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Circuit designer vs communications engineer

The differences between circuit designers and communications engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a circuit designer and a communications engineer. Additionally, a circuit designer has an average salary of $105,618, which is higher than the $83,540 average annual salary of a communications engineer.

The top three skills for a circuit designer include cadence, analog and RF. The most important skills for a communications engineer are RF, unified communications, and unity.

Circuit designer vs communications engineer overview

Circuit DesignerCommunications Engineer
Yearly salary$105,618$83,540
Hourly rate$50.78$40.16
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs44,61171,942
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age4545
Years of experience66

Circuit designer vs communications engineer salary

Circuit designers and communications engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Circuit DesignerCommunications Engineer
Average salary$105,618$83,540
Salary rangeBetween $79,000 And $139,000Between $62,000 And $111,000
Highest paying CityMountain View, CAPalo Alto, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyAppleShearman & Sterling
Best paying industryManufacturingFinance

Differences between circuit designer and communications engineer education

There are a few differences between a circuit designer and a communications engineer in terms of educational background:

Circuit DesignerCommunications Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common majorElectrical EngineeringElectrical Engineering
Most common collegeStanford UniversityStanford University

Circuit designer vs communications engineer demographics

Here are the differences between circuit designers' and communications engineers' demographics:

Circuit DesignerCommunications Engineer
Average age4545
Gender ratioMale, 66.9% Female, 33.1%Male, 88.7% Female, 11.3%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.4% Asian, 16.6% White, 62.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.4% Asian, 14.4% White, 64.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between circuit designer and communications engineer duties and responsibilities

Circuit designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and assign company facilities and assets through the use of: circuit reports, manual logs and PC generate reports.
  • Configure, document, and support routers, switches, and VPN.
  • Used handheld computers and pressure gauges.
  • Test and measurement of various RF circuits.
  • Develop schematic & PCB footprints for component library.
  • Transition to in-circuit testing of complete circuit boards.
  • Show more

Communications engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage project to migrate over to the new manage firewall system.
  • Manage Internet connectivity using redundant Cisco routers and manage Nokia firewalls.
  • Manage multiple construction and service provisioning projects within several service centers in south-east Michigan.
  • Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
  • Develop DFMEA's, PPAP'd parts and support all builds.
  • Design and prepare pre-production drawings using CAD-CATIA to customer-base specifications, maintaining PPAP requirements.
  • Show more

Circuit designer vs communications engineer skills

Common circuit designer skills
  • Cadence, 11%
  • Analog, 10%
  • RF, 7%
  • MATLAB, 7%
  • IP, 6%
  • CMOS, 5%
Common communications engineer skills
  • RF, 7%
  • Unified Communications, 6%
  • Unity, 6%
  • Troubleshoot, 6%
  • VoIP, 5%
  • IP, 4%

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