Any work for someone with Electronics experience?(doesnt have 2B in electronics)

Any work for someone with Electronics experience?(doesnt have 2B in electronics)
Posted by ocset on 12 Jun, 2020 10:22
Hi
My employer has terminated my employment, partly because of corona, and partly because in the project we were working on, I imparted enough knowledge that they could easily go on and finish the power supply by themselves (the guy most probably could have done it by himself anyway, even if I had never gone there in the first place).

I qualified with an Electronics & Communications degree in UK in 2002 {BEng (I) Hons}. I have worked in over 30 UK based Electronics companies.

Anyway, I am finding the job market very dead even though I will go pretty much anywhere UK, Germany, Austria, Switz, Belgium, USA, Aus. etc, I speak a little German.

I am now applying for minimum wage cleaning type jobs etc , but they are pushing me away because they say I don’t have enough cleaning (or whatever) experience.

Is anyone in the same situation? (I assume many are, due to Corona)….is there any kind of employment that electronics engineers, in this situation, can do? Please tell if you know of it?

Most of my electronics experience was in Switch Mode Power Supplies. Also do general analog electronics hardware. Also, smallish PIC C programs. Also, PCB Layout (Eagle Pro)

#1 Reply
Posted by tggzzz on 12 Jun, 2020 10:59
Quote from: treez on 12 Jun, 2020 10:22
I qualified with an Electronics & Communications degree in UK in 2002 {BEng (I) Hons}. I have worked in over 30 UK based Electronics companies.

The institution matters. More than 1.5 employers/year needs explanation.

Have a look at any professional instution you belong to, e.g. IET.

Unemployment is going to be a bloodbath, for the obvious two reasons that we don't need to discuss here.

#2 Reply
Posted by ocset on 12 Jun, 2020 11:25
Quote
More than 1.5 employers/year needs explanation.
Thanks, yes, often i worked on a project, where as soon as they could see how to continue it themselves, then i was terminated, since there was no point having more poeple than needed on the project, for reasons of "protection of IP". -specially if it was a new project in a new market, and secrecy was understandably essential.
I was perfectly happy to comply with this, and just then had to find work elsewhere.

My shortest job was 1 month, it involved fixing a power supply sent into a consultancy by a customer.
The current sense transformer was the wrong way round.
There was no slope compensation so I added that.
The Gate drives needed adjustment so I did that.
The inductor values needed increasing so I did that.
It took one day to do this…but they let me stay for a month and go to their xmas do at a curry house called cushy’s in Dunfermline….a great curry.

#3 Reply
Posted by tpowell1830 on 12 Jun, 2020 20:42
Hi Treez, Don't know if you would be interested, but here is an ad on EEVBlog Forum that may work for you.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/jobs/electronics-technichian-needed-near-lehigh-valley-pa/msg0/?topicseen#new

#4 Reply
Posted by Kjelt on 13 Jun, 2020 19:21
Treez whatever you do make sure they don't link you to this forum, I would ask the mods to delete this topic or remove the specifics in your previous posts.
The reason I am saying this is because you made numerous topics that are rather not flattering for your employer which will make it harder to get a new job.
Good luck.

#5 Reply
Posted by nctnico on 14 Jun, 2020 22:20
Quote from: treez on 12 Jun, 2020 11:25
Quote
More than 1.5 employers/year needs explanation.
Thanks, yes, often i worked on a project, where as soon as they could see how to continue it themselves, then i was terminated, since there was no point having more poeple than needed on the project, for reasons of "protection of IP". -specially if it was a new project in a new market, and secrecy was understandably essential.
I was perfectly happy to comply with this, and just then had to find work elsewhere.
Why aren't you self employed yet? It seems you have been doing that for a long time already but didn't got paid accordingly. OTOH it is strange that no employer has held onto you. So either you suck at electronics or your specialism isn't needed full-time. The latter can be fixed by widening your field.

#6 Reply
Posted by fcb on 17 Jun, 2020 13:26
Sorry to hear this treez. Sadly I think this will be a common story in the UK, especially when furlough scheme ends.

Had a discussion here about employing an EE and taking on an apprentice - but without moving building (uggghhh) we can't figure out how to do genuine social distancing. Suspect alot of companies will be in the same boat - so perhaps look to offer your skills remotely??? A sort of Mr Make-It-Work on SMPSU designs.

#7 Reply
Posted by schmitt trigger on 23 Jun, 2020 16:17
Sorry, Trees. I also feel your pain because I am also loosing my job.

There was a famous book in the 1990s: Who moved my cheese?

In a nutshell, change is inevitable, but in modern times it happens really fast.
What used to take a lifetime or at least during a generation, nowadays happens within months.

So let's move on to the next cheese location. For me personally, this means that electronics will remain only as a hobby, and breadwinning will mean a different activity.

#8 Reply
Posted by ocset on 23 Jun, 2020 17:52
Sorry Schmitt Trigger , i am sorry to hear it.....i hope whatever you do works out as well as it possibly can.

#9 Reply
Posted by tom66 on 23 Jun, 2020 21:46
I am sorry to say this, but if you have been through 30 employers in 18 years, then the problem isn't that employers found that they could do it after a few months, it's probably because you weren't a right fit for the company or didn't have the right skills. A degree is one element - how much experience have you had in engineering development? Can you show a portfolio of projects? Personal work and experience is also key.

I have never heard of a company that willfully churns through engineers every 6-12 months, excepting a rare exception of one company with a boss with severe NPD who had been through 8 engineers (myself included - I managed 2 weeks) in a sub-5 year timespan. Many companies are paying recruiters to find talent, or if they are not then they are dedicating their time of their engineers/managers/HR staff to finding that talent, which is expensive. And it is often said that an engineer (indeed this is true for most professional fields) is a net cost for the first 3-6 months because they require other engineers' time and don't produce much work in that timespan. So it would make for some really stupid policy if a company hired you for only a few months only to replace you when done. Even contract engineering positions are rarely shorter than 6 months, and that's usually to fill in for a missing employee due to mat/paternity leave or something like that.

Do you mind posting an anonymised CV, we might be able to give advice. For what it's worth, while hiring rates have dropped, employers are still looking for and hiring the right people. Most employers however seem to only be replacing people that leave, rather than expanding, due to the economic uncertainty.

#10 Reply
Posted by tggzzz on 23 Jun, 2020 22:05
Quote from: tom66 on 23 Jun, 2020 21:46
Do you mind posting an anonymised CV, we might be able to give advice.

Despite a certain morbid net-curtain-twitching interest in that, I have to say I think posting it here would be a mistake. I suspect even an HRdroid would be able to de-anonymise such a CV.

#11 Reply
Posted by ocset on 24 Jun, 2020 18:54
Quote
And it is often said that an engineer (indeed this is true for most professional fields) is a net cost for the first 3-6 months because they require other engineers' time and don't produce much work in that timespan.

…There is a company going very strong now, selling three main products like hot cakes, which I fixed up in less than three months. One was an EMC fix, 2, A Mains Transient improvement, and 3, A Comms system which wasn’t working.

I think with SMPS its different, as they are generally very quick to design or fix, and often have existing engineers who can easily take it forward once someone has “gotten them over the threshold”.

At one company, I solved a long term problem in a few days…..they were developing a 600W current source power supply. (LT8705 based Buck-or-boost converter) They had omitted to add open_load protection to it. (This is not good because having output overvoltage protection for the case of open_load is a basic standard procedure for a current source power supply).
The problem was that each time the power supply was inadvertently started up on no_load, the output voltage rose up too high, and subsequently ‘killed’ the FETs which went short. They were using current limited lab power supplies to supply it, so this damage happened with the FETs “dying” silently. Anyway, they kept on finding themselves with damaged FETs and wondering why. The FETs were QFN style and only one person in the company was permitted to replace them. This board had spent most of its time on the “to be repaired” shelf. (6 months)
Therefore, I implemented open load protection for this power supply, and this solved the problem.

At another company, they were developing there first major product, they had a great engineer, who could easily do the job himself….they didn’t want another engineer coming in as they wanted to keep it secret…however, Vicor wouldn’t support them because they were putting more than 8 modules in parallel……so they brought me in for the development, just in case……as it happened we did it no problem, so they parted company with me after the 2 months that it too to piece it together.

Ditto many others

I had one company that were shipping a product in which the micro was sometimes browning out because its R/Z/NPN regulator had too high a base resistor…that was diagnosed within the first hour.

For one company, i fixed their problem at the interview...before even starting work....
A company had had some LED driver boards designed by a consultancy. These were Buck LED drivers, with 20V absolute maximum input voltage pins. There was an LC filter upstream of the LED drivers. This board was powered by a 12V OffTheShelf Power supply.
The boards were suffering a high field and production failure rate.
During the interview, I realised that the problem was possibly that every now and then , the production staff were “hot-plugging” the power supply in to the LED driver PCB. This could result in a >20V peak voltage ring on the Buck converter ICs. This turned out to be the case, and indeed the cause of the problem.
As a solution, Initially, it was decided to ensure that no “hot-plugging” took place in production. (The power supply’s soft start then ensured that no overvoltage occurred at startup)
I also provided an alternative design schematic with protection such that even when “Hot-plugged”, no overvoltage ringing would occur.

#12 Reply
Posted by Bud on 24 Jun, 2020 19:35
Quote from: Kjelt on 13 Jun, 2020 19:21
Treez whatever you do make sure they don't link you to this forum, I would ask the mods to delete this topic or remove the specifics in your previous posts.
The reason I am saying this is because you made numerous topics that are rather not flattering for your employer which will make it harder to get a new job.
Good luck.
It is an urban myth that employers would be interested in reading your posts on every forum you are member of. HR drones have no clue of tech talks gibberish. Unless you are applying for an undercover FBI agent job i would not bother.

#13 Reply
Posted by tggzzz on 24 Jun, 2020 20:07
Quote from: Bud on 24 Jun, 2020 19:35
Quote from: Kjelt on 13 Jun, 2020 19:21
Treez whatever you do make sure they don't link you to this forum, I would ask the mods to delete this topic or remove the specifics in your previous posts.
The reason I am saying this is because you made numerous topics that are rather not flattering for your employer which will make it harder to get a new job.
Good luck.
It is an urban myth that employers would be interested in reading your posts on every forum you are member of. HR drones have no clue of tech talks gibberish. Unless you are applying for an undercover FBI agent job i would not bother.

I have come across competent HR people, but they are a minority. Nonetheless, that is a reasonable point.

A more realistic scenario is that, because treez' experience is concentrated in a small domain, techies that read forums might notice correspondences and raise questions - and pass them to HRdrones.

Given what treez has mentioned about his achievements, it surprises me that he is not already a freelance consultancy business. That question will be asked by HRdroids when they look at his CV.

#14 Reply
Posted by fcb on 25 Jun, 2020 08:28
Treez, what you are describing sounds more like frelance PSU trouble shooting - why would you actually want to be employed directly by the company.

Sounds like you would be much better suited to a consultants life - set yourself up a Ltd company & domain and specialise in PSU problem solving in the Cambridge area.

#15 Reply
Posted by ocset on 25 Jun, 2020 14:10
Hi,
Thanks, yes i used to work in the Science Park in Cambridge.
Strangely i never got the impression there was much electronics there.......more kind of..science.

I also worked in a tiny company doing a lot of analog stuff just outside Cambridge....in approx mid 2000, and i remember all the (huge) schems were beautifully hand drawn.

Quite a few of my ex -colleagues have got Electronics work in Romania, do you know if there's much Electronics there?

#16 Reply
Posted by ebastler on 05 Jul, 2020 21:50
Quote from: tom66 on 23 Jun, 2020 21:46
Do you mind posting an anonymised CV, we might be able to give advice.

As others have said, I would advise against posting a CV here. You don't want leave public rcord of too many connections between your online identity and your real-life identity, especially your identity in rofessional life, I'd say.

Those who have followed this forum for a while may, of course, already know your real name from the various links to your personal website. I have looked up your Linkedin profile which indeed shows 30 positions (in 29 different companies) over the past 18 years. I'm afraid this is bound to scare employers away, even if they are looking for an electronics engineer.

Can't you pass this off as an intentional freelancing career, even if the positions were originally meant to be permanent? And looking forward, are you also actively looking for freelancing jobs in the field? I am not familiar with the situation in the UK, but would assume that there are companies who either act as a marketplace for freelancers or contractors, or hire experts and sub-contract them out?

While the freelancer market is probably also impacted by Covid-19, it may still offer opportunities, e.g. working for companies who want to keep things moving but are shying away from hiring a permanent employee. And you could try and describe the many stations of your career as a strength in this kind of role, showing how you rapidly got on board with new teams and delivered solutions for them.