Job Responsibilities
Repair/maintain electronic equipment 1 day/wk
Design and modify audio equipment 4 days/wk
Software for embedded products 2 days/wk
I also do field service and travel with an event crew every two months as
repair tech
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Job Requirements
Foothill college in the 70's was a great way to break into the rapidly
expanding electronics field with instructors from the Silicon Valley
legendary companies and donated equipment and materials. Foothill
worked with the industry to provide the needed technical workers and
also acted as a gateway to Stanford University for the more skilled or
academically inclined students. I believe that has all changed and the
programs that I was in are gone. It was great while it lasted.
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Uppers
Opportunity to work on interesting projects and cutting edge systems.
Trying technically challenging projects that test your skills and
resourcefulness. Travel. Training in new skills as needed.
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Downers
Hard deadlines and experimental equipment that sometimes needs fast
debug with little data to go on. Finding out weeks into a project that "you
just can't get there from here" and having to rethink the whole thing.
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Lifestyle
There are no hard dress code rules but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is
uncomfortable without a suit and tie. Hours are pretty variable, but the extended
hours are mostly voluntary when they happen. The job is more like a challenge or
an extended hobby than a serious 40 hr a week drudgery. The work is volatile and
exciting but sometimes encroaches on your life a bit more than a business type
job. You are valued more for your skill and persistance than for your experience
or training. In some cases there is a lot of travel, especially in the consulting
field where your clients may be anywhere in the world, or where some of the work
is being done by off-shore or out-sourced contractors. Other jobs in the field
may be completely without travel. It depends on the company.
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Compensation
I have been volunteering for support/allowance so my experience is
completely inapplicable to 99.99% of applicants. All my medical/dental
was covered.
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Advice to Jobseekers
To make it in product development or as a developer or technician in this
field you have to know your basic technology cold. For electronics, that
means the basics, devices and tools, and the basics of the field in which
you work. It is not enough to be generally familiar with the subject, to
really design or implement a new product you have to be intimitely
familiar with the field. You may have a great idea, but can it be
manufactured? What will be the hidden costs? Will the product have a
low yield in manufacture or premature field failures? These are the
questions that make or break the company you work for and they are in
your hands as an R & D team member. Other companies have the same
data available to them and have clever developers working for them as
well. What can you contribute to the development cycle that will get it to
market fastest and with features that "ace" the competition? That is the
game. To make it you have to know or be willing to learn all about
something, with a determination that amounts, really, to a passion. Some
have it, some don't.
There will always be a market for people that can expand markets or
create new ones. Since the dot-bust some of the cowboy shenanigans
and extravagances are gone, but there is still development work going on
in companies all over the world. You can also hang out your shingle as a
consultant or drop some money in your own startup, but be aware that
serious product development is the product of a team. Part of that team is
marketing research, knowledge of the competition, financial support and
many other skills besides just knocking out code or designing a circuit.
Unless you are a 20 year veteran with a known killer product to which
you own exclusive rights I would suggest finding a company that is
established and joining a team.
I can't leave this section without noting that the off-shore developers have
entered this field in force and have undercut the R & D and development
fields to such a degree that it could be honestly said that the bulk of this
work is now being done out-sourced and not in-house. Some of that is by
US companies or consultants, some by companies in Taiwan, China and
elsewhere. So the opportunities in this field are not as great as they were
in the seventies when I got hired before I even finished school. The bar is
higher (mostly you must be a BSEE, MSEE preferred) and there are less
jobs. But there are jobs and many very exciting ones. Just be aware that
the heady late-90's era of agressive hiring are definitely over.
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