Job Responsibilities
These comments to apply to my my pre-Graduate school activities
from 1994-1999.
My company manufactured magnetic disks for computer disk drives.
The lifetime of most of our products was 3 months, meaning that
we had a new product every 3 months or so. My job
responsibilities were the installation, maintenance and
improvement of very complex and one-of-a kind factory machinery.
I was on call 24 hours a day, 365 days year, holidays included. A
typical workweek was 8AM to 9PM 6 days a week, and a shorter day
from 8AM to 3 PM on Sundays. On all holidays, the company had to
know my whereabouts at all times. Vacations were highly
discouraged and routinely tuned down. At times of major factory
installations (we're talking two semi-trucks with machinery), I
would have a 5 AM staff meeting, then another at 5 PM. Work would
end around 10:30 PM, after which I had a 1 hour drive home.
While interviewing at Intel, I was told that I had to report to
work at 6 AM and that they would "try" and get me out by 8 PM.
The only shift Applied Materials offered muself and and friends
were night shifts or weekend night shifts, Thursday-Sunday 5 PM
to 5 AM.
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Job Requirements
A bachelor degree in ME, EE or Chemical Engineering was needed
for the job. A few had Master's degrees. I interviewed before
being emloyed here and during at Intel, National Semiconductor,
Seagate, IBM , Applied Materials and other companies and they all
demanded long hours. Especially important was the way they
segregated employees by the level of education that one had. Men
with bachelor degrees werer commonly doing assembly work or
working as a maintenance technician. In reality this required a
high school diploma only. Women were commonly given "real"
enginnering jobs or made project mangagers. This is not
sourgrapes on my part: I was the regional secretary for the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (professional section,
not student) and such treatment happened to myself and all of my
classmates, as well as friends from other schools.
It is sad to say that not one person I know is a working engineer
now. 100% of the women I've spoken with leave after 5 years to
beome school teachers, to pursue a law degree, go to medical
school or dental school or pursue an MBA. Most men tend to stay
longer and some manage to made the lifestyle work for them. With
a bachelor's degree though, you cannot work in product
development or R and D. You are at the "tech level" for your
career.
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Uppers
Sometimes the responsibilty was fun, as was learing new things. My coworkers,
300 or so (out 1100) of who also had similiar work hours, did their best to
support each other since we practically lived at work.
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Downers
I think I've covered this already. I can only speak for nothern
California, but here, a degree on Mechical Engineering will get
you a job at Starbucks. Since I started keeping track in 1993, it
is common to spend up to 3 years looking for an ME job while
employeed elswhere in the mean time. Once hired, if you are
lucky, you can do drafting work if your school had a strong
AutoCAD program, which San Francisco State at that time did not.
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Lifestyle
*Forget family life
*Forget dating
*Forget social life
*Don't make plans after work before 8PM
*Be prepared to work all major Holidays (no overtime pay)
*Pretty much an all male environment. Women worked in HR, finance, etc. and and
worked more traditional hours.
*If surburban life is OK with you, you are OK. The Silicon Valley (San Jose,
Santa Clara area) was probably the only place with commute traffic on SATURDAY.
This sums it up: What's the difference between Santa Clara and Yogurt? One has
an active culture.
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Compensation
At time my co-workers and I woere earning $10 and hour when we
divided our saleries by the number of hours that we worked. At
one point, I went down to $8 an hour. My firts ME job paid me by
the hour at $12 hour. This was in 1994, and even then, this was
very low.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Don't major in enginnering PERIOD. If you do, you must be willing
to relocate to where there is work. Again speking for Northern
California onle, I have contacts in Private Consulting,
Semiconductors, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical and the Utility
industry. Without exception, I am told of montonous work, no job
advancement opportunities and very few places to look for other
work. It is very common that an enginne is working on an MBA so
that she/he can leave engineering and pursue another vocation.
If you insist on becoming an ME, YOU MUST get expereince with a
3D modeling program. If not, getting a job will be even MORE
difficult.
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