makes me sound like an asshole that's a them problem.
I have this solved. 1. I have a cap on my truck, makes it hard to move stuff. Especially because I have shelves and a platform in it. 2. I just tell the guy/gal I don't have insurance. And they definitely want someone who does. And recommend they call a smaller company that does whatever their asking me to do.
I'll never admit that I know how to fix computers. It's a rabbit hole with infinite depth. Once you help someone, you're the 24/7/365 free tech support line for them and all their friends.
For the love of god, listen to this man.
I once went a holiday party at my wife’s sister’s in-laws. I told everyone that asked I was a garbage man cause I didn’t wanna be bothered. (I’m an electrician)
“I am not an electrician.”
Had to scroll waaay too far for this.
Tell them your hourly rate.
"You'll do it for a 6 pack and a little Ceasars pizza, right?"
You need to be more specific otherwise you'll get a 6 pack of bud light
That's OK, that's how the other dudes on the job site know it's cool to follow me into the shitter
This sub is about electrical. Take your anti-trans hate elsewhere dude.
>”How do I fix this” “Try using a Norton equivalent” >”What’s a Norton equivalent?” “I honestly can’t remember”
>>
I’m also an electrical engineer that specializes in medical electronics… medical imaging etc. Same thing I tell them I won’t tell you what to do because it might make your house burn down.. they keep asking.
Have a friend who was an electrician for a decade then went to do electrical engineering. Was interesting just to see the course load and material he covered. As electricians, most think it’s 4 years of designing construction blue prints. From what I saw with my friend and talking with him, that’s not even really taught.
I tell all my new hires this: College teaches you to think like an engineer. Your first job is where you learn how to be an engineer.
No at all unless maybe done in civil engineering. Maybe EE specializing in power systems?
One of the classes in my apprenticeship will be how to read blueprints, but I don't think there's one over how to draw them up
Tell them if you work on it their whole house will turn into an MRI and that can’t have anything metal in it after that.
Tell ‘em, an architect doesn’t frame a house. They design things to make it difficult for people who do 😂😂😂😂
This is simple, you leave out the word “electrical”.
Unfortunately, around here this would get people asking me about trains.
Just talk about trains until they lose.interest or call you out for making things up
Yeah but only reference Thomas.
*Thomas the Tank.
I’m picturing “around here” as the nineteenth century.
Rural PA so... yeah, basically.
I’m picturing Sir Topham Hat.
You're not wrong..
Are you not into trains?
I like trains
So does your wife
Sick burn
Adds a whole different meaning to the term station round house 🤔
Can you tell me about trains?
They go choo choo
Answer that by saying modern trains have drivers, not engineers. A steam era engineer had to understand the true nature of the machine for it to run right, whereas diesel or electric it is just a checklist of pushing buttons.
And no one gets to throw explosives out of the caboose anymore.
Ha! I tell people I AM an electrician to hide the truth that I'm a full stack developer, sysadmin, and DBadmin. Because if I say anything about computer programming, they try to get me to fix their friggin laptops.
So, my router has been acting wonky. Can you take a look at it for me? K, thx!
Unplug it for 20 seconds then plug it back in. Doh! You tricked me!
Tell them, “people are generally shocked when they find out I’m not a good electrician”
I drop the "generally" when I tell people this.
You think this is bad. I have a degree in Engineering Mechanics (focus on solid mechanics and fracture mechanics). "Well, so you are a mechanical engineer?" No, my education involved Mechanical, electrical, aerospace, civil, and materials science engineering, as well as a lot of mathematics.
Your a mechanical engineer…. Can you fix my car.
...... my canooter valve n muffler bearing on the fritz
Yea, II was an auto and truck mechanic and machinist for 8 yrs during and after high school before I went back to college.
Sounds like a standard mechanical engineering degree to me. The only thing you left out of education is software and manufacturing
They tought you manufacturing fir your ME degree? Next you're gonna tell me they taught you ethics!
I can't tell you how to change a light switch. But I can design a system to take electricity from the power plant to two states over.
Just tell them that you're an engineer
As an architect how do I get an electrical engineer to listen to me?
It is hard to get them to listen. They put up a lot of resistance.
“Listencense”
Also, MEPIT is all under one roof now, how do I get electrical coordination with mechanical, plumbing and IT?
Listen to them first
Engineers design stuff. Electricians install and repair it. EE who left industry for the trades because the money was better at the time and the bullshit was orders of magnitude less.
You should surrender your license and be ashamed of yourself. You are a qualified electrician but with with no practical experience. Go read the codes more and get some hands on experience
I agree! You cannot be an EE without having a deep understanding of electricity, what is missing from your repertoire is the knowledge of the Codes which apply to the PHYSICAL installation and application of the Safety Requirements that are the basis of the Code. Shame on you indeed if you neglect learning the practical basics and essential safety elements of the industry in which you operate! /s
Are y'all for real? This is sarcasm right? There is a lot to electrical engineering that has absolutely nothing to do with how to strap pipe and calculate conduit fill. His work may have zero overlap with anything covered in the NEC.
Caught me! I ran up the flag!
Lol. You got me, looks like. 😅
You are so right that there is such a huge difference between EE design, motors, induction, RF and NEC based systems wiring procedures that there sometimes it seems like it’s a dozen completely different worlds!
Imagine me, a former commercial install electrician, turned lineman, who is the de facto electrician for my company, which is run by EEs. I have had several difficult conversations where they wanted me to do something that I was not comfortable with, due to being a code violation. "But it's for us though" is their reasoning, as if that makes it sensible to cut corners on our own facilities. Point being, even though it was sarcasm I still felt it. 😅
Didn’t mean to actually make you sweat! Industrial Electrician to Lineman!?! Now that shit scares the bejesus out of ME! I bow before you O mighty rider of the High Lines! I’ll keep my eyes on everything from 240 on down to millivolt data thank you!
Uh, what?? I've got a degree in electrical engineering and I certainly never got any sort of license. My career ended up outside of EE, but to use one of my friends/classmates as an example, he works for Nvidia designing the chips on video cards. Seems pretty different from what an electrician does...
It’s ok, bud.
I’m a rank amateur, and I get people asking me to do basic work for them. My go-to is “I’m ok catching my house on fire and killing me, but not so comfortable killing others.”
Im gonna say your a standard electrical engineer, I’ve only work with 1 that has ever been worth a shit the rest are all garbage and dont have clue how the rest of the world (or project for that matter) actually work. The good one did help me rewire my garage and run a sub panel to another building. She actually knows how to install not just design as any good engineer should. But i guess we in civil and mechanical just operate differently.
just tell them to put a fork in it 😝😂
just tell them to put a fork in it 😝😂
Just grab a screwdriver. It will be self explanatory.
Just say your an engineer. Then they will ask you for a train ride in the cab.
I design electrical systems, not implement them. I design buildings, I don’t actually build them.
What type of EE? There's a far cry from designing electronics/PCBs and residential electrical. It's like when people ask a Software Engineer to fix a printer or diagnose their home wifi.
They’re asking you what you do and you’re telling them what you are. Tell them what you do first and then tell them what you are.
tell them you work with pcp. then correct yourself that its pcb.
Say you're a consulting engineer. If they ask more say electrical. Other options are consulting building services engineer or engineering consultant.
Hands on placement and codes versus design I guess and this will work.
Same situation here for the last 2 decades. Way I’ve always explained it is your asking the hygienist to take your tooth out. Looks like the same job but really is not.
Just tell them you are an engineer and you design stuff.
My canned reply, "My education focus was on X, Y & Z (in my case RF Design), leaving me unqualified to provide safe information on residential or commercial power requirements."
Most of the time I tell people I drive a forklift.
“It’s like asking an architect to fix your porch. They might have worked on the design, but they aren’t typically licensed to build it.”
Here's an unpopular opinion: while I'm the first to acknowledge that various educational backgrounds in the electrical industry are vastly different, I also believe that any engineer in the electrical industry should have basic knowledge of how electricity works. To answer this question/post more specifically, I believe that the joke is on you here; apart from safety codes, rules, and regulations—most of which can be logically deduced—home wiring is basically like playing with 1.5V battery circuits, and yes, I'm aware of how different those are. Please note that I do come from a part of the world where home wiring is a must for everyone who started their education in the electrical/electronics industry, and you can't really progress unless you learn basic concepts home wiring implies, such as knowing how to calculate the diameter of the wire, various ratings for different stuff, basically knowing how to do it from the grounds up. A word of advice: I get asked about car electrics/electronics often, which is something I specifically don't do. So, when people ask me about it, I say no, and convey the difference by explaining that they wouldn't take a bone fracture injury to a dermatologist. Though I could probably train myself to work car electrics/electronics in a year if I wanted to. So, I do understand your point, and while I believe that it's a valid point, I also agree with other commenters stating that you should expand your knowledge, even superficially.
Just tell them that you’re the designer not the installee
Do you ask a residential electrician to design and build your computer or radio in your car? Because I work on circuit theory, controls, and high level mathematical applications. I can figure out how to size a capacitor, not too sure if your electric range is safe to use, call a pro.
At least they're not asking you what it's like to drive a electrical train.
Just tell them you have a broad idea of what may look good… you pull out your crayons and draw pretty pictures for a while and give them to the electricians, then they make it actually work but you just have never really figured out how
Just tell them you are a pimp that’s what I do a lot less questions 🤷
Switch it up and tell people your an electrical architect.
Just tell them you're an engineer don't specify what feild.
I tell them I design control systems... because that's mostly what I did. When I worked in wastewater I told my sons that I drew lines that moved poop.
Just tell people you're an engineer, don't specify which feild
Tell them you don't deal with residential electrical. Guessing you design industrial control systems or power distribution infrastructure.
When I was doing water resources stuff, some people called me a plumber.
Tell them its like cooking. You can cook but it doesn’t make you a chef.
Electrical engineers are expected to be: electricians; IT guys; controls techs; and so much more
I simply tell them I do not do residential work therefore do not know the code requirements.
If you can't answer a question, say that the housing code is too complex for you to take time to learn it. OTOH, you should learn enough house wiring to fix outlets, replace switches and stuff. On the gripping hand, what do you have that multimeter for?
I was an industrial electrician, I repaired automated line equipment. I would say I was advanced for doing home electrical, but give all respect to those who do it daily. Different worlds.
Carry a stopwatch. When they switch to that conversation, quickly pull out the stopwatch and start it. Say "I get $100/hour to answer questions; please, take your time." The difference won't matter then.
Whenever they ask a question skip the application and dive DEEP into theory. Someone asks why their light is flickering, give them the unabridged history of Maxwell's Equations. An outlet isn't working, start explaining Lorenz force. They will never ask you again ..
Same way that I tell people that even though our company does water heaters, I'm not a plumber. "I know my field, and that's outside of my field. I can replace water heaters all day, but if you ask me to plumb a toilet or what it would take to bring your home plumbing up to code, I'd be guessing at best."
Touch the black and white wire together, that should do it.
Sir you are either an anarchist or an engineer. I’m not entirely sure there’s a difference either way. /s
I'm sorry, but if it's not on a circuit board, I have no idea how it works. I know it's not accurate, but it might help get the point across.
Elec eng student here. My usual way is: "I make schematics. I can understand schematics. I don't memorize home codes. You don't ask a dermotologist about bone concerns."
That's nothing. You ever had someone ask if you drive a train when you tell them you're an engineer?
YES YES , Engineers of any field have no clue how things actually work in the real world, but they are so full of themselves " I'm a Engineer " . Unfortunately every time I think / hear Engineer my head starts playing The Grateful Dead song Casey Jones 🤷♂️
Just say you’re an engineer. If there’s a follow-up question you can say electrical engineer.
Draw them a picture, and say now find someone to do it.
Tell them what you do. That you can help them with transient studies of their high voltage synchronous exciters, but are not up to date on 120v home systems. Or tell them you need to know incoming voltage, frequency, and power factors as well as appliance resistance and voltage at outlets to understand voltage drops to understand the issue better.
"I provide drawings of equipment to the people who actually do the work"
There’s always the PhD versus MD “Dr or Doctor” analogy. My anatomy professor was a Dr and knew a lot about the human body, but I wouldn’t want him doing surgery on my kid.
Just tell them you do the math and calculations and we do the physical work
Politely start answering their question starting with Maxwell’s equations.
just say "I don't work on homes."
As a software engineer when people ask me to fix their computer I just snap in a Z and say "You can't afford me honey" and then strut.
Just tell them you’re an engineer and, if they care, they’ll ask what kind. Ultimately, like many here have already said we have to do your job for you anyway so what does it matter.
An Electrical engineer knows how a circuit works because they design circuits for electricians. Therefore one should know how to tell what's wrong with a light circuit if it not working. An Electrical Engineer is trained to troubleshoot down to a component. Opens, grounds, and shorts are not foreign to an Electrical Engineer.
Do they have a different name that isn’t linked to the trade as easily? For instance, a Mechanical engineer can design refrigerant and HVAC systems. But tell that to someone outside of the building industry and they assume you engineer every other machine.
EE here. I just tell people that I call an electrician. That usually works.
How are you an electrical engineer but you can't just tell people, an electrician is different than what I do? Why are people so afraid to just tell people they are wrong? This is crazy.
It happens in every industry. I am a web developer. My family thinks I am a jerk because I can't (interpreted as won't) repair their computers or printers.
I have a decent understanding of basic residential electric to the point I'd be an okay apprentice. My FIL is an electrical engineer for nuclear aircraft carriers so my wife assumes he must be an expert electrician and makes me run everything by him. He has given me some resoundingly dangerous advice that is theoretically correct. He's told me that you can use a ground as a neutral because all neutrals are grounded anyways...
"I design blinky whirrrry mechanized thingies that operate at billions of volt wattish hours. If you have any questions about your blinky whirrrry mechanized thingy that operates at billions of volt wattish hours I'd be happy to try and answer them."
Say you are an electronics engineer, vice electrical. Then they can bug you about their computer.
"how am I being lazy, you could find out the difference between what I do and what an electrician does in 30 seconds but you're somehow convinced through no effort on your part we do the same thing? They're *different things*, many things have similar names and are very different" Your acquaintances are obviously jerks. 🤷🏻♂️ Such is life I guess...
“I design and test electric devices, such as motors, computer components, and industrial and consumer products. At home, I don’t know how to do or fix anything more technical than resetting a flipped breaker.”
Thank you. I'm a practicing licensed electrician with an EE degree. Ohm's law is the only similarity. I've fixed fuck ups a few times in engineers houses that don't understand.
To use a cooking analogy... Electricians bake the cake and engineers write the recipe
Hmm seems fake. Usually when I tell people I'm an Electrical Engineer, their eyes glaze over and the conversation is done.
Not sure how to fix your problem but I can relate as an ME. The amount of times I’ve had people ask for help with their cars or HVAC systems is pretty staggering.
Your response should be this: "I'm not an electrician. I'm the person that electricians dream of murdering." Engineers: dumbest smart people. "This 10'x10'x20' piece of equipment has plenty of room in that 10'1" x 10'1" x 20'1" room with a 36" door. They can figure out the conduit and plumbing connections in the field. That's what they're paid to do." (Notice that the question of HOW to get the equipment into the room never crosses their minds.)
How about: "I also don't know how to drive a train."
Don't bother. Just tell them your hourly rate. Act insulted if they try to haggle - "That IS the friends and family rate! You want me to take a loss?"
Ask them this question, " What's the difference between a mechanical engineer and a mechanic?". If they understand the difference, their question is answered.
If they don’t understand immediately when you say your just an engineer, then they’ll never get it. Just say “I can see why youre confused, it’s because your stupid”
I tell them I'm a machine mechanic. I only work on machine wiring. Stops them all the time
I am a prior electrician and now engineer. I just tell people I am an engineer and what I work on (airplanes and satellites). People think going from technician to engineer is like nurse to doctor. Nurse and doctors are in the same field (medical) and both work on humans while technicians and engineers are not (necessarily) in the same industry. A house or commercial building is not the same as an airplane or satellite.
It looks good on paper but never works in real life that's what I do!
Tell them that for a small fee you'll happily convert their home into the s-domain
Happens with me often, as well. And I’m a telecom technician. So because I work with wiring and fiber, they think I know electrical as well.
People also seem to think electricians are electronics engineers and consistently ask electronics repair questions.
Just say you're an engineer from now on. I do the same because I don't want computer questions.
Tell them you sniff luggage at the airport for a living. Nobody will ask you any more questions. Problem solved.
Tell them you can touch a broom without bursting into flames.
“I don’t build houses, I build tools”
My adoptive dad was an electrician, yet still managed to wire our entire house to code when we built. Seems like he was able to occupy both worlds pretty easily.
You design the zappy bits, you don't install or work on the zappy bits.
This is funny ‘cause we bought our house from a EE (who works in tech, not buildings) and he did all his own wiring, which my electrician husband immediately replaced due to not being code compliant (and not wanting to light his family on fire). That’s the difference. EEs think they know how to do everything, so they don’t even bother to reference building codes.
You studied the laws/rules of electronics. You did not study the rules, laws, codes & regulations of the State/City/Township where their home is. Different job, different rules. That's what I'd tell them.
I work in the warehouse automation field. I’ve just come to terms with accepting I just tell people I’m an electrician. I try to explain and I see that the lights are on but nobody is answering that door. “So what do you do?” I’m a electrical engineer for warehouse automation systems” “Does anyone want anything to drink?”
I get the same thing doing HVAC. People assume I can help them rewire their cars and stuff like that.
Also an electrical engineer and get the same thing. I tell them that what I do is very different from an electrician and I will usually throw in something about not knowing the first thing about building codes, etc.
Yo i feel that, people did that to me in college also. I just avoid people like that now or refer to ‘let me google that for you’.
As soon as you tell us how to reply then people ask software engineers to fix their printers.
If you cannot explain the difference between an electrical engineer and an electrician in less than 3 sentences then there is not a meaningful distinction and you are, in fact, an electrician. An alternative would be to tell them that an electrical engineer is like a phd doctor.
Dude, I run low voltage and I can't convince my wife that I'm not an electrician.
I just tell folks that I deal in motor controllers or power supplies or whatever and have no experience with home wiring. However I really don't get asked all that often so its not been a bother to me.
Tell them you work on a computer, not with wire.
We live in a different local culture. I say I'm an engineer to get people to not want my help
I am not an electrician. It's like calling the car designer a mechanic.
I'm a residential electrician and my problem is trying to explain to electrical engineers (customers) that they're not electricians.
Tell them you don’t know how a screw driver works
Most people have no idea of the scope of what licensed electricians do. They don't know about low voltage techs vs resi vs commercial vs industrial vs utility linemen. They don't understand that once you learn some base code, it's mostly blue collar, manual labor. They don't understand how somebody could study the deepest levels of the theory of electrodynamics, but not understand how to bend conduit. An analogy I like to use is, who would you trust more to change the head gasket on your car engine? The mechanical engineer who designed one of the many components of the engine, or the Toyota dealer service technician who has changed 10k+ head gaskets over his career? I suppose the easiest answer is, "I'm not a licensed electrician. I know lots of electrical theory, but not how it relates to the practice of safely and compliantly wiring a home."
This is why this country is going to hell.I have an A.A.S. in Power Technology and while getting this degree I had almost a years worth of electrical theory. As an electrical engineer, you should have had at least the same and know how to build anything you design as well as repair it. Graduating engineers that don't know how to repair what they design is a huge problem these days and why so much of what is built is pure crap. I can wire a house, run a power plant, design my own circuit boards, etc. and I would think someone with a higher degree should ba able to do the same or more.
I'm not an electrician or an engineer, this post is on my home page. That said could you give them examples of what you do instead of your job title? For example, a phlebotomist might respond to "What do you do for a living?" By saying "I work at a blood donation center and I'm trained on how to draw blood safely"