Of all the electronics-related jobs, this is very boring... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 06:45:00 am
content: You see SO many "engineers" or "technicians" everywhere, repairing iPhones and iPads, day in, day out, come rain or shine. It's got to be EXTREMELY dull as a job, seeing the same depressingly mundane consumer gadgets, all day every day. They all seem SO excited about it, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying your work, but if I was trapped on that treadmill, I think I'd scream!!!!!! Arghhhh!!!!!!! 😂It's a job based on a relatively limited range of skills, skills yes, but still a specific and somewhat limited set... although precision is needed of course. It's more muscle memory and repetition, not much mental stimulation, and surely there can't be that much variety in repairing the same thing again... and again... and again... and again... and again... 😴😴... the same range of devices, the same faults, the same tedium... and knowing that my precious skills are facilitating the ongoing consumer obsession with antisocial meeja and twatting around online to no end - I'd feel that repairing these addiction-fuelling moron slabs would be a disservice to my fellow man; I'd genuinely feel guilty that I'm repairing something that sucks our lives away.Does one refer to them as ACTUAL ENGINEERS, or "repair agents? Do many, if any of them have a full and comprehensive knowledge of everything inside the devices they touch all days long, and how those circuits are designed, and do you think they just do it SOLELY for the £££? I do not mean to diminish their role, I just can't see the excitement in this. I used to fix video recorders and TVs for a living as an apprentice, and it's fun as a kid but I can't ever imagine myself having chosen it as a career.

author: Fred27
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 09:05:12 am
content: Yes. Some people have dull jobs. Other people get up early on a Saturday to post on a forum about how dull someone else's life must be.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 09:13:42 am
content: Satisfaction, both for the repair and saving the landfills from our throw away society......and getting the money whilst doing so. Triple satisfaction, what's not to like ?

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 09:47:58 am
content: Louis Rossmann said some mean things about Apple and lives rent free in an iPhone fanboy's head.Many such cases

author: newbrain
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 12:57:49 pm
content: You see SO many "engineers" or "technicians" everywhere, designing SW and HW for telecom equipment, day in, day out, come rain or shine. It's got to be EXTREMELY dull as a job, seeing the same depressingly mundane radio base station or network node, all day every day. They all seem SO excited about it, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying your work, but if I was trapped on that treadmill, I think I'd scream!!!!!! Arghhhh!!!!!!! 😂It's a job based on a relatively limited range of skills, skills yes, but still a specific and somewhat limited set... although analytical thinking and product knowledge is needed of course. It's more brain muscle memory and repetition, not much mental stimulation, and surely there can't be that much variety in designing the same things again... and again... and again... and again... and again... 😴😴... the same range of nodes, the same SW faults, the same tedium... and knowing that my precious skills are facilitating the ongoing consumer obsession with antisocial media and twatting around online to no end - I'd feel that designing these addiction-fuelling drab and dull slabs that sit on a tower would be a disservice to my fellow man; I'd genuinely feel guilty that I'm designing something that sucks our lives away.Does one refer to them as ACTUAL ENGINEERS, or "design droids"? Do many, if any of them have a full and comprehensive knowledge of everything inside the devices they touch all days long, and how those circuits are designed, and do you think they just do it SOLELY for the £££? I do not mean to diminish their role, I just can't see the excitement in this. I used to fix video recorders and TVs for a living as an apprentice, and it's fun as a kid but I can't ever imagine myself having chosen it as a career.Tongue firmly planted in cheek.But the same could be rewritten for every job, of course.(BTW: I like my job)

author: Jester
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 01:56:47 pm
content: No offence to any actual engineers that have a job fixing iPhones, but it seems like a near complete waste of an education. I was fixing Color TV’s and car stereos in high school, I fixed at least 500 with rudimentary electronic skills before I started engineering. Good troubleshooting skills are a great asset and can be fun for the challenge, fixing iPhones all day long would be beyond boring in short order. Seems like a better fit for someone with at most a 1 year community college technician type program.I think the “Engineering” title is thrown around a bit too casually, Microsoft lost their court battle regarding use of that title in Canada for their Microsoft certified Engineers or whatever they were calling them.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 09:00:10 pm
content: Quote from: Fred27 on December 04, 2021, 09:05:12 am

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 10:19:03 pm
content: It depends. Many people can candle repetitive work just fine. I can't.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 10:39:44 pm
content: Quote from: Fred27 on December 04, 2021, 09:05:12 amAnd then there’s that antagonising type that can’t help themselves but reply to a topic they deem “below them”, but not quiiiite far enough below them that replying to it doesn’t get them attention, make them appear “witty”

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 01:48:54 am
content: Quote from: eti on December 04, 2021, 06:45:00 amI call them technicians. It's what I used to do. Not as boring when you get to fix a wide variety of gear, and if you pay attention you can learn a bit. After a few years I worked my way into engineering jobs (much less boring).

author: AlfBaz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 04:31:38 am
content: "Of all the electronics-related jobs, this is very boring..."I don't know, I think painting the numbers on 0402 resistors would be worse

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 04:54:08 am
content: Quote from: AlfBaz on December 05, 2021, 04:31:38 amThose poor machines must get so bored 😉

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 08:08:16 am
content: A lot of jobs are boring, that's the reason the call it "work" and they pay someone money to do it.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 08:56:59 am
content: Quote from: james_s on December 05, 2021, 08:08:16 amOne should not do a job that bores one, by choice. Life is short, and even work should be enjoyable. If one’s stuck in a rut, there’s usually a way out.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 09:50:10 am
content: I spent about 5 years diagnosing and repairing TVs, not dull at all.You see most of the YouTubers (like Rossmann) that do this focus on the interesting repairs rather than cracked-screen-#7 of the day.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 09:55:45 am
content: Quote from: tom66 on December 05, 2021, 09:50:10 amI am a fully qualified ex tv & vcr engineer too. It was more fun in the 90s - TVs now are just dull.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 09:01:10 pm
content: QuoteAnd yet you took a couple of paragraphs to do exactly that. Indeed, it wouldn't be far off to note that the entire thread was started to say that.I think the job is what you make of it. Repairing cars might be much more unpleasant as a job and just as tedious, and yet we think quite highly of mechanics.As it happens, I've done quite a few diverse jobs and one I quite enjoyed was packing shelves at the supermarket. Seems simple enough: just slap these boxes on there, bosh. But there is rather more to it than that with nuances that may not be obvious to the uninitiated. There is a skill to it, and when things go right it's easy to get into a zone and be done almost before you know you've started. It can be brainless work, but it can also be immensely satisfying work.But what customer actually realises the steps that see this particular box of whatever arrive right there in front of them? (I suspect that this year quite a few more will have a bit more knowledge of supply chains!)

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2021, 10:12:32 pm
content: Quote from: fourfathom on December 05, 2021, 01:48:54 amNot meaning to diminish tech, repair, etc. Not at all. And now that I think about it, it wasn't boring, at least no more boring than any other job can be. At that stage in my career, what I was doing as a tech was actually pretty fascinating, and as I mentioned, I learned a lot. I've always found that virtually any job can be boring or it can be interesting -- it all depends on how you approach it. But with some jobs it was easier for me to find the interesting aspects. For me, design engineering is one of those jobs.

author: SmallCog
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 02:23:43 am
content: It probably is quite boring at times but if it's similar there to here, these repairers are often in the middle of shopping malls. Repairing items whilst people watch them and dealing with the customer before and after the repair adds a dimension to the work day that some people don't have in a lab or back room environment (for better or worse)In a previous life in the drilling industry I sometimes had to help with more mundane tasks. When you're opening up sack after sack of cement and dumping it into a hopper you find ways to amuse yourself. I used to see how neatly I could roll the empty sacks up and how many of these rolled up sacks I could fit into an empty sack until it split.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 02:46:14 am
content: Yeah it's all so subjective anyway.These days, if you work as an EE in a big organization, chances are the "fun" and interesting design part of your work is about 10% (if that), the rest being paperwork and meetings. Is that less boring than repairing stuff? Your call. It just pays better. (Usually.)

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 10:45:04 am
content: Quote from: fourfathom on December 05, 2021, 10:12:32 pmWhether repair is a technician or engineering job, depends on the nature of the work.If all you're doing is working on things made by one company, who designed it and you have full access to the schematics and diagnostic procedures, then it's firmly a technician role, but this isn't always the case. Repairing something, with no information i.e. schematics or even data sheets for the parts, can often be more challenging than designing something new. A level of reverse engineering is often required, to understand how it works and cause and effect.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 11:32:36 am
content: I worked doing this for 7 years.I didn't do just iphone screens, I repaired everything coming into the store, it was interesting because it was a different job every day.Yeah you will do the same repair a lot of times, but also never-seen-before failures that keeps the job fresh and diving into the schematics, datasheets...Then I moved to a huge electronics production fab.They have almost everything for production, except pcb production (We order them to 3rd party): Pick&place machines for smd/bga/th parts, reflow ovens, wave soldering, x-ray view, tons of technical equipment...Most people do the same thing everyday day, ex. putting the same screws, the same wires, the same plastic bezel... I'd shoot myself between the eyes!I got the most interesting job in their fab: Testing, which is actually extremely boring compared to my old job.- Hey, take this 40-page testing protocol and apply it to 400 boards. I get happy when something is not working as it should, because it's also my job to fix them.So first we test all the boards, keep one or two fromt he working ones to compare signals/measurements against the ones failing.Then the chaos starts. Sometimes we don't even have schematics. Some military boards are like that. "Put this parts, run this tests, and send us the batch. Oh, and fix the failing ones, but we won't provide any details". Simply ridiculous.And when the production run is over, the only good part on my job starts. I can spend a whole day with a board if there's no hurry, taking my time to find the problems and fix them.But the fact that only 2 years later I'm searching a new job, says it all. It's *** boring.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 12:10:09 pm
content: Throughout my working life I heard complaints like this about many jobs. And have drawn two widely different conclusions. First, there are a great many people suited to repetitive tasks. If they want a fancy job title it is fine with me. The jobs need doing and whatever it takes is good be it titles, money or free beer. Second, there are very few jobs that get assigned to engineers that don't have room for creativity. Being bored is as much a comment on the worker as it is on the job.

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 04:22:47 pm
content: Quote from: Zero999 on December 06, 2021, 10:45:04 amYes, this type of repair is certainly more challenging, and generally more interesting. And this is exactly what I did in my second "technician" job, fixing consumer and marine electronics at a repair shop (I had my FCC 2nd class radiotelephone ticket, back when they still issued those). There is obviously a big overlap of skills when you consider technician and engineering work, and I suppose it can be a matter of custom what one is called (ignoring any legal requirements).

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 06:10:05 pm
content: Quote from: dunkemhigh on December 05, 2021, 09:01:10 pmWe do? I've never used a mechanic but I thought they were typically lumped in with a lot of the other blue collar stuff, with a reputation for being dishonest too.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 06:59:37 pm
content: One of my first jobs was as a mechanic (junior) and I could tell you some hair-raising tales of my (fortunately short) time there.Nevertheless, there are good places. The garage I normally use now is generally good and the main workplace is always spotless (usually a good sign). The garage my partner takes her car I was a bit suspicious about, but recent experience of a problem they fixed at short notice convinced me I was wrong.QuoteWhat's wrong with blue collar stuff? Why can we not think highly of workers classed as blue collar?

author: AlienRelics
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 08:05:28 pm
content: I was not doing well financially being self employed. So I went looking for a job working for someone else.I found one, making eddy current probes. In the interview, I was asked how I was going to handle the boredom.I told them that I have a rich internal life. I am constantly thinking about how to do my job better, and about a lot of things. They hired me, even though I was asking for 50% more than their usual starting pay, and told me they were reopening their R&D department and they hired me specifically to do so.It was, in fact, an incredibly boring job making probes. If all you did was what they asked of you.Unbidden, I repaired the LCR meter, lathes, drill press, bandsaw, grinders, etc. and made many jigs and fixtures so I could build probes faster and more accurately. I specifically chose the jobs that were more difficult and larger orders. During employee evaluations, the boss reiterated that they would be reopening the R&D department at the end of the summer, with me as the R&D department.Sadly, the company had been bought several years before and that company decided to move everything we were doing to another location that they had also purchased, and only asked a few employees to move.I went back to school on the Displaced Worker Retraining program to get that all important piece of paper that says I can do what I could already do.I now do another boring job that only requires board level replacement. Boring if you only do what is required. I repair some boards that are not available any more. I have come up with repair procedures for equipment that had no procedures. I have built jigs, fixtures, stands, and built some electronics to partly automate some testing. I've 3D printed parts (nothing that goes into the field). I have analyzed failures, and now some things get corrective measures applied so they won't experience that particular failure.I make my jobs interesting.I did similar way back when I was working on consumer electronics. I built my own test equipment for specialized tasks. I fine tuned my cassette deck, and made my own test tapes so I could set a tape player speed by ear. One of my bosses hated this, he insisted I use his expensive 3kHz test tape. I didn't want to, because he kept warning me that he'd make me buy him a new one.I could set speed more accurately and MUCH faster by ear with a music tape than he could with a 3kHz test tape and a frequency counter.I built speaker dummy loads that handle 1kW per channel for as long as you like, with a fan. Without a fan, about half that. Not like those crappy ones that claim 100W, then tell you that is only for 1 minute followed by 9 minutes of cooldown.

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 08:19:39 pm
content: That reminds me of my first job after high school. I was working at a company that made small air compressors, and I ran a drill press as well as doing hand-assembly. It was boring. I asked my supervisor if there was anything else that needed doing and I ended up helping the machinist make test and assembly fixtures, re-wiring portions of the shop, helping design and set up a new burn-in area, and driving the owner's Firebird (a hot car at the time) all over the Los Angeles area picking up boxes of bearings, etc. And occasionally I still worked the drill press. All in all, not a bad experience.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 08:20:29 pm
content: Quote from: dunkemhigh on December 06, 2021, 06:59:37 pmNothing at all, I actually enjoy that stuff, but society does not tend to look upon it highly. It is often viewed as jobs for people that aren't smart enough for college, so it ends up being dominated by not particularly intelligent people. It would be nice if it was not viewed that way, more smart people might consider working those jobs. It's not that we can't view those jobs highly, it's just simply a fact that currently society generally does not.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2021, 10:25:19 pm
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on December 06, 2021, 12:10:09 pmYep AlienRelics story is a good example.Unless we are talking straight production line or amazon warehouse employee, where you are severely restricted.