entry level design work

[bseejim]

Hi. I graduated in May with my BSEE from a top 100 engineering university. I've been looking all along for a design oriented job, but no oppurtunities have surfaced. Plenty of other jobs are available, and have been offered, but not quite what I'm looking for.. so I took a job as a product engineer at a wafer fab to pay the bills.

I'm curious what it takes to begin a career in electrical engineering design work. Is my BSEE good enough? Is it reasonable to try to get this type of job at the entry (fresh from college) level? If not, what types of jobs should I place myself into for a future move into design work? Please help. Thanks a bunch.

 

[itsmoked]

It has always been my opinion that good design engineers are born not schooled. What I mean by this is that when I see a good design engineer they kinda have "the fire in the belly". They l o v e designing stuff. This makes them good at it.

When I'm looking for a design engineer I look for someone who likes the sport so much that he is designing stuff for fun or the challenge of solving a problem. These are the finest design engineers. When a potential D.E.E. shows up I ask what they've designed. This quickly exposes whether they were warming a bench elsewhere or doing.

You strike me as someone who is really motivated and would "love" to do design work. To wit you should "do some designs".

You can design something say, a digital clock, that projects the time into space above the clock or on a wall or whatever. You can produce a schematic, bill of materials[BOM], do a layout, and get the board made at any of 30 places on the web for 100 bucks. Stuff the board. Write some code. Get your project running! You can do all this stuff with a PC that has web access.

This would encompass all but a few aspects of any commercial design! Then when you go into an interview take it in! This speaks very loudly to any EE who is interviewing you. It also gives focus to a conversation where you can speak candidly about a technical subject you can hold in your hand!

In two cases I have gotten jobs I wanted using this method. After an interviewer has run through umpteen candidates, talking generally with them, they all start blurring.. except the one who showed him/her some real hardware.

Yes your BSEE is more than good enough! Keep looking. Good jobs aren't always out there unless you are willing to move. Being employed in engineering is a great step! This shows you are employable but just wanting a slightly different engineering track. Also go for as many interviews as you can. This makes YOU comfortable interviewing! This makes the interviewer more comfortable. This also opens your eyes to what's out there and gives you better confidence when a job you really covet comes by.

 

[VEBill]

"...digital clock, that projects the time...on a wall..."

Costco, about Cdn$22 (~US$18) last week. Even has an 'atomic' radio receiver for auto setting.

Itsmoked's point is still extremely valid.

 

[zeitghost]

I've been playing recently with a 60kHz receiver for MSF Rugby (in the UK).

You can buy a complete clock for about £10 or so, but I've been meaning to do something along those lines for about 25 to 30 years since I read an article in the UK magazine Wireless World (from about 1976).

It's a good way of learning more about things, the cost doesn't really come into it.

More to the point, I've got jobs out of stuff like this that's mentioned on my CV.

Not to mention the £800 I got for publishing one project in a magazine.

 

[hrc]

All depends on what part of the country you are in. Certain areas are hiring, others are not. We couldnt find certain types of engineers for the life of us about 6 months ago.

Its getting your foot in the door. Might check out smaller companies as well just to get some experiance. Might have to move.

look at

http://www.dice.com

for technical jobs, as well as monster.com as they will give you a good idea of where the hiring is taking place.

But agreed.....good designers do it for fun. Course in my case....I work full time as a designer plus run my consulting business and find time to sleep for a few hours a day

 

[bseejim]

Thanks for all the help everyone. This is very good news to hear, because I was worried I'd need a higher level degree to get a design job. I guess I've just had a fit of bad luck.. I'll keep trying, and continue my own independent designs/projects in the meantime. It sure is frustrating coming home to projects that are more interesting than the ones I encounter in my work though.. such is life.. for now.

 

[itsmoked]

There will ALWAYS be those less interesting projects... <sigh>

And after you do 5-8 designs you will find parts of the design process itself that are um... a drag. But such is the road to all things worth doing.


I had a prof who had a large handle bar mustache. He would come in wearing khaki shorts and green knee socks and hiking boots. Everyday he would write something on the blackboard and explain it before doing anything else.

The only thing I remember that he wrote up there was:

EXCELSIOR!

Which he said means: Onward and upward!

So anyway I try to remember that whenever the going gets,,, grueling.

 

[VEBill]

General comment: Deep down inside the depths of a typical 1-year duration project, is perhaps a couple of days of actual, interesting, creative, electronic design work. The rest (98%) is all meetings, reviews, reports, documentation, logistics, "*.*-ilities", paper work, scheduling, etc.

The ratio may certainly vary between industries...

 

[zeitghost]

It's always amazed me that one can spend two or three weeks designing the hardware and month upon month writing the software...

 

[ScottyUK]

Yes but look what you end up with: Microsoft.



----------------------------------

One day my ship will come in.
But with my luck, I'll be at the airport!

 

[itsmoked]

Microsloth.. You forgot the armies of coders working for a million years on a million PCs, would they turn out a secure operating system?

That reminds me, one of the things an interviewer tries to discover about a candidate: Is this person an 90 percenter?

That is, does this person get it all working but not actually finish anything? (the last 10 percent)

 

[itsmoked]

Microsofts newest release "VISTA" is really an acronym for Viruses, Infections, Spyware, Trojans, and Adware.

 

[zeitghost]

Depends to a large extent on the definition of "Finished"...

In this wonderful 21st Century are products ever really finished?

Or do they reach that hallowed state when they arrive at the landfill?

 

[Yashu]

http://www.obd2.com/vari/embedded_electronics.htm

where you at?