EE educations, worldwide?

[Joerg]

John Larkin wrote:


[...]

I've never quite understood this obsession with sports at American
universities. In Europe we had none of that. When you were at a
technical school you learned engineering stuff and that's it. If you
wanted to play league-level soccer, fine, but then you had to join a
local club outside academia for that.


It is sort of strange. At least Cornell doesn't have athletic
scholarships, and athletics are strictly on top of a full academic
load. US college football and basketball are a disgrace.

I've met some of the results of that. They strike it big in sports, make
money, become famous and then at 35 the joints are all worn out. So the
first career is over. "Ah, but I've got an education!" Then you deal
with people who have landed high level positions because of their
celebrity status or whatever but don't have the foggiest how to run the
new show.

So, will she become president and CEO of Highlandtechnology after you
retired to the islands?


I'd love it if she was interested. Eventually I'll have to turn this
mess over to somebody, or liquidate it. Liquidation would be a waste,
because we have customers and "goodwill." and the thing could continue
to grow. Too many small businesses die because there's no provision
for succession, or because the kids get greedy and start squabbling.
I'll probably hire her when she graduates next spring, and see what
happens.

Or they die because of death taxes. IIRC that's what wiped out Sam's
Town. You might remember it from drives up to Tahoe, on the right side,
Cameron Park exit. It was "the" place to stop for lunch for families
with kids and tour buses.

The inheritance taxes are insane, and it takes a lot of bizarre,
expensive planning to dodge them, life insurance and charitable trusts
and all sorts of crazy schemes. The inheritance tax is the perfect
mechanism for killing US businesses.

Not just in the US, the thresholds are even lower in other countries.
And if you are too far removed a relative the rates become so exorbitant
that liquidation or turning down the whole inheritance becomes their
only option.

Making death a taxable event is so gross, even the Romans did not dare
to do that and they were the real masters when it came to collecting
taxes. In the case of Sam's Club dozens of jobs have disappeared but I
do not expect body politicus to understand that.

I think one method they use in Europe is to continue it as a foundation.

Dang, I'm already married!

 

[John Larkin]

Yep, and credit histories can be full of flaws. But OTOH who wants to
work for a company that pegs your ability to do circuit design against a
credit history? When I came to the US I didn't even have one. I guess
that would have really been a red flag for some Dilbert-class HR manager.

Last time I interviewed a circuit designer, we spent the day designing
circuits together. Hired him.

John

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

Of course the Democrats want to roll-back to previous rates (as in
INCREASE) the "death tax".

From the Kiplinger Tax Letter of Sept 7, 2007.

All 3 GOP candidates want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
The Demos are a bit muddled. Clinton and Obama want to keep the tax
cuts only for low and middle income taxpayers. That's anyone making
$250,000 or less. Edwards is about the same except he uses $200,000
or less.

Giuliani and Romney would permanently repeal the estate tax. McCain
and Democrats want to keep the estate tax but with a much higher
exemption, thus limiting it only the the very wealthy.

There are also a variety of new tax cut proposals, none of which will
fly because both parties will need to raise taxes in order to stay
afloat. Mostly deduction for health insurance payments and engery
conservation credits. Of course, these must be balanced by additional
revenue. Clinton want the corporations to pay more taxes. Edwards
and Obama want higher capital gains taxes on the rich. The
Republicans claim they prefer to cut spending rather than raise taxes.
Never mind that keeping the Bush tax cuts, plus permanent easing of
the estate tax, lowering AMT, would cost perhaps a trillion dollars
(that's Kiplinger's number, not mine). This should be interesting.

The real trick is to transfer as much wealth as possible to your
children BEFORE you die.

Think gift tax. You're limited to tranfering $12,000/year or you get
to pay.

Is there ANY Democrat here (setting aside any of your pansy war
issues) that believes that Democrats are better for the economy than
Republicans?

Naw. We're all doomed. Get used to it.

 

[RST Engineering \(jw\)]

Yes, sir.

Jim

 

[Joerg]

Last time I interviewed a circuit designer, we spent the day designing
circuits together. Hired him.

That's how it ought to be. I also had them interview with their
potential co-workers so they'd feel comfortable with the new hire, and
the new hire feels comfortable with them.

 

[Charlie Edmondson]

Last time I interviewed a circuit designer, we spent the day designing
circuits together. Hired him.

John

Proper way to do an interview! Question: Here is the job, how would you
do it?

http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/

Charlie

 

[Rich Grise]

Yep, and credit histories can be full of flaws. But OTOH who wants to
work for a company that pegs your ability to do circuit design against a
credit history? When I came to the US I didn't even have one. I guess
that would have really been a red flag for some Dilbert-class HR manager.

Last time I interviewed a circuit designer, we spent the day designing
circuits together. Hired him.
[/QUOTE]
I'm only a tech, but once I got a job by reading a schematic aloud.
"Well, that's the micro, here's the main memory, these are PROMs,
here's the screen memory, and, hey, look! A state machine to make
the sounds!" and that sort of thing.

The job was video game/jukebox/pinball machine repair. Oh, yeah,
another thing I said in the interview was, "well, after the game
is fixed, it has to be tested, right? Where else could I get paid
to play video games?"

Later, he told me he had a stack of resumes about an inch thick,
but picked me because I gave such an impressive interview.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Last time I interviewed a circuit designer, we spent the day designing
circuits together. Hired him.

I've always been a little surprised that very few engineering/software
companies actually have you demonstrate your skills to them in a hands on
test/design situation. Surely if you want a job as, e.g., a welder they make
you put down a few beads first? If you're a carpenter or electrician they
take you out to a job site and have your pound a few nails or wire up a couple
of outlets?

The most I've ever been asked to do was to write out "any kind of VHDL
function" on a whiteboard once. Wasn't even really a place I wanted to work
for, and I suspect I lost any prospect of getting the job when I told them in
100% honesty that sooner or later I'd be going back to school to get my
master's and move into a field outside of anything they did.

 

[John Larkin]

Proper way to do an interview! Question: Here is the job, how would you
do it?

Better than that: it was a real design problem, without a determined
approach. So it wasn't a test or an interview, it was real work. One
other thing I learned is that the guy wouldn't hesitate to contradict
me.

John

 

[Rich Grise]

Better than that: it was a real design problem, without a determined
approach. So it wasn't a test or an interview, it was real work. One
other thing I learned is that the guy wouldn't hesitate to contradict
me.

Hey, there you go! When you need something done, advertise for an
employee, have them come in and do the job for free, and say, "Thanks,
we'll call you." ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[[email protected]]

Hey, there you go! When you need something done, advertise for an
employee, have them come in and do the job for free, and say, "Thanks,
we'll call you." ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

Neat idea! Break it down into bits and pieces. One candidate
suggests one design. Afterwards, thank him and show him the door.
Second candidate comes in; ask, "Suppose one had a design like
this..." (showing the previous candidate's work) "What would you
suggest to improve it...?"

Almost free labor. (Still have to have the manager spend the time
"interviewing".)

;-)

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Hey, there you go! When you need something done, advertise for an
employee, have them come in and do the job for free, and say, "Thanks,
we'll call you." ;-)

I've read that those offering language translation services sometimes get
scammed this way. "Could you translate this five-page document from English
to Swahili -- we need to test your quality?" "Thanks, we'll let you know!"

 

[Joerg]

Hey, there you go! When you need something done, advertise for an
employee, have them come in and do the job for free, and say, "Thanks,
we'll call you." ;-)

Then again we tend to do that right here all the time ;-)

But seriously, what better way would there be to find out whether a
candidate is good? Some kind of funky multiple choice personality test?

 

[John Larkin]

Hey, there you go! When you need something done, advertise for an
employee, have them come in and do the job for free, and say, "Thanks,
we'll call you." ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

Free, except for the plane tickets, candidate+gf, halfway across the
country, plus a week's accommodations and expenses, with car, for a
half day's work.

John

 

[Rich Grise]

Then again we tend to do that right here all the time ;-)

But seriously, what better way would there be to find out whether a
candidate is good? Some kind of funky multiple choice personality test?

Once on an interview for a programmer job, they said, "Write a program
that prints out all the prime numbers from 1 to 1000". I failed miserably;
when the time was up, I wasn't even close. I didn't get the job.

The next day, at the bus stop, I wrote a Sieve of Eratosthenes on the back
of some old discarded envelope, in about three lines of C.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Joerg]

Free, except for the plane tickets, candidate+gf, halfway across the
country, plus a week's accommodations and expenses, with car, for a
half day's work.

A week? Man, you guys are really generous. Then again, if you give them
enough time to stroll across the Golden Gate that should seal the deal.
I just wonder what you want to do with a car in S.F. Once I had to
attend a board meeting there, held at a law office. Parking was
underneath the building. $20. Per hour!

Oh, and it must have been a long time since the valet attendant drove a
stick shift.

 

[John Larkin]

A week? Man, you guys are really generous. Then again, if you give them
enough time to stroll across the Golden Gate that should seal the deal.
I just wonder what you want to do with a car in S.F. Once I had to
attend a board meeting there, held at a law office. Parking was
underneath the building. $20. Per hour!

Oh, and it must have been a long time since the valet attendant drove a
stick shift.

You can park a couple of blocks away from here for $7 a day. We're in
a transition area between the dot.com SOMA and the slums of the
Mission. Parking goes as 1/x, where x is the distance from the
Marriott.

I drive to work, about 11 minutes. On public transit, it would be 45
minutes, except on days when it's a lot more.

It is interesting doing electronics in a big city. We're not the only
ones... there are maybe 10 or so others downtown, and of course you
can see Dolby from our roof. It's surprising how many people I meet
that worked for Dolby at one time or another.

John

 

[Joerg]

You can park a couple of blocks away from here for $7 a day. We're in
a transition area between the dot.com SOMA and the slums of the
Mission. Parking goes as 1/x, where x is the distance from the
Marriott.

Do you know the address of that garage or lot? Some day I'll swing by,
can't be more than 30-40 mins from the east side of the San Mateo bridge
where the client is. I just never know how long the day will be. Those
noisy Allegro stepper motor drivers sure will make for rather long days
next month :-(

I drive to work, about 11 minutes. On public transit, it would be 45
minutes, except on days when it's a lot more.

It is interesting doing electronics in a big city. We're not the only
ones... there are maybe 10 or so others downtown, and of course you
can see Dolby from our roof. It's surprising how many people I meet
that worked for Dolby at one time or another.

Yes, that's something we are missing here. Almost all EE's you meet
around here work for Intel or had worked for HP-Roseville before HP
pulled up the stakes.

 

[John Larkin]

Do you know the address of that garage or lot? Some day I'll swing by,
can't be more than 30-40 mins from the east side of the San Mateo bridge
where the client is. I just never know how long the day will be. Those
noisy Allegro stepper motor drivers sure will make for rather long days
next month :-(

Under the overpass at Duboce and Valencia. But don't do that, we have
indoor parking. Give me a heads-up and I'll arrange to let you in. And
you'll need directions... trust me.

Yes, that's something we are missing here. Almost all EE's you meet
around here work for Intel or had worked for HP-Roseville before HP
pulled up the stakes.

They shut down Roseville? I think that's where they did the sampling
scopes, or at least the heads.

John

 

[Joerg]

Under the overpass at Duboce and Valencia. But don't do that, we have
indoor parking. Give me a heads-up and I'll arrange to let you in. And
you'll need directions... trust me.

Thanks, I'll call you from there if we don't have to work until midnight
every day. Some days we'll have to. But I'll be there more often.

They shut down Roseville? I think that's where they did the sampling
scopes, or at least the heads.

I don't know how much is left but they had massive layoffs in Carly's
days and AFAIR much of the operations was moved to Texas. More biz
friendly, they said.