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What are the job prospects like for an EE graduate in a country that doesn't have a strong semiconductor and IC design/manufacturing industry?

EE major here, expecting to graduate in 2024. I'll have to admit that I'm only here because I wasn't admitted to the CS program and I've mostly been paying attention to trends in the software development industry, so please pardon my ignorance. My country (Sweden) has a great software industry but the hardware design and manufacturing industry isn't nearly as strong. The advice I get is that EE has great career prospects in semiconductors, IC design, microelectronics and defense, but most of these positions will require relocation which I'm not interested in. I'm clueless about RF and power systems, and besides, the compensation tends to be worse than the previously mentioned industries.

Currently, I'm grinding the "self-taught programmer" stuff, taking CS classes and doing IT jobs to get the experience for a full-time dev role. The CS bubble burst didn't affect my country that much because we didn't have overinflated salaries and excessive expansion during the pandemic. Would there still be good prospects in EE if I choose to focus on it (assume passion for CS is negligible), or would it be a better idea to keep going with CS?

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  • I do not know much about EE jobs in Sweden, but I know they have PCB assembly there. I worked with a client who had prototypes assembled at PartnerTech in Malmo. I felt like that place was peaceful on a certain level that I don't feel in the US. My great grandparents came from Sweden, and I met my distant relatives who live near Gothenburg.

    I suspect there must be industrial automation programming jobs, which might be good for you since they involve programming and hardware EE.

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