标签: career

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Several days ago, I had coffee with my dear friends M— and S— (they can identify themselves in the comments if they wish) and we talked about the importance of role models early in our careers. The three of us enjoy some success in our working lives and it’s interesting to consider what contributed to our journeys.   For me, when I got out of the Air Force, I landed a job at a small avionics company and it was owned by a strong-willed man named Lee Pratt. Lee was a nice person, wicked-smart and very warm-hearted, but he was unbending when it came to doing the right thing. There was simply no question about it, whatever the cost, things were going to be done his way with impeccable honor and high ethics.   When your working personality is formed and set, a mentor or leader like this is irreplaceable. What could possibly substitute for this type of role model? What would happen in troubling situations without examples to look back on, examples that provide practical, real-world guidance? It would be very difficult to invent a code of ethics and the will to stubbornly cling to an immovable sense of right and wrong.   With the bustle of our daily work, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. The work we do is important. If you test something, it should be done thoroughly. If you are designing a circuit, it should be done rigorously. If you are writing code, it should be done responsibly—elegantly and efficiently.   In many ways, we worship the wrong people. Sports stars? Phooey. Rappers? Blah. Politicians? OMG. Look around. What is integral to the fabric of our modern world? It’s technology, of course, and we’re at the very beginning of biotech and robotics revolutions. Our gadgets, widgets, toys, communication equipment, computers, conveyances, appliances and lighting are all the fruits of engineering and design intellect and labor. The way we implement and execute will be more important, not less.   How do you know what to fight for and what to let go? Are these decisions influenced by honorable people who helped you in your formative years?   What are your thoughts? Set me straight in the comment section.   This blog is dedicated to Lee M. Pratt, 1918-2014, founder of Pacific Electro Dynamics, RIP.   Ken Coffman Field Applications Engineer Member of Technical Staff Fairchild Semiconductor  

There are instances where networking can hurt you if you strive to "lose friends and alienate people." That may be an excellent movie title but not words to live by. In this blog, I focus on the good, and how you can use networking to advance your career. My full-time job: Obtained and advanced by networking Generally, the more appropriate way to leave a job is to be extremely nice to everyone and keep in touch after you leave. You never know when that will help you, especially if you stay in the same general geographical region. This has worked out well for me in several instances. In my current job, I had worked with one of the engineers at another company. I got along with him very well at the first company, and he helped me get the job at the second. Not only that, during negotiation it was extremely helpful to have him there to provide some guidance. Some companies just won't negotiate on certain things (like holiday time), but others will. Having a "man on the inside" is excellent to find out more information. Besides the process of actually getting the job, it was great to have someone I knew in the new job to introduce me to my new coworkers. It takes a while to get used to new faces, so this helps smooth your transition out. Additionally, having someone who you can trust that's been with a company for several years is a great resource for other more ambiguous questions. What's tolerated for company Internet use, who should you be nice to, or even whether or not you can take a snack break in the morning are good questions for a former/current colleague. My gig at EE Times: Another product of networking You might have inferred from this column that writing for EE Times isn't my full-time job. Interestingly, my part-time writing "career" started on Hackaday.com under the editorship of EE Times' own Caleb Kraft. After a year and a half of that gig, Caleb told me that he would have to let me go. With a gig like that you never know when things are going to change, and the site was going through a major transition. I wasn't too upset, and said something like "nice working with you." It wasn't personal, or even a reflection on my performance, but even if that had been the reason, there's no reason to leave on a bad (or possibly worse) note. Fast forward a few months later, and after keeping in touch (and on good terms) with Caleb, he offered me a gig writing for EETimes.com. It's been a fun assignment, and in addition I've been able to do several speciality articles for Hackaday. Whether you're a freelancer, business owner, or traditional employee, networking is an excellent way to get noticed and advance your career. It's been said that "It's not what you know, it's who you know." This may be true, but just as knowledge can be increased through study, schooling, or experimentation, "who you know" can be increased as well. If you both know the right people, and know what you're doing, you certainly have a recipe for success. Jeremy Cook is a manufacturing engineer with 10 years' experience and has a BSME from Clemson University.

Recently, a good friend visited his newly-married 29-year-old son and spouse in New England. This young man is brilliant, very social, and has a PhD—a success by any definition. He recently began a new job with a near-start-up of 50 people doing cancer research. Lately, an influx of several hundred million dollars has meant they can do their work without the normal money problems faced by new and small businesses. Yet everyone there is unhappy. The new money means everything is changing, and change always causes discord. Established procedures get tossed, new approaches ruffle feathers and abrade established hierarchies, even in a small, young business. To top it all off, the new spouse feels her hubbie needs a job that pays six figures. My friend, this young fellow's father, is advising his son to stick it out for at least a year or two. Sure, he could find a more stable (boring?) job elsewhere. Probably one that pays a lot more. With reasonable work hours and less friction. But should a young person with enormous talent and education go for the tried and true, the safe path with few challenges and less opportunity? The obvious reason to stay with the start-up is the promise of IPO wealth. But my pal—and I agree—thinks that's not important. For someone just entering a career, the dynamic, mad, fluid, and inventive nature of a decent start-up is a perhaps once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a mark and to learn what business is really about. My friend and I reminisced about our first real jobs. We both worked at a small space start-up, which was devastated by the collapse of manned space flight after Apollo. The company survived by moving into commercial markets. We both worked as engineers designing some of the earliest microprocessor-based equipment. There was little money; as in so many small outfits, heroics replaced adequate capital. We worked insane hours—80 to 100 per week. As in so many start-ups, our boss plied us with stock options rather than compensation beyond 40 hours/week. But what fun! We were given huge amounts of authority over the technology and products. The boss was an analogue guy who really didn't get digital; when we said we needed a PDP-11 for this or an Intellec 8 for that, he acquiesced from sheer lack of knowledge. The products, from soup to nuts, were our designs. We eventually had dozens of engineers working for us, despite our youth. Most of them were brilliant. It's one thing to know how to design a circuit. But some of the old timers taught us how to create designs that will work reliably over temperature and other factors, ones that can be manufactured in quantity without problems. There were never enough people, so we traveled the world supporting customers. In those pre-credit card days, it less usual for Americans to travel to Europe on business. We commuted. And to pretty much every other corner of the globe. The lack of money was always enormously frustrating (like when paychecks bounced occasionally) but meant we learned a lot of ways to do tough things on a shoestring. It was impossible to not learn about business. Where the money comes from, how it's budgeted, where it goes. How to raise capital and make each of those dollars do the work of three. No regrets In our time at that company we learned an enormous amount about a wide range of subjects. Maybe if we'd gone to work for Microsoft (we were one of their earliest customers), my buddy and I would be fabulously wealthy today. But neither of us have any regrets. Decades have slipped by, but those years shaped the rest of our careers. The money we didn't make has been far less important than the fun we had, how we learned to have fun with our careers since then, and the experiences gained. His advice to his son is that there is no better time to take risks than when young. Push the envelope, try wild and mad stuff, use the opportunity of a well-funded start-up to greatly expand knowledge both in the science of his area of expertise as well as in business. Don't sweat the money; use these years to gain the experiences that will shape the next forty years. Oh—and the IPO we hoped for back in the 1970s? It never happened, though a large outfit did acquire the company for a pittance, millicents per share. We each sold our equity for $0.50. And you know what? The collapse in the value of our stock options didn't make a darn bit of difference.