Well, seeing as my employer recently announced plans to shut down the facility where I work in San Jose, California, I thought I might take this opportunity to actually discuss some of what my job as an electrical engineer specializing in electromagnetic interference and compatibility has tended to consist of.
In other words, expect some posts on such exciting things as grounding, bonding, and shielding (oh my!) in this space, because that stuff is actually pretty interesting, and I think it would be neat to help propagate some knowledge about it.
Of course I will not reveal any proprietary information online -- like most engineers, I've had to read, acknowledge, and sign agreements not to publish or otherwise distribute internal data.
Hence, nothing I am going to discuss here is actually anything I couldn't have said before the layoff announcement -- rather, it's just that up until now, I've preferred to keep a fairly wide separation between my personal "online life" and career.
Now, though, I'm looking at things somewhat differently.
I figure that in this day and age, more and more prospective employers are going to be Googling their applicants -- meaning that for us bloggers, regardless of whether we've more frequently blogged about signal integrity, our pets, or what we had for breakfast, our future boss might very well come across our online writing.
And for those of us whose best shot at getting hired isn't likely to come via our steely-eyed gaze, firm handshake, or melodious, appropriately-timed laughter, I figure there's probably no harm in putting some information about our work skills and relevant experience up in our usual Internet haunts.
Of course I'm also starting up the job search on other fronts -- even though the earliest I'll actually be unemployed is October 27 of this year, I don't see any point in waiting around. I've updated my resume and am peeking around to see what opportunities are in the area.
One thing I am definitely trying to do as well is change industries, as while my present job has had its good points, I'm just not all that excited about airplanes.
What I really want to do is get into something pertaining to medical devices / biotech -- I mean, they have to need EMI engineers to make sure all that equipment doesn't emit too much and isn't too susceptible to interference.
Seriously, I would like nothing more than to put whatever engineering skills I've managed to obtain toward things that support lifesaving equipment, biogerontology research, communication devices, mobility devices, or anything along those lines.
If I'd had my stuff together when I graduated college I'd have looked for something like that prior to now, but it took me ages to figure out what I actually wanted to do -- and hence, rather than seeing this layoff as anything to moan and whine over, I'm choosing to see it as an opportunity to move into something more related to things I'm passionately interested in.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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11 comments:
Congratulations on your ability to view a layoff as a challenge rather than an obstacle. I wish i saw more of that attitude.
I'm looking forward to the posts about "grounding, bonding, and shielding"!
And there's tons of interesting material on EIW which make for an excellent "business card" to a career in biogerontology.
I had to smile when I read the "Best shot at getting hired" paragraph.
Michael:
Well, to be perfectly honest I've been wanting for a while to transition into a different industry -- I didn't want to just stay in the first job I got out of college my whole life to begin with. So for me, the layoff actually represents a source of, shall I say, extra motivation to move forward into the next phase of my career.
I've learned a lot at this job and I've certainly appreciated the opportunity to work where I've worked for these past six years. It's been educational not just in the technical sense, but in the sense of forcing me to consider what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, not to mention giving me a look at just how much goes into making something from an idea into a tangible (and often highly complex) object.
But seeing as I was seriously considering switching industries (from defense/aerospace to medical device/biotech/robotics or something similarly of interest) anyway, as unpopular as I imagine this view probably is, the layoff actually makes things more convenient for me.
Plus, in this case I actually see it as something of a good sign that perhaps more people are realizing perhaps we don't need quite so many warplanes, and that perhaps we would benefit from things like more renewable energy research and improvements to the transportation infrastructure, and so on.
(Note that I am not "anti-defense", I recognize the need for defense, but after 8 years of an administration that seemed to be constantly on the offense, I don't think anyone should be that surprised or necessarily dismayed to see funding directions being shifted somewhat.)
I feel kind of guilty for thinking that way, as I know there are people who are going to be hit hard by the loss of their job (e.g., folks who have kids to take care of, or large medical bills to pay off, etc.). But really I don't think it's ever good to assume any job is forever. Especially in this economy, and especially when the USA is shifting priorities around (or at least attempting to).
The fact that some people will likely be in seriously precarious situations as a result of losing their jobs right now strikes me as a symptom of a larger-scale problem with the way living in US society is often conceptualized.
That is, I've noticed a strong tendency in some circles toward assuming that "if you work hard and try your best, you'll be fine, and if you end up poor or struggling, it's your own damn fault and you deserve whatever you get, and don't you go burdening 'the system' now!"
And...I just don't think that's the way civilization (at least not one that wants to call itself "civilized") ought to be done. I don't know all my co-workers (in fact I know very few of them very well at all) but I'd certainly wager that whenever you lay off 600+ people, there are bound to be a few who will go through some very dark times afterward. And it sure as heck won't be because they were lazy!
FrF:
Yes, I do imagine there's probably some material already written on here that would at least help demonstrate familiarity with the areas I'd like to move toward industry-wise.
For a long time I puzzled over how I could merge my interest/experience in electrical engineering with my interest in biotech-type stuff, but now it almost seems like it should have been obvious all along -- why not do EMI engineering for the devices used in research and/or life support and/or assistive tech?
I don't know if I'll actually be able to achieve that particular "marriage of interests and skills" in my next job, it really depends on what the market has to offer right now. And if need me I can do something a bit different -- for instance, I would definitely welcome the opportunity to work in an EMI test lab, where I'd get exposed to a wide variety of devices from all different industries.
And I don't even necessarily have to do EMI, though I would prefer it; I also have some more general analog engineering experience, some programming (mainly C) experience, and a lot of experience writing test procedures and lab reports.
And re. "bonding, grounding, and shielding", those are basically the aspects of EMI engineering that I seem to have ended up with the most experience in dealing with. Basically all those things relate to the way electromagnetic energy flows through conductors (and across conductive surfaces, etc.), and the EMI engineer's job frequently entails making sure that this energy follows particular, wanted paths as opposed to other paths that could result in device damage, excess radiated or conducted emissions, and/or bodily harm to the operator.
One really gets a sense of what "conservation of energy" means when dealing with EMI problems, as you are definitely going to see an effect when energy isn't being properly directed or dealt with!
And there are all kinds of strategies one can use, depending on the situation, to address unwanted energy flow. Sometimes it's a matter of adding additional conductive paths between Point A and Point B (if, say, stuff is flowing from Point A to Point C where it's disrupting things), sometimes it's a matter of strengthening bonds between existing conductors (a poor termination can actually hurt you more than an "incomplete" shield in many cases), and sometimes it might even be a matter of absorbing the excess energy using a ferrite or similar material capable of dissipating it as heat (though of course in that case there are also thermal and weight considerations to keep in mind).
So...yeah, I will probably write in more detail about some stuff along those lines. And of course I am not eliminating any of my usual topics (longevity, autism, robots, sci-fi, etc.) from Existence is Wonderful, I am just adding something else to the pool of Things Anne Is Likely To Write About.
And I'm sort of excited/pleased about doing this because there is definitely a lot of ignorance out there regarding electromagnetic principles -- misunderstanding of electromagnetics is the root of a ton of pseudoscience, such as this sort of tomfoolery, and if I can do anything to help thwart that, all the better!
If going back to school is an option for you, Anne, I'd suggest looking into biomedical engineering master's programs (you have a bachelor's degree, right?) where the main focus of the program is on electrical devices.
EMI is a major issue in bioengineering, of course, because devices can't be susceptible to interference if they are to be attached to the human body. I think your background would be highly desirable in bioengineering.
I hope you don't have to join the ranks of permanently discarded American knowledge workers, Anne. I have to wonder about the social costs when American corporations trash the educations and personal development of American knowledge workers because they can find people in Asian countries who will do the same work for a lot less money. (Apparently that didn't happen in your case, but you probably know of examples.) I suspect economic rationality has less to do with this trend than meets they eye, because I notice that these same corporations haven't gone looking for discount CEO's to improve the bottom line.
You might like this resource, Anne:
http://www.unitedprofessionals.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation
here is something that might interest you.
i have no idea about employment in your town, but hospitals and clinics are buying this machinery, which does involve power conditioning.
good luck,
joel
I used to work repairing medical equipment, and it did indeed need to be tested for EMI and "hi-pot" testing. There were radio reporting heart monitors that were sometimes interfered with by old style 800 mhz cell phones, and the company kept a portable spectrum analyzer for the field techs and engineers to use if there were problems.
I don't know, but I would think some monitoring equipment could use 2.4 or 5.8 ghz wireless networking.
Do you know anything about the grounding problems on manitowoc ice machines with the water level sensor and ice thickness probes?
Can it be a power quality / interference problem? How does one test this on ice machines?
gbmb@aceweb.com
Things you need to blog about from the existence is wonderful angle:
1. District 9.
2. The TIme Travellers Wife.
I saw District 9 and its fantastic! I hope we can treat aliens better when the arrive on our planet.
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