FreeLists / si-list / [SI-LIST] Re: Career Advice for a junior EE

["John Matthews" <john.matthews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If it's proving extremely difficult to get a relavent job, then
another option is to
go back to university (even part time) and take a masters degree
specialising
in an area which will compliment your current skills. I've no
idea how easy it is
to do this in the U.S.

I did this years ago to get away from working in power
electronics and ended up
designing video compressiion circuits. At the time it was the
only way of expanding
my knowledge/capabilities .. I didn't feel it was going to
happen in my job.

Your dilemna is typical of many engineers who have graduated
worldwide over the
last few years. We see it in colleges here also.

The employment market has changed partly due to the
recession/downturn, but also
partly due the off-shoring of design functions to lower cost
economies. It's coming back,
I feel, but is not resulting in a any serious creation of new
jobs.

It raises a question .. would you advise your teenage son or
daughter to study electronic
engineering in this climate? I don't know if I would!


John Matthews,
Hardware Engineer,
Virtual Access Ireland Ltd,
Unit 18, Trinity Enterprise Center,
Pearse Street,
Dublin 2.

Telephone (Direct) 353 1 6041856
Fax       353 1 6705380
www.virtualaccess.com


-----Original Message-----
From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of gsletch
Sent: 10 November 2004 16:37
To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [SI-LIST] Career Advice for a junior EE



I have a question, not technical per se, but more career advice
related.

I am an unemployed EE(US Citizen) with about 3 years experience
in the
hard hit telecom/computer server industry. My first job out of
school
was mainly doing high speed digital PCB layout. On occasion, I
did
some simple schematic capture and I was trained in Cadence's
signal
integrity tools, but never got into it like I was
promised...industry
started to tank, environment changed, etc. Long story...anyway.

Now to my question, how do engineers/managers view a "newbie"
whose
previous job was as a PCB Designer, but wants to get into more
board
level circuit design with less physical design other than
supervising
layout designers or doing some myself when needed? I feel that
the PCB
layout exp. was helpful, but not challenging enough; hence, the
lateral career move.

Am I looked down upon because I was a PCB Designer?

Will there ever be an opportunity as a Hardware Engineer? The
job
market doesn't seem to want to open up for the junior level
people...it is closing in on 2 years out of work for me....

I have a BSEE with Graduate level courses in FPGA/ASIC design
and
(soon to be) board design. Do I have a chance or am I wasting my
time?
Opinions are welcomed....



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