Advice to BSEE juniors and seniors...

chris w · 2010-04-18T22:32:56+00:00

I've been interviewing a few new BSEE graduates for a junior engineerposition, and based strictly on what we're looking for, here is somerandom advice to juniors/seniors:Learn a real design program like Altium. Eagle is ok, but I thinkdownloading the eval version and creating a few small projects wouldbe valuable. Create the parts in the library, capture the schematic,layout the board, generate the gerbers and send them thru until they pass. Maybe even send them to someplace like Advanced PCBwhich has deals for students. Knowing current tools is important. Ithink you're much more likely to use something like Altium than Spiceor Matlab (which are also good to know).Which brings me to my next suggestion-- do some hobby projects on yourown. Take one of your interests, look at some projects on theinternet, and adapt one of them to create something original on yourown. It gives you something to talk about at your interview, andshows that you have a real interest in electrical engineering. Maybeeven bring it with you to the meeting. It doesn't have to beelaborate, but you should understand it well, and be able to talkabout it with confidence.Senior design projects are also good discussion topics. You should beable to talk about what you personally contributed. What tools wereused, how did the device work, what challenges did you overcome, etc.In my recent interviews, it often seemed like someone else in thegroup must have done all the work because the candidate could hardlydescribe what the project did.Learn how to solder. You should own a decent soldering iron, and beable assemble prototypes which used SMD down to 0805 or 0603. If youlooking for a job that does any sort of design, then chances areyou're going to have to do some assembly/troubleshooting of your ownprototypes.Get some experience with current microcontrollers. I have apreference for Microchip, but Atmel or an ARM variant would also begood. I know teaching the 68HC11 still has value, but...

Apr 18, 2010 104 Replies

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JosephKK 16 years ago

engineer

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Spot on. That is exactly what made me itch about recent graduates.

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JosephKK 16 years ago

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A bit too much. Should have given him someone's hand me down.

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DaveC 16 years ago

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I enjoyed this author's article in the New York Times last year:

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Dave

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JosephKK 16 years ago

agazine>

The New York Times can go rape themselves, i am not going to subscribe to endless advertising email just to read an article.

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Jim Thompson 16 years ago

I presently receive Time Magazine and Newsweek... free, due to skymiles in excess of my usable lifetime. Every time I open the mailbox and feel how thin those magazines have become, I almost go orgasmic :-) ...Jim Thompson

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