cross-discipline job descriptions

I would assume he's still somewhat of a sexagenarian!

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I admit that I had to look that one up, and that I flunked Latin in high school. We were forced to learn it and my motivation to comply was zilch. I experienced the same thing, jumped a class. Not sure whether it was a good idea, in general.

I don't think our university had anything like that. There was some help available for foreign nationals but those weren't formal or required classes.

NDA would be no problem but not sure I could help. Seems you are looking for a combination that is extremely rare or may not exist (anymore). My clients are usually quite happy hiring somebody with more digital HW know-how or a processor/algorithm guru, and then have me coach them through analog as an outside resource or take over the more nasty chunks of circuitry. Not being able to find seasoned analog guys is usually the main reason, other times the workload in that domain doesn't warrant a FTE in that domain.

If the project centers around RF stuff contacting local ham radio clubs about it might not be a bad idea. If you luck out and find a candidate that way this would also save relo costs.

I largely flunked German in middle school, mainly because it was the first class where it actually took some time to sit down and memorize the words, conjugations, etc.; I just wasn't ready for that yet, having gotten all the way to middle school while having to have done homework pretty much ever.

I did make up for it in high school, though, taking three years of Spanish with A's all the way through. :-) The teacher I had the later two years was quite good as well... really a lot of fun, and good at motivating students. She and my high school chemistry teacher would (gently) throw the chalkboard eraser at you if it was clear you'd really messed up and not done your homework, in a bit of (mostly mock) frustration with you... :-)

I tested out of having to take any english classes in college. (I think this is really the answer to your original query of, "why are colleges teaching English?" -- it's because a significant percentage of high schoolers can no longer pass the entrance exams, but since these kids are about to graduate with their high school diplomas... who else is there to provide make-up classes other than the colleges?) All engineering students were required to take "technical writing" during their senior year, and while it was probably useful if you'd come from a high school that wasn't that great, for most people it was quite straightforward. Towards the end of the semsester you did a mock design project where you sat down and formally "designed" a product, starting with the full product specs, going through and finding suppliers and prices, trying to dig up some marketing data, etc. At the time I already knew that it was a somewhat bogus exercise for the kind of small company I wanted to end up working for, although I figured the guys who wanted to work at Boeing or IBM probably found it quite useful.

Using that semester for, oh, I dunno, an introduction to real-world electronics vs. the textbook kind or techniques for EMI mitigation or similar would have been rather more useful.

---Joel

German I could teach you :-)

Spanish, unfortunately not. I wanted to learn it at school but we were only allowed two foreign languages and one _had_ to be Latin. Because it's the law, they said. Only a year later that was changed. Too late.

Actually, that part does make sense. Some formal design and documentation procedure know-how would really be good for many engineers. For my main turf (med and aerospace) that is enforced by agencies or very regulated customers. In other areas where there is no such regulation things can easily slip out of hand.

Same with finding suppliers, cost calcs and so on. A surprising number of fresh engineers has no clue how to go about that. Heck, some can't even solder.

Yes. At least there should be some classes that are taught by guys with cuts, bruises and calluses from EMI grunt work. But they won't let us because we lack "credentials" to teach :-(

So, this has to happen on the job, after university. This year I had one case where I had to literally stand on the brakes to prevent a splintered up shield and GND structure.

They teach English in universities to employ English majors (no one else will) and to fulfill the State's "reeducation" requirements. There aren't enough leftists in the engineering colleges.

I wouldn't have guessed. :-)

You mean you wouldn't have chosen French???

I think the challenge is that that procedure varies significantly from company to company.

Yeah, and that really sucks... but at least you still are in a position to offer professional-level courses, which AFAICT pay a bit better than being a college instructor anyway.

You'd think colleges would have figured that one out by now -- if they're going to say anything at all about ground planes, "Chopping up your ground plane typically breaks far more than it ever fixes..." should be the very first lesson.

---Joel

Although, technical German is a case unto itself. There are some truly weird words that most likely Siemens coined. For example "Tiefsetzsteller". So I sat there, scratching my head. Until I saw the schematic when it became apparent that it's a buck converter. The literal translation would be "positioner to set lower".

But I am not complaining. Today I read through some lab equipment instructions. They are in English (sorta ...) but then a directory guidance was inserted as a screen shot. All in Chinese. Great.

No, I really wanted to learn Spanish. At university we assembled an informal little group where a guy from Panama taught us Spanish and we taught him German. But then his father became ill and he had to return.

True. However, if everyone would at least follow a formal ECO process and design reviews, much would already be gained. Stuff like what happens in a new generator I bought (lets off a big spike when a feedback relay ratchets) would have much less of a chance to sneak into a shipped product. I guess it'll be the usual, me sending a scope plot over to the mfg, them reading through my prose and then ... "Oh s..t!" or whatever their word for that is.

True, but you'd be surprised how little willingness there is on the part of companies to send their employees there. The usual modus operandi is "We'll call him when something has hit the fan" :-)

No idea how it is these days but back when I studied it was all star ground. Of course, the serious ham radio operators amongst us knew better :-)

Aha! Good old in-state pork barrel legislation?

s/"pork barrel"/Maoist/

I resemble that remark. Though if my father was still alive he would be >100 ;/

How many here have used an 026?

A half-century ago, the schools wanted students to be "well-rounded," so they were required to take a certain courseload of liberal arts and other basket-weaving type stuff. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

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=A0 =A0 =A0 ...Jim Thompson

the chain saw?

not since i got even with all them bastards in Texas that time.

r b-j

I worked for a US company with a Dutch supervisor who after speaking to his cousin somewhere in Europe for ???? proceeded to give me ~>5minutes of instruction in German til I said "hello Peter ...". Chuckle was that I understood most of what he told me.

Snicker Once took an introductory university linguistics course. Most students were from northeast US. TWO were from "deep south" (of US). Perverse instructor asked the the two from south to say "pin" and "pen". They and instructor were the only ones able to differentiate.

okay, now i know what yer talking about. no, i never used an O26, but i *did* use an O29 when i was an undergrad (and even a grad student) in college in the 70s and early 80s. back in the Fortran days.

i didn't know it as an "O29". i just called it a card-punch.

r b-j

i learned about 1990 when i was teaching at the U of Southern Maine that, coming from the Midwest, we said "root" and "roof" differently than out here in the northeast. i said "square root" in a way that sounds a little like "square rut", but in Maine they say "roooooot". i was never a "you betcha" North Dakotan, though.

but at least i don't yank the "r" sound from where they belong (like "park the car") and put the "r" where it doesn't belong (like "idea", "Augusta", "law", and i can't even begin to pronounce "lawyer" the way Mainers do).

" i got an idear to pahk my cah next to the lahr office in Auguster."

r b-j

You *youngster* you bet you used those new fangled transistors

Flip-flops are defined by 6J6's rn't they ????

I'm just a kid. I used 029s instead.

You need to refrain from screwing up your "O"s and your ZEROs "0". How dorks like you ever succeed in this industry is beyond me.

did u ever parhk ur cahr in 'arvard yahrd?

Yankee from Raaaaaqhchstr NY now exiled to SW MO (can you say CULTURE *SHOCK* lol