Describe a typical day at your job?
When I’m “home” I typically start by answering emails from my colleagues in Europe or Asia, and then spend the rest of my day debugging hardware, writing software to drive the latest board I am working on, or generating material to present at various trainings.
Of course, a big part of my job involves visiting customers all over the world, so many of my days start in a hotel room answering emails from my colleagues back in the US, followed by customer visits to talk about their projects and how we can shape our roadmaps to match up with their future needs. Those days usually end with a trip to the airport to move to a different city so I can do it all over again the next morning.
The fact that very few of my ‘days’ are routine is what makes my job so much fun.
How did you get started working in this field?
I started taking electronics apart when I was a kid. At some point I figured out it was more fun to “build stuff” than to take it apart and learned that people who did so were called “Electrical engineers.” From that point on, my career path was pretty much set! I went to work with National Instruments straight after college and spent the next eleven years designing precision circuits, power supplies, and data acquisition systems. After a while I realized that helping people build their own stuff was also fun, and came to work at ADI as a systems applications engineer.
What skills or personal qualities are good for this job?
I think the most important trait for any engineer is curiosity. I’m always asking questions, like, “How does it work? Why does it work (or doesn’t!), and how can I make it better?” When working with hardware, it is extremely important to always get to the root cause of any bugs you see, and not just stop at “Oh, I changed this and it suddenly works, let’s move on!” When dealing with customers, it is also important to have a good understanding of their systems and applications. There is no better way to do this than having the genuine curiosity driving you always to ask why.
Does your job involve working on a particular industry or technology?
I focus on chemical analysis and environmental monitoring applications. This was completely new to me when I started in this role. In the end, most of these applications have a foundation in precision signal conditioning and data acquisition with very specific use cases, so my background working at National Instruments has come in very handy.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Without question, the most enjoyable part of my job is when I get to solve difficult problems. The process of reproducing a problem, deducing it is happening, and designing tests to prove those assumptions can be extremely frustrating, but there is no better reward than being able to figure it all out. Arriving to the point where you can explain to your customer exactly why the problem occurs, what needs to be done to fix it, and why it is guaranteed never to happen again once you implement the fixes, is the best feeling in the world.
Are there any common misconceptions about this type of work?
Outside our industry, there are all kinds of misconceptions. Most of my family would be hard pressed to describe exactly what I do, and would probably say something like “He works with computer chips!”
Of course, the most practical follow-on to that description would be to figure out why one of their circuit breakers is tripping or to help install a ceiling fan!
What is your advice to someone interested in this field?
“Build something!” The trend today is to rely heavily on simulators and computer models. Simulation has enabled tremendous advances in technology, and allows engineers to design products that work with only a few hardware iterations. However, for someone just starting out, there is no substitute for building hardware and using real test equipment to verify its performance and debug issues. Gone are the days where you had to etch your own printed circuit boards in a nasty pool of acid. These days you can use free, top-notch schematic and layout tools to design simple circuit boards and have them built for less than US$20. So, go ahead, build some stuff!
What does your desk look like?
I am very fortunate to be able to work out of my house, so my desk is my lab! I have everything I need to build and test prototypes. Most days, there are two or three things “under development” that take up every available squared inch of my desk space. Here is a picture of my workbench on a particularly busy day! (Image Courtesy of Luis Orozco)
What advice do you have for students looking to get into engineering?
Make sure to get involved in your engineering school’s extra-curricular activities. If there is a solar/electric car team, a robotics association, etc., make sure you join. Not only will you get some hands-on experience that will be invaluable when you have your first job interview, this will also make it much easier to get through the first few semesters, when it will seem most of your classes are not directly related to the engineering career you envision.
Don’t kid yourself. An engineering education will be the hardest thing you have probably done so far. The homework is hard. The tests are hard. The projects are hard. Some of the classes, especially for those first few semesters, are even going to be boring. If you have decided this is what you want to do, you must stick with it, because when you are finished, it will be worth it!
In the grand scheme of things, the time you spend in engineering school is but a tiny fraction of the rest of your life, and all that hard work will pay off in many ways for many years to come. This was more or less the advice I got from an old professor, and time has proven him to be absolutely right.
What advice would you give young students in high school considering a career in engineering?
If you like engineering, don’t let anyone talk you out of it. It’s not easy, but it is the best thing you can do with your life. Go for it!
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