Help with School Assignment - Professional Electronics Technicians - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TheIronHeadRat
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 21, 2014, 05:21:58 pm
content: Hi Everyone,I am a student in the Electronics Technology program at North Seattle college and, as part of an assignment, I have been asked to survey professionals in my desired field about their experiences. I am new to the program and I have not yet chosen a narrow field of study, so I thought I would ask a wide range of professionals about their careers to get a better idea of what's out there. Below are some questions about your background and day to day experiences. After compiling some information about your personal experiences, I will eventually be writing a short paper about my own desired career path compared to yours. Thank you in advance to those who have the time to participate.1. Name2. Current Job Title3. Age4. Educational Background5. How long have you worked in electronics (and if you feel comfortable saying, where do you currently work)?6. Please give a brief description of what your job entails on a day-to-day basis.7. Did your education adequately prepare you for the actual work you are doing?8. What do you like the most about your job? The least?9. What experience is most required or recommended for your job (such as specialized education/training/hands-on)?10. What changes do you see in the future of the field?11. What is the most important advice you could give me about entering into your field?Thanks again! I look forward to hearing from any professionals out there.

author: DenzilPenberthy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2014, 11:12:09 am
content: 1. Name'DenzilPenberthy'2. Current Job TitleElectronics Technician3. Age324. Educational BackgroundMEng Electrical & Electronic Engineering5. How long have you worked in electronics (and if you feel comfortable saying, where do you currently work)?9yrs (minus a 3 year gap spent thatching roofs). I'm currently running the Electronics Workshop in the Physics Department of a major UK university.6. Please give a brief description of what your job entails on a day-to-day basis.Designing and building one-off projects for people's experimentsFault finding and repairing electronic equipmentAdvising and teaching colleagues electronics principles and practical issues which affect their work7. Did your education adequately prepare you for the actual work you are doing?Theory-wise, yes. The Masters level electronics course I did at uni was extremely theory heavy and thorough. I would be completely unable to do this job though with only the knowledge gained through academic study. The practical side of the job comes from a lifetime spent making and tinkering with things.8. What do you like the most about your job? The least?The creative side of designing and making one-off projects.9. What experience is most required or recommended for your job (such as specialized education/training/hands-on)?Strong electronics knowledge but lots of practical hands-on ability too.10. What changes do you see in the future of the field?Well, it occurred to me the other day that I've got a huge cabinet of 74-series logic here that I've not touched for >2years. Everything is done with firmware now. Having said that though, the principles behind logic design are the same whether you're using boards of 74-series chips or an FPGA. So I suppose really what I'm saying is that it's worth learning the theory because that never changes, you just adapt it to new technology.11. What is the most important advice you could give me about entering into your field?Go out into you parents' garage and spend your free time making things and learning by screwing things up over many yearsThanks again! I look forward to hearing from any professionals out there.

author: TheIronHeadRat
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 03:00:28 am
content: Thanks so much for your reply! This is exactly the type of info I was looking for.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 05:13:30 am
content: Quote from: DenzilPenberthy on July 22, 2014, 11:12:09 amGood answerEspecially since recent graduates are very likely to be spending a lot of time at their parents houses anyway these daysI kid.. I kid..

author: Skimask
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 05:59:18 am
content: And/Or asking for answers to technical questions on forums such as this one...while using their parents computers...while still living at their parents house...I don't kid... I don't kid...

author: KSP
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 08:40:10 am
content: 1. NameJust call me Kasper2. Current Job TitleCalibration and maintenance Engineer3. Age234. Educational BackgroundVarious college courses, work based learning etc.5. How long have you worked in electronics (and if you feel comfortable saying, where do you currently work)?5-6 years. Cannot say where I work for security reasons O06. Please give a brief description of what your job entails on a day-to-day basis.Maintaining equipment to be used in development/manufacturing test rigs7. Did your education adequately prepare you for the actual work you are doing?Yes and no... Obviously it gave me the theory, but very little hands-on work. This came from trial and error mostly8. What do you like the most about your job? The least?Most - Such a variety of equipment, gave me quite a broad field of experienceLeast - Not a great deal of room to progress...9. What experience is most required or recommended for your job (such as specialized education/training/hands-on)?On paper they require you to have a degree or equivalent... However to actually do the job you are better off with hands-on experience on the job. The company offers apprenticeships so they will guide you and pay for all education so basically they will give you everything you need to do the job10. What changes do you see in the future of the field?More and more automation... I am gradually delving in to the world of programming11. What is the most important advice you could give me about entering into your field?If you like your life to be structured and well managed then calibration is not for you... I try to plan my week's work, but constantly get given other work which has been sat around for years but is suddenly urgentso I end up with a bench full of half-finished jobs...But in terms of entering the field; I would say maybe talk to some hobbyists, maybe join a Hacker lab. Just try to get a feel for what sort of test equipment exists in the world

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 09:01:42 am
content: 1. NameRyan Favelle2. Current Job TitleInstrumentation Technician, (qualified Tradie in instrumentation)3. Age214. Educational BackgroundHigh-school up to year 12 (higher school certificate in aus), for years 9/10 i lucked into the school running an electronics course as an option you could choose, it did not cover anything more complex that transistors as switches, and logic gate truth tables, but it set in the basics for passive components,TAFE: Certificate 2 In Electro-technology (Pre-trade course for Electricians, essentially the first year and a half to become a sparky in much greater detail), This was one of the most insightful courses i ever took, mainly due to an outstanding teacher, covering AC, DC, complex magnetics and many of the practical pitfals in the feild rather than just theory,TAFE: Certificate 3 and 4 in Instrumentation, (Cert 3 is trade, cert 4 is a little above)5. How long have you worked in electronics (and if you feel comfortable saying, where do you currently work)?My job is currently my first, so about 3 and a half years now, It is an automotive instrumentation repair shop in sydney, (Airco Auto)6. Please give a brief description of what your job entails on a day-to-day basis.Diagnosing and repairing circuits,Reverse Engineering products for the pin-out or to better solve a faultPID controller installation and tuning,Mechanical maintainance (Clocks, servo motors) cleaning, repairing or custom replacingOverseeing and teaching the current apprentice (who is a year older than me)In summery we tend to see instrument clusters or separate gauges from cars ranging from the 1890's to today, with no manufacturers willing to give out documentation for free, so a large part of it is diving head in into a device you have not seen before, work out how to connect it up and then repair it, with most of the clusters costing a few grand new.7. Did your education adequately prepare you for the actual work you are doing?Without the Cert 2 course i would have struggled, as the proper trade course for what i am doing has had the automotive side stripped from it as it is now deemed something not worth repairing, (I broke out laughing when the explanation was given),8. What do you like the most about your job? The least?Most would be surprise gifts from customers (yes that is a thing that happens) Most of the time they are restoring some old car, you have made the thing look almost new and they are grateful enough to bring in a gift along side paying for the job. a few so far have been slabs of beer, large frozen packs of salmon, windsurfing lessons, etc9. What experience is most required or recommended for your job (such as specialized education/training/hands-on)?Most required would be the beginnings of fine motor skills, (If your hands shake all over the shop its a difficult job training), next up would be reasonable people skills, as you visit on site and answer phones,10. What changes do you see in the future of the field?The trend so far is to shift everything onto the vehicle CANBUS and have a single processor handle everything in the instrument cluster, there reducing less used gauges to warnings or numbers on some form of information display, but there is still manufacturers selling (at-least up to 2010) mechanical speedometers with a rotational cable running from the gearbox, and the mid range leaving things simple and running switches to globes,11. What is the most important advice you could give me about entering into your field?Be willing to approach a problem looking for a solution and not a fault to blame, (It sounds weird, but the mindset helps)Take your time, do the job right, do the job safely and plan time to test what you have done.If you do not know something, do not be afraid to ask, but write down what you learn, as they may not be as willing the second time,If you could not return to a job one year down the track and repeat it, keep some notes or images, it makes you look more professional, and relieves a large amount of stress when someone pops up years later wanting the same done, or a modification,

author: RobertHolcombe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 12:54:00 pm
content: 1. NameRob2. Current Job TitleRadio Technician3. Age264. Educational Backgroundhigh-school and 4 semesters of micro-electronic engineering, I'm a uni drop-out5. How long have you worked in electronics (and if you feel comfortable saying, where do you currently work)?I have been at this current job for just over two years, I work as a electronics service technician for a Taxi booking company.6. Please give a brief description of what your job entails on a day-to-day basis.I perform daily service on various electronics systems installed in taxis, including but not limited to; job dispatch systems, 2-way UHF radio, security cameras, EFTPOS and taximeters.The hardware is (generally) very well engineered, so it is rare to come across hardware faults that aren't caused by misuse or accidental damage (car accidents, rough handling, etc). I personally prefer to identify and resolve issues without replacing hardware unless a fault is identified, however the nature of the industry dictates that if it is faster to repair via replacement then I should do so.I'm probably forgetting quite a few things but here's a few;Re-terminating connectors on wiring looms/boardsIdentifying and repairing wiring faultsTuning flexible UHF dipole antennae and correctly terminating the antenna bases.Performing rework on one particular component of the dispatch system takes up 1-2 hours of each day, involves replacing many SMD tactile switches, I have reworked 27500 of them since June 2013. FML!Performing software updates7. Did your education adequately prepare you for the actual work you are doing?Only basic theory is applicable, this job is mostly hands on.8. What do you like the most about your job?The satisfaction when I'm able to identify and resolve an issue to get a car back on the road ASAP, and the driver's subsequent appreciation.The least?Customer relations. I'm glad to not be the manager or receptionist in this kind of industry because there is a lot of bullshit!9. What experience is most required or recommended for your job (such as specialized education/training/hands-on)?Hands-on. Knowledge of the industry would help immensely10. What changes do you see in the future of the field?There are constantly changes to legislation regarding requirements of the various systems in place, so my particular field is constantly adapting to said changes. e.g. QLD has been the first state to adopt legislation requiring of taximeters to automatically select the tariff applicable to the time of day and apply tolls automatically when passing toll gantries.11. What is the most important advice you could give me about entering into your field?Don't assume anything.Verify faults before proceeding!Check the really obvious things firstCheck the really obvious things first

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 02:05:43 pm
content: 1. NameAndy2. Current Job TitleDirector3. Age394. Educational BackgroundMEng Electrical & Information Sciences5. How long have you worked in electronics (and if you feel comfortable saying, where do you currently work)?17 years. I now run my own consultancy business.6. Please give a brief description of what your job entails on a day-to-day basis.Some combination of:- customer visits, usually to discuss new projects, give demonstrations, or investigate problems- hands-on, practical laboratory work- accounts, invoicing, tax and other business overheads- producing reports, documentation and packages of CAD data- researching components, drawing schematics and laying out PCBs7. Did your education adequately prepare you for the actual work you are doing?On the technical side, yes. Although quite a lot of my course content has turned out not to be relevant to my line of work, there was also plenty which gave me really useful insight into how circuits behave, which I don't believe it's possible to pick up through experience alone. It's this material which I use on a daily basis, and regard as extremely valuable.What my course didn't do, though, was provide the practical and commercial skills which I needed to turn being an engineer into running an engineering business. All the mathematical modelling in the world doesn't help you gain the trust and confidence of a new customer, or help you understand their needs, motivation and expectations when they look to engage a new supplier for the first time.8. What do you like the most about your job? The least?Most: the appreciative comments from a customer when they receive something that works.Least: having to try and politely, diplomatically explain to a customer that your time is not free.9. What experience is most required or recommended for your job (such as specialized education/training/hands-on)?Any experience which you have in the customer's own business is invaluable. A solid engineering background is essential, but if you really know and understand what it is that the customer needs - even when they don't! - then that's when the very best ideas and (mutual) competitive advantages start to come out.10. What changes do you see in the future of the field?It's becoming more and more the case that components are designed with a very specific end application in mind, rather than general purpose parts that can be used in a multitude of different ways. It's hard, for example, to buy a simple PCM codec chip any more; what you get is an 'integrated audio solution for portable media players', which may happen to include a codec as one of its functional blocks. If you're lucky, everything else can be switched off in software.11. What is the most important advice you could give me about entering into your field?Step back and see the big picture. Customers rarely want a circuit designed that has prescribed inputs and outputs; what they want is a solution to a problem. Take the time to listen to what they're currently doing, and what improvements they're looking for out of a new design, and make sure whatever you come up with addresses those specific problems.

author: TheIronHeadRat
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 11:56:15 pm
content: This is awesome! I really appreciate such a great response from everyone. Thanks guys!