How did the first years in your Power Electronics career looked like? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Magnethicc
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2023, 02:26:31 pm
content: Hi Everyone,I was hoping to hear some stories on how did the first years (0 ~ 5 years) of your power electronics career looked like?1. Did you do a lot of design?2. Did you handle and made documents (BOM, Design Documents, DR Documents, Drawings, etc..)?3. Did you do electrical evaluations of your design / senior engineers designs?4. What did you enjoy during those first year? What do you enjoy now?Excuse me if this is the wrong forum,Thank you.

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2023, 02:52:20 pm
content: bonjour cher Monsieurfine to hear from Israel!been analog and power designers are engineer since 1970s.Worked as consultant, inventor, manufacturer.designed, magnetics, prototypes, schematics, PCB, debugging, management of productionFields of Avaionics, medical, semi fab, high voltage, energy efficient lighting, telecommunicationsUnsure exactly what you are looking for.Suggest you network on LinkedIn, attend the seminars, trade shows, and conferences eg PCIM, Nuremberg, APEC, IEEE, etc.Finally am sure that you know our old power electronics friends Dr. Richard REDL, and Dr Samuel Ben- YaakovBon SoiréeJon

author: pardo-bsso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2023, 10:16:30 am
content: Still to this day working along / with / for a good mentor (and always looking for more)Learning every dayMore computer simulationAnd thankfully, lots of blown devices almost every week

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2023, 05:27:05 pm
content: Pardo-Baso, very fine, Still have examples of our magents and PSU/EBU back to 1970s.Suggest to check IEEE Power Electronics and conf/seminar proceedings, for instance Class E from Nathan Sokal (RIP) and Richard Redl's PFC/EMI, topology and other power papers and seminars.Also Prof Lee at VPI.We used the Intusoft Magnetics Designer SW (ancien DOS!) for winding design.Happy to meet if you get to Paris someday,Enjoy,Jon

author: Jim from Chicago
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2023, 06:37:16 pm
content: I am my early years now and it's a real struggle :'(

author: Magnethicc
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2023, 09:47:33 am
content: I'm comparing my first years with others.I mainly do a lot of paperwork and project management and not very much design and I was wondering if this is normal or maybe should I try to find other places to work for.

author: Jim from Chicago
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2023, 06:23:57 pm
content: Magnethicc, I think it's typical to have little design work early on. Or if you do get design work early on, it will be somewhat guided/constrained by more senior engineers. That is true in my case. I've only gotten a small handful of tasks which could be considered design work to some extent, and I always need to work with someone more experienced. Certainly in your first year I would expect zero design work.But even though there is little design work, you should still be getting technical experience. In my case I do a lot of A/B part comparison testing, in which I try to understand the relevant circuitry/product. The test plans are usually formulated by more senior people, or sometimes I can try to formulate them first but they need review and approval by a more senior engineer. I also do component selection and a lot of datasheet analysis which eventually requires approval by someone more experienced. I assume that once I do these type of tasks for several years, I will have gained enough familiarity and experience to do more "solo-ish" design work with less supervision.If you are just doing mostly clerical paperwork and bean counting type stuff, and you have very little technical exposure, then I would probably look at other positions.