kids these days

Just FYI -- everything after the ...818.html, starting with the question mark, is the tracking information that is not needed of useful. The URL is:

OK. Amazon links are like that... you can chop them off short.

And Google is evil.

I suggest "ClearURL" plugin for trimming off the tracking data from a URL:

It's not the best, the fanciest or the most reliable, but it's been working well enough for about two years. The only problem is that some web piles require the presence of the appended tracking data for their web pages to function properly. Three mouse clicks to turn it off and three more to turn it back on later.

Maybe. Large and profitable companies tend to be labeled as evil. Since Google search makes the most money for Google, I would suspect that they are more than willing to compromise ethical behavior in exchange for increased profits: "Google Revenue Breakdown - How Does Google Make Money?"

"For example, Michigan State University is teaching students how to handle a networking conversation, including how to look for signs that the other party is starting to get bored and that it’s time to move on."

Oh yeah, that'll fix everything.

He doesn't have to. John has this screening technique he uses for job applicants. He shows them a diagram of two 1k resistors in series with

And the candidates know that it wouldn't be a good idea to take a job with him. Insultingly trivial questions from a job interviewer aren't a positive predictor of job satisfaction.

If you need to be taught how to look for signs of declining interest, you are probably dyslexic.

Jan, you're massively over-complicating this! :-) The resistors in my example are both 1k so it's half the supply rail. But you knew that anyway. The answers you gave show that you know your subject. Unfortunately, as we know from what John's stated here before, the graduates he interviews have no idea what the f*ck they're doing. The Chinese are going to kick our arses if they aren't already.

Oh - and carbon resistors are noisy. And I don't think you mentioned the source resistance of the supply. We could go on. And on. And on.... But that's not what John asked for. He only wanted a first approximation which would be 5 Volts. But that's too much for today's grads, it seems. :(

I wouldn't hire someone who complicates a simple question into paralysis.

I draw a 10 volt battery connected to two resistors, 9K in series with

What's the voltage across the 1K?

I hired a 3-month intern a month ago who failed the test. He said 9 volts. I hired him anyway and fired him as an intern on Friday. He's full time now. He's mostly a software engineer. I'm teaching him basic electronics now.

I dream of some day finding a kid who gets the voltage divider right and has something intelligent so say about the next test, an NPN emitter follower.

You and I are old enough to remember back in the past when a situation such as that in Ukraine/Russia or Israel/Palestine/Lebanon where all-out war was a distinct likelihood, there would be any number of peace envoys getting stuck in and trying to defuse the situation before it escalated. Isn't it curious that we have no such initiatives going ahead today? I don't believe there's an innocent explanation for that. These conflicts are 100% engineered by the people Trump refers to as "The Swamp" and it's becoming ever more obvious that's the case for even the most obtuse among the bovine, cud-chewing rabble that form the bulk of the electorate in all democratic nations world-wide.

I use 10 volts and 9K and 1K, which really hints at the answer.

If they get that one right, I ask them if they have anything else to say about the situation. One time in a thousand they might. I can keep hoping.

Circuit design is something of a lost art these days.

What's happening is that the normal distribution is getting wider, and not just in the USA. Some of the fringes are geniuses, and a society benefits from having even a few geniuses.

Being reflexively anti-American is no substitute for thinking. I still think that the USA is the best place to design electronics.

What do you ask them about that?

V+=10. Two 10K resistors up and down to set the base voltage. Emitter

What's the base voltage? Some people have said 0.6, because base voltages are always 0.6.

What's the emitter voltage? Collector current?

Anything else to say?

Trick question: what's the collector voltage?

Smart-ass answer: Who knows ... nobody uses vacuum tubes or bipolar transistors any more.

Joe Gwinn

And you say a new graduate couldn't answer this? I can't believe they're turning out people for jobs like this. NFW would this have happened 40 years ago or more.

I would assume on this group that *everyone* knows.

Yes, the collector voltage is a tough one.

Yes but they are all old.

Joe Gwinn