Author Topic: Working as Electronics Engineering contractor in Huawei (Stockholm, Sweden)  (Read 3308 times)

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Offline ocsetTopic starter

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Hi
Does anyone know what its like to work at this place in general PSU design, plus general electronics?
(for 6 months to 2 years)
Also, is it easy for a contractor to find eg a bedsit or one bed flat to live in in Stockholm?
(ie someone who is not a Swedish national)
If you can only live in Hotels, then are there cheap Hotels in Stockholm?
« Last Edit: July 13, 2019, 09:59:04 am by treez »
 

Offline Towger

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I know an engineer working for them. They are based in London, spend most their time in China and the wife is still back in Ireland. Sounds like they get their money worth out of you. Much like being being a manager for Aldi/Lidl.  Good for the experience if you are young and have no family or other life...
 
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Offline ocsetTopic starter

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Thanks, i hear the Stockholm branch is very big. Also, i hear that Stockholm is a little bit of a "silicon valley" for electronics companies......is this correct?
 

Offline ocsetTopic starter

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I must admit i am aware that China has now the best Power supply engineers in the world, and a huge supply of them......so i am somewhat intrigued that a huge Chinese company is wanting to employ Power supply engineers from Europe.
 

Offline SM3VLC

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It's not easy to find a cheap place to stay unless you are willing to commute quite a bit.
Contact the company that is hiring and ask them if they are able to help out with accommodations.
 
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Offline coppice

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I must admit i am aware that China has now the best Power supply engineers in the world, and a huge supply of them......so i am somewhat intrigued that a huge Chinese company is wanting to employ Power supply engineers from Europe.
In particular, HuaWei is a true world leader in power supplies. They built a substantial portfolio of digital power supply patents, and a strong business around them. They then sold that to Emerson, and started again. Now they have built a second substantial digital power supply business.
 
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Be aware they may actually require you to know what you're doing.
 
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Offline Stray Electron

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Expect to work 2~3 men's task while getting paid 1.5 men's salary. That's how Huawei works.

   That's how all engineering companies work in my experience.  But think about this Treez; why would a Chinese company want to hire you over a Chinese engineer that will probably work for about 1/7 of what you would work for?  You'd better be dammed good at your job to justify that costs!
 
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Offline ocsetTopic starter

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Quote
But think about this Treez; why would a Chinese company want to hire you over a Chinese engineer that will probably work for about 1/7 of what you would work for?  You'd better be dammed good at your job to justify that costs!

Quote
HuaWei is a true world leader in power supplies. They built a substantial portfolio of digital power supply patents, and a strong business around them.

I am just pondering...is the reason they hire European engineers just kind of like a price they have to pay for being able to sell their products in Europe? (ie its a stipulation of the trade deal?) .....and maybe the European engineers...well....are they  just "checking over"  Chinese designed power supplies?, or are they designing them themselves?.......i really have no idea...just wondering?

Also, just wondering…concerning a European electronics engineer working at Huawei in Europe…..do they even get to look at schematics?, let alone design anything, or is it all top secret?….and all they actually do is test the finished power supply (say) by putting it in the thermal chamber at x degrees C?
I mean Huawei  has the best electronics in the  telecoms world…maybe they have to keep it secret from outsiders?...even from their own (European) staff
« Last Edit: July 14, 2019, 12:32:48 pm by treez »
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Well, staffing a european subsidiary with european engineers tends to make sense.

Now why do companies in general have R&D centers outside of their headquarters? The Chinese are far from being the only ones. This is a widespread thing. There are myriads of big US companies doing exactly that. Part of the reason may be to get an easier access to the local market. Another reason is to make the company's culture more diverse (in hopes that this would improve the overall creativity and skill level). Yet another is to cut costs. You'd think that Huawei would not do it for this one reason, but we don't have the whole picture. That may still be cost-effective for them due to a number of reasons...
 
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Offline EEEnthusiast

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Well, staffing a european subsidiary with european engineers tends to make sense.

Now why do companies in general have R&D centers outside of their headquarters? The Chinese are far from being the only ones. This is a widespread thing. There are myriads of big US companies doing exactly that. Part of the reason may be to get an easier access to the local market. Another reason is to make the company's culture more diverse (in hopes that this would improve the overall creativity and skill level). Yet another is to cut costs. You'd think that Huawei would not do it for this one reason, but we don't have the whole picture. That may still be cost-effective for them due to a number of reasons...
Well this may not be the only reason. I had worked with Texas Instruments for over 17 years as a hardware apps engineer and had interacted with many engineers from Huawei China and from other engineers from EU. There is a big difference in the knowledge, working style and quality of work.

Most engineering teams from China do not look into the fine details of the individual block. For e.g. if they are making a cellphone, they would put the whole system together first and then verify as a whole. If it works fine, then they dont even bother to look at each block. Just assume that everything is working together, so each block should be fine. They will not care if the power supply block has higher ripple than the calculations, or that the noise figure of a block is higher than expected. I was very much frustrated supporting many such customers because they don't challenge you back.

At the same time I had the chance to work with the engineers at Ericsson in the EU. Those folks would take the ICs from Texas Instruments, (multiple of them would go to make a cellphone), test each and every block for its individual performance. Then they would put the whole system together and test it again. 99% of the time, the system would work fine as the small blocks are designed and verified to perfection. This is a much better engineering approach which makes reliable products.

The first approach is faster and can get things to the market at a fast pace, but the 2nd method is what makes products long lasting and reliable.

This is my first hand experience working for a big semiconductor company supplying components across the world. The engineers in the EU are more expensive and they put in lesser hours than those in Asia, but in general the quality of work in the long term is way better.
Making products for IOT
https://www.zscircuits.in/
 
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Offline coppice

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Well, staffing a european subsidiary with european engineers tends to make sense.

Now why do companies in general have R&D centers outside of their headquarters? The Chinese are far from being the only ones. This is a widespread thing. There are myriads of big US companies doing exactly that. Part of the reason may be to get an easier access to the local market. Another reason is to make the company's culture more diverse (in hopes that this would improve the overall creativity and skill level). Yet another is to cut costs. You'd think that Huawei would not do it for this one reason, but we don't have the whole picture. That may still be cost-effective for them due to a number of reasons...
So many of the best engineers in China are working for European and American companies that maybe HuaWei needs to retaliate. :)
 
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Offline coppice

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Well, staffing a european subsidiary with european engineers tends to make sense.

Now why do companies in general have R&D centers outside of their headquarters? The Chinese are far from being the only ones. This is a widespread thing. There are myriads of big US companies doing exactly that. Part of the reason may be to get an easier access to the local market. Another reason is to make the company's culture more diverse (in hopes that this would improve the overall creativity and skill level). Yet another is to cut costs. You'd think that Huawei would not do it for this one reason, but we don't have the whole picture. That may still be cost-effective for them due to a number of reasons...
Well this may not be the only reason. I had worked with Texas Instruments for over 17 years as a hardware apps engineer and had interacted with many engineers from Huawei China and from other engineers from EU. There is a big difference in the knowledge, working style and quality of work.

Most engineering teams from China do not look into the fine details of the individual block. For e.g. if they are making a cellphone, they would put the whole system together first and then verify as a whole. If it works fine, then they dont even bother to look at each block. Just assume that everything is working together, so each block should be fine. They will not care if the power supply block has higher ripple than the calculations, or that the noise figure of a block is higher than expected. I was very much frustrated supporting many such customers because they don't challenge you back.

At the same time I had the chance to work with the engineers at Ericsson in the EU. Those folks would take the ICs from Texas Instruments, (multiple of them would go to make a cellphone), test each and every block for its individual performance. Then they would put the whole system together and test it again. 99% of the time, the system would work fine as the small blocks are designed and verified to perfection. This is a much better engineering approach which makes reliable products.

The first approach is faster and can get things to the market at a fast pace, but the 2nd method is what makes products long lasting and reliable.

This is my first hand experience working for a big semiconductor company supplying components across the world. The engineers in the EU are more expensive and they put in lesser hours than those in Asia, but in general the quality of work in the long term is way better.
A whole generation of China's engineers have been heavily moulded by making stuff for Walmart. For them, price carries at least 99% of the weight in any decision, and most of the other 1% is time to market. When you hire an engineer in China for a development where functionality is far more important than minimum price, it can be really hard to break this cost is king mind set, and get them to approach the problem in a sensible way.
 
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Online Gyro

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treez, have you tried the Huawei development site in Reading?

It's bit closer!
Best Regards, Chris
 
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