Re: Need advice: want to enter the Embedded field

Isaac Bosompem wrote:

Amir wrote:

I apologize for writing to this list but would be grateful if I can get
career advice from people in the Embedded field.
I did my MS in EE in 2001, an MBA last year in 2005. Now I want to get
an Embedded job but I don't have industry experience. I love the
field and know I'll learn quickly and perform well. What do I do to get
a job? I've applied here and there, and got no response from anyone.
Everyone is looking for very experienced candidates. The situation is
not promising. I'm not a US citizen but am authorized to work
indefinitely for any employer here (am an asylee). With my MBA, I also
need experience for that kind of job so I need to have a career in
technology before I can qualify for a management position. I did my MBA
to stay in school when the job market was bad. Currently I do website
work, its not related to my degrees but it makes a living. I know my
resume isnt perfect, but I believe my passion for the embedded field
would help me get a job no matter what.
I thought EE's were in demand. There's a company in a nearby city I
thought of volunteering in to get experience and maybe a job offer
later if all goes well. I wonder if they'll respond to my request and
how that would work out.

Any advice on how to get a job in the Embedded field? I'm also offering
$5,000 to any one who can get me a full time Embedded position. I know
this sounds desperate but considering I have no experience, I'm willing
to do anything to get a job. Is there anything I can do to at least get
on track to an Embedded career while earning money? Or do I think about
changing my field and abandoning Embedded?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Amir


Hi,

I have a question to ask to employers (I believe it may help you Amir).

I am a student who will be looking for a job in this field as well
later on.

I am not the greatest academic :), but I would say I am fairly good at
stuff and have somewhat of an interest in it.

Do you guys actually take the students with the highest marks? Or is it
simply a myth that has been circulating amongst my peers?

Thanks,

-Isaac

If you get straight 'A's that means you're good at studenting.

Employers want people who are good at working.

The people who will interview you will be selected because they are good at working -- and most of them have seen people good at studenting hired, only to do poorly at working. After you clean up some of the resulting messes you tend to get cynical about good grades.

I think your best bet, if you can swing it, is to get an internship. I have no idea how, because when I was in school I worked for my dad's company. This turned out to be a liability because, well, who's going to believe that a dad's going to fire a son? Unfortunately, I have no idea how one goes about this internship stuff -- perhaps offers of large checks to HR people?

At any rate, at worst an internship on your resume shows that you already have relevant experience starting out. At best you'll be useful enough that you'll have a job waiting for you when you get out.

If you can't get an internship, try _very hard_ to get a related job -- even if you're just a stock clerk, just as long as it's at a site that's doing design work _right there_. Once you've demonstrated competence at what you were hired to do, start angling for a job that's closer to engineering. The worst you'll do is piss of folks who weren't going to hire you anyway. At best maybe it'll turn into a real, or at least unofficial engineering job -- or you'll find out that you never wanted to be an engineer because all the pretty girls are in marketing communications.

If the job thing doesn't work out, build stuff. Nothing impresses me more in a new college grad than hardware. It means that you can make things work outside of a structured lab. It means that you know what the little '-' sign on an electrolytic cap means. It means that if you work for me I can sit you down and know that at the end of the day you may have actually delivered positive value -- which is the whole point, after all.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

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