Author Topic: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK  (Read 10610 times)

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Online mikeselectricstuffTopic starter

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Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« on: August 29, 2017, 05:38:22 pm »
From one of my customers :
https://twsu.workable.com/jobs/546045
Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
Day Job: Mostly LEDs
 

Offline StillTrying

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2017, 03:29:09 pm »
I bet they're wondering why they can't find anyone suitable.  ;D
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 

Offline b_force

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2017, 04:01:33 pm »
"Tech Will Save Us"

 :-DD :palm:

Offline Brumby

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2017, 06:47:49 am »
Now, now .... Let's not disrespect any customer of one of our valued members...


But I must admit the name did make an "impression".
 

Offline supernovah

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2017, 10:26:37 am »
...
« Last Edit: November 23, 2020, 06:49:52 am by supernovah »
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2017, 11:07:53 am »
My god the amount of Hipster about that role is killing me.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2017, 11:20:19 am »
Because these job ads tend to disappear when finished:
Quote
Electronic & Firmware Engineer
London, England, United Kingdom · Product
DESCRIPTION

Tech Will Save Us is an award-winning, innovative consumer technology and product business, based in the vibrant area of East London. We’re looking for an enthusiastic, creative and talented electronic engineer or technologist who can bring our kits from concept through to production.

You’ll bring your relevant experience and passion for hardware to the product team and help bring our range of kits to the next level. You should be a maker at heart and be able to master our collection of DIY kits and tools and be brimming with new ideas for ways to extend, modify, hack and create new kits and tools to inspire for millions of families and young people to join the maker generation.

You will work closely with our product designers, content developers and UX designers to bring new products, concepts and technical explorations to life. We are looking for someone who can be detail-oriented when it comes to their electronics and be hugely empathetic towards our growing group of customers and the new technical challenges they sometimes face with our kits.

You will:

Play a key role in the development and design of new electronic products
Bring products from concept stage through to large scale manufacturing
Explore and find viable technologies that will make our kits extra special
Maintain and update our current range of kits, specifying new components where necessary for supply, certification or cost purposes
Support our customer service and marketing teams to help customers overcome any making challenges
REQUIREMENTS

Electronic engineering degree or masters
Demonstrable history bringing consumer electronic products to market (3 years min)
Experience working with AVR/ARM architectures
Ultra-competent with both analog and digital circuit design at all stages (mock up, prototype, iterations, production prototype, etc), PCB design, soldering, power management, microcontrollers and the willingness to extend those skills
Experience supporting the DFM and certifications processes
Firmware programming—you love ASM, and use it when you need to!
Bonus: experience working with wireless peripherals (incl. BT BTLE, WiFi, XBee, etc)
Geek out over serial protocols
Bit banging should be the name of your favourite band
Efficient time management as you work on short-term tasks as well long-term product development
Confident and clear in your communication with our customers, the wider team and suppliers/manufacturers in different parts of the world
A passion for sharing your knowledge which could mean leading public workshops, hosting user testing workshops or presenting your prototypes to the rest of the team
Belief that collaboration is at the heart of creativity and excellent performance
Eligible to live and work in the UK
BENEFITS

We’re offering the opportunity to work within an incredibly talented and friendly team, instigating 21st century learning around the kitchen table and in the classroom. If you want to look back on your career and know that you were a vital part of building a great company, this role is for you. Additionally,

Salary £30K-£40K dependant on experience
Enrolment in the company stock option plan (EMI Scheme)
25 days annual leave
Professional development fund for conferences, courses etc
Flexible work hours as needed, to fit around childcare and other priorities
Weekly team wellness lunch
A friendly office environment in East London, next to the canal and a short walk from Victoria Park, Broadway Market and London Fields
We believe that the best work comes from a diverse team. If our mission excites you, and you can contribute to our culture of lifelong learning and growth we want to hear from you!
 

Offline sibeen

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2017, 11:24:49 am »
"Salary £30K-£40K dependant on experience".

Can someone even live in London on that salary?
 

Offline 8086

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #8 on: September 13, 2017, 11:26:53 am »
"Salary £30K-£40K dependant on experience".

Can someone even live in London on that salary?

In east london, sure. £30k is much more difficult than £40k though, obviously. But £40k is easily doable.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2017, 12:31:59 pm »
30k would be difficult now if you are single and quite happy to live in a studio or one bedroom to be honest. Particularly if you want to do anything more than exist and actually get yourself out of that situation.

I have three kids and a 3 bed house in a nice bit. This is incidentally why I'm not doing EE work! Fintech pays the bills better.
 

Offline madires

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #10 on: September 13, 2017, 01:34:27 pm »
Reminds me of the typical procedure. Asking for skills 80k worth, but only paying 40k incl. all overtime. If they don't find anyone they'll moan about skills shortage. And if you ask why the salaries aren't increasing due to the alleged skills shortage you won't get an answer. Don't sell yourself under value!
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #11 on: September 13, 2017, 01:47:37 pm »
That's pretty much it.

You'll also get the startup equity sob story: "Dude, it's going to be awesome, and when it is we'll all be loaded. All we need you to do is work for us for free for 6 months and we'll give you 5% equity in our top secret startup. We're going to make a killing, all move to SF and get an IPO. Then it'll be drinks on Mars with Musk.". When you turn up on your first day, you find it's a social network for cats or something.

I worked for one of those outfits once for an entire DAY and told them to fuck off.
 

Offline dr.diesel

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2017, 02:34:33 pm »
My first (year 2000) EE job out of college paid better than that. 

Offline InterestedTom

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #13 on: September 29, 2017, 08:20:02 am »
"Bit banging should be the name of your favourite band"

Bit banging is a work around, when hardware for a specific protocol isn't present, not a go to favourite idea!

Worst example of this I have seen is the BeagleBone Black, I haven't used it in a while but when I last looked they just bit bang everything with the processor instead of using the dual built in PRUs and their relevant hardware.
 

Online mikeselectricstuffTopic starter

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #14 on: September 29, 2017, 08:42:01 am »
"Bit banging should be the name of your favourite band"
Bit banging is a work around, when hardware for a specific protocol isn't present, not a go to favourite idea!
I think the idea is that it shows imagination to work around a problem rather than give up and use a more expensive part. It also shows better understanding of hardware, which is one of the most important skills for an embedded programmer.
 
If you were interviewing someone for a job and asked them to sketch out a volume product that needed 4 SPI ports, the candidate who suggested using a cheaper micro and pointed out that only one of them needs to be fast so the others could be bit-bashed, or explaining how they the SPIs could be done using DMA ought to score better than the one that said the only option was to use a higher end part that had 4 SPIs and a ton of stuff that wouldn't be used.
Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
Day Job: Mostly LEDs
 
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Online Ice-Tea

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2017, 11:22:56 am »
Ultra-competent with both analog and digital circuit design at all stages (mock up, prototype, iterations, production prototype, etc), PCB design, soldering, power management, microcontrollers and the willingness to extend those skills.

Just wondering... If you're ultra-competent in all that, what do you become when you extend those skills?

Offline Brumby

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #16 on: September 29, 2017, 11:23:55 am »
Nikola Tesla.
 

Online tggzzz

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #17 on: September 29, 2017, 11:37:40 am »
Ultra-competent with both analog and digital circuit design at all stages (mock up, prototype, iterations, production prototype, etc), PCB design, soldering, power management, microcontrollers and the willingness to extend those skills.

Just wondering... If you're ultra-competent in all that, what do you become when you extend those skills?

Whenever I've seen hyperbolic phrases like "ultra competent" (and haven't been able to simply "walk away"), over time the perpetrator has revealed themselves to be full of bovine excrement. Any such phrase should be an orange flag.

Standard technique: take a statement and invert a word/phrase. If the result is meaningless or stupid, then the word/phrase can be removed without loss.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Online Ice-Tea

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #18 on: September 29, 2017, 11:38:24 am »
I know a lot of competent people. None of them would call themself "ultra competent". Maybe not even competent. Probably something like "more or less capable".

We're engineers. Not car salesmen. The best indicator of competence is the realisation how little you know.

Online tggzzz

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #19 on: September 29, 2017, 11:48:58 am »
I know a lot of competent people. None of them would call themself "ultra competent". Maybe not even competent. Probably something like "more or less capable".

We're engineers. Not car salesmen. The best indicator of competence is the realisation how little you know.

It is also notable that the more people know, the more they realise they don't know. The inverse of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline StillTrying

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #20 on: September 29, 2017, 02:22:15 pm »
Just wondering... If you're ultra-competent in all that, what do you become when you extend those skills?

Deluded.
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #21 on: September 29, 2017, 03:26:12 pm »
"Bit banging should be the name of your favourite band"
Bit banging is a work around, when hardware for a specific protocol isn't present, not a go to favourite idea!
I think the idea is that it shows imagination to work around a problem rather than give up and use a more expensive part. It also shows better understanding of hardware, which is one of the most important skills for an embedded programmer.
 
If you were interviewing someone for a job and asked them to sketch out a volume product that needed 4 SPI ports, the candidate who suggested using a cheaper micro and pointed out that only one of them needs to be fast so the others could be bit-bashed, or explaining how they the SPIs could be done using DMA ought to score better than the one that said the only option was to use a higher end part that had 4 SPIs and a ton of stuff that wouldn't be used.
The reverse is also true. A microcontroller which has too few resources will need a massive amount of development effort to make everything work. That is not a good fit for a lower volume product (and yes, too many think their product is going to be high volume) and there is also a chance product enhancements cannot be made without a major re-design. All in all you need someone who runs some number on effort versus budget before selecting parts.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #22 on: September 29, 2017, 09:40:35 pm »
"Bit banging should be the name of your favourite band"

Bit banging is a work around, when hardware for a specific protocol isn't present, not a go to favourite idea!

Worst example of this I have seen is the BeagleBone Black, I haven't used it in a while but when I last looked they just bit bang everything with the processor instead of using the dual built in PRUs and their relevant hardware.

Bit banging should only be done with bits that are at least 16 years old and that have given meaningful consent.

But seriously, except for trivial cases, it usually means that the perpetrator can't read a data sheet well enough to realize how to use an on-board peripheral, or even to recognize that there is a suitable on-board peripheral.

There can sometimes be justifiable circumstances for doing it. I've bit banged SPI for an LTC2400 ADC when I also had an SPI LCD and only one dedicated hardware SPI interface. When they shared a bus, driving the LCD injected noise into the ADC during conversions, even though it wasn't selected. I got rid of about 200 ppm of noise by creating a separate SPI interface by bit banging the LTC2400.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline KL27x

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #23 on: October 15, 2017, 08:32:47 pm »
The peripheral doesn't always work, correctly. Protocol standards can change over time and/or otherwise give rise to combinations that simply don't work together, out of the box.

Maintain a hodge podge of hardware and firmware created by other engineers who we can't pay enough to care to lift a finger. Be an expert in teaching/presenting your inherent value to other people so we don't need you the second you are not perfectly pleasant and charming and positive to work with. And do it for 30K. The salary was like a punchline to a joke. This is depressing to anyone with any of these skills.

 

Offline StillTrying

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Re: Electronics & firmware engineer, East London UK
« Reply #24 on: October 17, 2017, 03:06:24 pm »
Closing date for applications is October 14th

It's still there, I wonder if they got anyone to save us.
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 


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